I’ll be in San Diego next week for a two day forum: “It’s Alive! Petals to Primates: Preservation Challenges of Living Collections”. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has put together a series of meetings to help institutions better take care of our country’s collections. This is the only one of the four programs that is addressing living collections, and it is specifically meant for small institutions, or big institutions with small collections. It will be a greatRead more
Posts tagged: #animals
Creature Feature: Wilco the Florida Gulf Coast Sheep
Wilco is one of five sheep living in our farmyard. She is the easiest sheep to identify because she is the smallest and has a black spot on her nose. Of our five sheep, there are two mothers, two daughters (one to each mother) and a male (whom is not related to, nor the father of, the other sheep). Wilco is one of our mothers. Surprisingly enough, both of the mother sheep are significantly smaller than their daughters! Wilco wasRead more
Trip to the Vet School…with a fish!
One of our trout has a growth on its chin. I have been emailing with a veterinarian or two at NC State College of Veterinary Medicine about the fish. Larry and Katy were able to get this photo to share with the veterinarians and I thought you would want to see it. Larry will be taking the trout to the vet school on Thursday.Read more
The threat of dog diseases on red wolves
In my previous post about red wolves, I discussed how the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has been helping red wolves to reclaim former territories that were taken over by coyotes years ago. Even with the success that the USFWS has had in re-establishing red wolves in the wild, there are other factors that still threaten the population’s stability. As I mentioned in an earlier post, gunshot mortality is the biggest threat to red wolves. But another factor thatRead more
Aaah, what a perfect spot for an opossum
I was in the office this morning when Gomez, our exhibit opossum, strolled in while getting his daily exercise on the hall. He proceeded to crawl into the most comfortable place in the whole office: a bag of Kent’s dirty shirts. At first I was concerned about the plastic bag, but then realized the dirty shirts were probably more dangerous, hahaha! I got a couple of pictures before taking him out…(Kent later told me the clothes were clean, but it’sRead more
Spotlight: Larry Boles
Larry is one of our Lead Keepers in the department and he’s been working here about 2.5 years. Besides doing all the things that Keepers do, he is responsible for our new computerized record keeping system. He’s got it up and running and has worked closely with Keeper Katy getting the animal health records computerized. We stole Larry away from the world of academia. Prior to working with us, he taught an animal behavior course at UNC-Chapel Hill. He alsoRead more