I’m a big fan of the Duke Women’s Basketball team, and as I watched those Blue Devils put away Georgia Tech on Sunday in Cameron, I was thinking of a devil of another sort. I was reading about the plight of the Tasmanian devil (a marsupial like our Virginia Opossum Beaker) in the paper Sunday morning and how a contagious facial cancer has greatly accelerated this endangered species towards extinction. not as many teeth as an opossum! (Picture from UniversityRead more
Posts tagged: #animals
EnrichBits: Max’s Monday out
EnrichBits: A monthly look at animal enrichment Occasionally, we’ll get the chance as animal keepers to see our animals react emphatically to a completely different change of routine and surroundings. Over the fall, the Museum was closed to visitors on Mondays, so we used this no-people-on-museum-grounds opportunity to give Max, our Jersey steer, some (unleashed) time out of his exhibit yard. We had never done enrichment like this before, and weren’t sure how Max would react. He is a bigRead more
Snow at the Museum
As you know we got snow today. It was coming down hard enough and the roads were slick enough that the Museum was closed today. Three of the Keepers (Kent, Larry, and Cassidy) made it in to work (and made it so the other keepers did not have to come in). All the animals were fine. Pig was huddled under is heat lamp and piles of blankets. Mimi and Gus were curled up in the bear house, Ursula was inRead more
Nothing interesting to write about
I haven’t posted anything in awhile: I’ve been off work dealing with moving, and when I have been at work it’s been sitting at my desk, mostly dealing with, well, dealing. I’ve been phoning, faxing, and emailing a whole bunch about permits, licensing, applications, etc. A few things are listed below. I called the NC State Department of Health and Human Services to schedule disposal of our expired controlled drugs. Some of our state wildlife permits did not arrive onRead more
Creature Feature: Donald the eastern box turtle
Donald is another of our education animals that lives behind the scenes. He came to us in March of 2004, and was brought in by one of the animal keepers. The animal keeper had acquired him from one of our volunteers at the time, who had found him injured in the road after being grazed by a car. When first found, one of Donald’s legs was injured and his shell was damaged, and the volunteer thought he was dead. However,Read more
Update on our red wolf brothers
As you might already know, our red wolf brothers were moved to another facility (click here to read the post) so that we could get two new wolves that will hopefully breed (click here to see a picture of our new male, and here to see a movie of Kristen picking up our new female). Kim Wheeler, the director of the Red Wolf Coalition, helps to occasionally take care of the brothers at their new home on the Alligator RiverRead more