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Popsicles

  We are always on the look out for new and exciting enrichment.  Keeper Marilyn and I are both lemur trainers and work together in Explore the Wild on Wednesdays, so we came up with the idea to make some sort of popsicle for the lemurs. We wanted them to be able to hold the popsicle for the themselves while they ate it. So we froze juice and added green beans, celery, and carrots as the sticks. It didn’t workRead more

Lemur Physicals

Last week Dr. Vanderford was here for vet rounds. The ring tailed lemurs got their physicals. Cassandra had her brush with death over the summer, and is doing AMAZINGLY WELL- you would never know there were any issues! A couple photos below from Dr. Vanderford cleaning Casandra’s teeth. All three ring tailed lemurs were checked out and are doing well. It’s no huge surprise that Lycus, our oldest and 25 year old ring tailed lemur, has some teeth worn down.Read more

Crazy busy and Goodbye (to a wolf)

Things have been so busy here I don’t even know where to begin. Many staff have been off- (on vacation, at a wedding, at a Bar Mitzvah, presenting at the AAZK conference) and just as we were taking Cassandra off of the critical watch list (she’s been doing great), our female wolf, 1227, was found in bad shape two weeks ago and has been recovering from her injuries off exhibit. (She appears to have suffered some abuse from her mate-Read more
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Cassandra update

It’s about a month since I told you about Cassandra’s brush with death.  She continues to surprise us and is doing really well. Her illness and issues are a mystery. Even after repeated testing I fear we may never know what the initial problem was. I guess this is a good problem to have: that she appears to be fine now. We took her in last week to for repeat ultrasound and radiographs (x-rays). Everything looked good. Below are someRead more
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One week later: Cassandra the ring-tailed lemur

It’s Wednesday morning and I am heading out to the Red Wolf  SSP meeting (I’ll write about this next week, but click here to learn about last year’s  RWSSP masterplan meeting). Literally,  just one week ago, the keepers found Cassandra, our 16 year old ring-tailed lemur, in respiratory distress. Dr. Vanderford responded quickly and we decided to quickly head to the Duke Lemur Center. Things were so bad I didn’t even think of taking any photos. As always, the folksRead more