Interns’ Final Project

Intern’s Vickie and Rachel finished up their semester with us last week. We will miss them– and all their help. Part of the work of their semester was doing a scientific research project on animal enrichment. They chose to do something for Dusty and Dallas, our Miniature Hereford Cattle. The purpose of their project was to increase locomotion and have the cattle utilize the entire exhibit area by increasing activity levels. The hypothesis was with the introduction of a PVCRead more

Cattle Yard Update

Work in the cattle yard has just about finished. All that is left (hopefully) is tweaking. Posts were set for our chute in early July. Two weeks ago the concrete pad got poured. The Facilities Team, along with Exhibits’ and Landscape Staff have been working hard getting the work done. We’ve started to get Dusty and Dallas familiar with the area. Operant Conditioning will be used to train them to walk through the chute and stop at (in) the headRead more
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What’s New in the Cattle Yard.

Planning has been going on behind the scenes for a few months as we prepared to had a chute and head gate for the cattle. Keepers will train the bulls to walk into the chute. This will make working on such large animals safer for everyone… bulls and humans. Pictures below from phase one, post setting. Project should be completed in early August.      Read more
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Cows Have Horns, too!

Lots of guests come into the farmyard, see Max, and call him a “cow.” I assume that a few know he’s not a cow but choose to use “cow” rather than “steer” because it’s an easier word of small kids, but I’d bet more people just don’t know what the difference is. So here’s a quick run down of the various common terms used for cattle: Cow – A female who has had a baby (or many babies). Heifer- ARead more
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I Spy

Have you ever looked closely at a goat or sheep and noticed their weird rectangular eyes? I hear guests commenting on them every few weeks; some people love them, some people are disturbed by them, I think they’re awesome! Ungulates (hooved animals) are prey animals and need to have a great field of vision to avoid being snuck up on by a predator while they’re grazing. The rectangular pupil of the sheep and goats allow them to see in nearlyRead more