Successful Enrichment

Our interns’ owl enrichment project seems to be a success. We (they) haven’t watched all the footage yet, but we got some video of the barred owl engaging with the nesting box that Dakota and Lauren worked on. Another one of our favorite enrichment items is an old car wash brush. We had hoped to order another one this year, however, we’re just going to have to make due with what we have. Yona seems to claim the brush asRead more

Flashback Friday- Reptile Enrichment

I try to take a little time on Fridays and reflect. Sometimes it’s about the past week and other times I go further back. I came across these two videos looking through old emails. The moss for the snake, and tomato for the turtle were given to the animals, then the following was captured:Read more

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

What is Browse?

In animal keeper language, browse means plants and vegetation that we offer to our animals. Several times a week we harvest freshly cut browse that has been approved by our veterinarians. Our veterinary specialist, Katy, put together a browse book that includes pictures of the plant/tree, who it is approved for and where on grounds it grows. This is a great asset for new keepers just learning to identify different vegetation and for seasoned keepers to make sure their knowledge is up to date.Read more

Pupdate #8… VIDEOS!

May 30 is our next planned pup check so we’ll have more information to share then. In the meantime, lots has been going on with the wolves. Check out Ranger Greg’s blog post from May 24. Pups are spending time out of the den, walking, and  moving around (on their own and via the mouth’s of their parents). In fact, you might not see them at all in the primary den as the parents have spent time moving the pupsRead more