Christopher, our barred owl that lives outside next to Max the Steer and Chummix the Goat in the Farmyard, recently took a field trip to a local school to visit some second graders. He had a great time. Sherry (the Animal Department Director) gave the students all kinds of interesting information about him (you can read more about barred owls here and here). The students were able to meet several of our eduction animals during a special animal program (IRead more
Posts tagged: #goat
Minor surgery for Chummix Goat
Chummix Goat is fine- really. Keepers noticed a few weeks ago a mass under is armpit. It didn’t drain like it was an abscess from one of his vaccines. So, we scheduled an early morning time for Dr. Cannedy to come to remove the mass and send it off for testing so we can learn that everything is well with our big noisy goat. Below are photos from this morning’s procedure. Chummix is up and about and eating and actingRead more
I was cleaning the goat yard this AM, and took a break for a minute to check over the goats and scratch them for a few minutes. After a bit, I figured I should get back to raking and leaned over to give Rocky a final pat and a hug around the neck. To which he responded by burping loudly in my ear. I think this face says it all.Read more
EnrichBits: Roommates
EnrichBits: A monthly look at animal enrichment Enrichment is all about providing opportunities to our animals that help them to exhibit their natural behaviors. Opossums wouldn’t find many recycle bins to snooze in out in the wild ( well, at least not many bins they’d be welcome in!) but they would find a similar shaped place, like a hollow tree stump, that was a sheltered and hidden nook. Bears wouldn’t be flipping over traffic cones looking for bear chow inRead more
The rewards of stonedusting
One of the most physically demanding jobs we have as keepers is the maintenance of our farmyard animal yards. The substrate in their yards is called stonedust, and as the months pass the stonedust in the donkey, goat, steer, pig, and even poultry yards gets packed down, raked up, and washed away. So every so often we have to re-stonedust the yards, which is back-breaking work and involves carrying heavy shovelfuls from a pile of stonedust and distributing a 1-2Read more
Creature Feature: Templeton the Goat
When it comes to our goats, there are some frequently asked questions by our visitors. The most popular question is,”Are they pregnant?” (The answer to that one is no, they just have gas!) Another frequently asked question is about Templeton, and from the picture you may be able to guess what it is. People often ask us why Templeton’s face is crooked, or if he got kicked in the face by another animal. Fortunately, his crooked face was not causedRead more