How does a rattlesnake make that sound?

The first time I ever heard our Canebrake Rattlesnake shake its tail it sent the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I was behind the scenes working with some other snake when it went off. The other day when I was cleaning exhibits I wondered how exactly its able to make that sound with its tail. I did a little research and this is what I came up with. If you have ever looked closely at theRead more
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The Quick Difference Between Alpaca and Llamas

A lot of the times when I am in the farmyard and next to our new Alpaca exhibit, I get asked whats the difference between an Alpaca and Llama. EARS: Photo   Photo SIZE   Image Even though they are in the same family Camelidae, they are used for different purposes by humans. Alpacas are used for their fibers and Llama are used as pack animals to carry things or in meat production. Some llamas are bred genetically for differentRead more
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QuikPost-The Dire Wolf

If you have read the series of books or watched the show “Game of Thrones”, you have heard of  a Dire Wolf. Several of us in the animal department are heavily into the books or show and wind up discussing it a lot of the time. So, the Dire Wolf  is one of the major components of the story and I knew there once were REAL Dire Wolves, but didnt know much about them. Canis dirus translated to “fearsome dog”Read more
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Alpaca Pool

Recently, we added a pool to our alpacas yard. We had a good feeling that they would use it because we kept finding a lot of dirt in their water buckets and evidence of water being splashed around. It took a while to be able to capture it on film, but we finally did.   [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpyxNSOpXBs[/youtube]  Read more

Grape Bonding

  Last week grapes were on sale,  it’s summer, very hot, and Aaron has a credit card.   Aaron bought well over 100 pounds of grapes. We freeze them and use them as frozen treats for the animals. This batch should last us over 3 months. It takes quite a bit of time to pull grapes off them stems. I only slightly jest that I have never seen the keepers work so well together!  What a bonus. I wonder howRead more