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Trimming Duck’s Wings

Have you ever wandered into the farmyard and asked yourself, “Why doesn’t the duck simply fly away?” There are three answers: He does, sometimes. As you can see here in an older post. He seasonally has wing feathers trimmed to help keep him down on the ground. At nearly 11 pounds, he’s a little bit too chubby to really get off the ground.   In the early spring and fall, Ducky molts (loses) his old feathers and grows a niceRead more

What happened there…

I asked yesterday if you could guess What Happened Here. I sooooooooooooooooooo wish what happened is what Kristen described in the comment section of What Happened Here, but the story goes like so: I’m sitting at my desk and I hear some chatter in the hall then Kimberly yells for me to come to the Exam Room. It’s maybe 20 feet from where I am to get there and I find Katy lying on the floor. I notice quickly she has theRead more
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Henry the Great

Henry is our resident Woodchuck in Carolina Wildlife. Below are pictures of him getting some exercise time on the Keeper Hall. Keeper Katy found it a great opportunity to get him on the scale. We weigh our animals on schedules, some may be once a week, some may be once a month. In addition, anytime we have an opportunity to weigh an animal -we take it! Keeping a good record of animal weights is very important and can help decideRead more
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Concurrent Accession

“Accession” is a word the zoological world uses to mean, “adding to.” It’s the term applied to newly acquired individuals to a museum/zoo/aquarium’s collection. We don’t have a large turnover in our collection at the museum. Every year we lose some animals due to old age, health problems, or transfers to other institutions and we gain a couple, but our collection stays at about the same number. Because we don’t take in new animals very often, I found it interestingRead more
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Animal Escape and Recapture Drill

Last week we had a bear escape- actually two bears. Well, actually, not really any bears, or at least not any real bears. We practice and drill so we can prepare for the real thing. Sometimes I use stuffed animals– rather large ones that the keepers have to track down and find and return home. It’s hard to mimic reality with stuffed animals, so this past time I enlisted the help of our Human Resource Specialist, Leslie Fann. She didRead more