Last month you saw a photo of Katy with Dr. Vanderford giving one of our lemurs their physical. Katy is our veterinary guru (her official title is Senior Keeper: Veterinary Specialist). Katy actually started at the Museum as a volunteer in the animal department almost four years ago. In the photo above she is doing some training with the red ruffed lemurs when the keepers were trying to get the lemurs used to going on the ground. Katy spends aRead more
Posts tagged: #keepers
Divisions Of Labor
Most large zoos have keepers that specialize and care for specific species every day. Basically this means one keeper might oversee the care for the zebras and antelope while another oversees the care for the alligators and snakes. However, we operate as a small zoo and do not have keepers that work with only two or three species. Instead, all of us share the duties of caring for all our animals. There are benefits to both methods, but I personallyRead more
The Benefits of Public Programs
One of the many aspects of our job as animal keepers is to help educate the public. Programs are the best way to share information about our animals while also allowing us to talk about wildlife and the dangers that some species face today. In the process, these programs give us the opportunity to reach out and interact with our visitors so they can ask us questions that, unless through this blog, they would otherwise not be able to. TheRead more
new keeper
We don’t have a lot of job turnover here in the animal department, but one of our keepers recently left to pursue other interests. The interview process for a new keeper has just been completed, so a new person will be on board soon. Finding a new keeper who has the skills to balance out our team is really important. We all have different strengths: Keeper Kent is our reptile expert, and Keeper Jill’s focus is always making sure ourRead more
Cold, Cold, Cold!
Well, it took a while but the cold weather has finally reached us. One of the main criteria for this job is to not only work on holidays but to also be willing to work in any sort of weather condition. As I was cleaning the farmyard yesterday morning, my trusty Friday adult volunteer told me that the thermometer at her house was at 15 degrees Fahrenheit when she left, and I believed her because that’s about how it felt.Read more
Creature Feature: Red Wolf #1390
We currently have three Red Wolf brothers that are 2 years old, but arrived at the museum when they were only 7 months. We have spoken about our two other Red Wolves in previous posts, but Red Wolf #1390 is the one featured here. Red Wolf #1390 is the alpha of the three brothers (which means he is the highest-ranking wolf and is dominant over the others), probably due in part to him being the healthiest. He is not asRead more