…and I have found yet another fascinating artifact from the bear yard: They get whole ears of corn in their diet weekly and we usually find random pieces of cob and husk around. This empty cob, however, looks like one of the bears delicately devoured it end to end, manual typewriter style. I’m betting it was Mimi!Read more
Posts tagged: #Kristen
What’s Lightning dreaming about?
Lightning Donkey is doing much better– his eye has cleared up and his hoof is getting better too, thanks to Dr. Cannedy and his much hated (by Lightning) Epsom salt soaks. So don’t let the picture below startle you! Look closer and you will just see a very sleepy donkey completely konked out in the sun! Lightning will often sleep in this bought-the-farm pose, and we get quite a few radio calls from the guest services desk letting us knowRead more
Explore the Wild (in the lemur exhibit)
I was feeding the lemurs a while ago, spreading their food around the exhibit on the rocks, the branches and in crooks of trees, and nearly plopped a piece of banana -smeared chow onto this little guy! He’s a gray tree frog. I had the camera with me, and thought I should get a shot of how well he camouflages himself. I had already let the lemurs into the exhibit, and Satyrus was following me around, trying to anticipate myRead more
Spotlight: Kristen Pormann
This is Kristen. (Can you guess what she has on the other end of her rope?)Kristen started as a volunteer at the Museum- I think back in 2001. She was so good we hired her about seven years ago. Her job is little different than the rest of the Keepers. As the Lead Keeper: Operations, one of Kristen’s main responsibilities is to make sure all the supplies we need are on grounds. Every Wednesday she heads out to the groceryRead more
EnrichBits: Training
EnrichBits: A monthly look at animal enrichment Kristen doing some operant conditioning with the ringtail lemurs Marilyn mentioned operant conditioning in her latest post about Gus the Bear, so I wanted to explain it a bit further. You can click here for a technical definition of operant conditioning, but it can really be summed up with one word: “training”. Training is the final big area of all those important enrichment categories (remember?…exhibit design, olfactory, visual, auditory, tactile, social, novel objects,Read more