Our three youngest bears Mimi, Virginia, and Gus sleep in the bear house at night. They are usually waiting eagerly by the door at 5pm to come in and get their supper and bed down for the night. They have hay for bedding but we recently have been experimenting with a new sleep system, the bear hammock. Since bears can weigh over 300 pounds and have sharp teeth and claws we can’t use a human hammock. Keeper Kristen recently learnedRead more
Posts tagged: #Larry
Big Word: Chronobiology
Chronobiology is the study of cyclical patterns of behavior and physiology in organisms. Humans are very familiar with daily rhythms like our sleep/wake cycle. Scientists refer to these daily changes as circadian (which means “about a day” in Latin). Most mammals have roughly 24 cycles in their metabolism rates which are reflected in changes like body temperature (see figure below), wakefulness, and hunger. The daily behavioral rhythms we observe in organisms result from an interplay between internal physiological processes calledRead more
Suppertime in the bear house
Like many of our animals, the bears get food when they come inside for the evening. At the beginning of the video you can see a that the bears first search out all their produce which has been hidden by the animal keepers. Later they spend time picking up all the small pieces of bear chow you can see in the foreground. Don’t miss the after dinner bath towards the end of video! Our oldest bear, Ursula, is not visibleRead more
Behind the scenes
Behind the walls of Carolina Wildlife live another group of museum animals about whom you may not know. These animals are vital for educational programs in the museum and also travel to local schools with Museum staff. Some of our education animals were pets that could no longer be cared for by their owners. By coming to live with us they continue to get great care while also serving as important educational ambassadors for the Museum of Life and Science.Read more
The waiting is the hardest part…
Occasionally, I’m approached by visitors that are disappointed because they have not been able to see animals in our exhibits. In this post I thought I would provide a few tips from the animal keepers on how to increase your chances of viewing our animals. First, try to get to Explore the Wild as early as possible. (One of the benefits of membership is coming to the museum an hour earlier than the public.) Our bears and lemurs stay indoorsRead more
Big Word: What’s for dinner?
Big Word of the Month is a regular feature that explores the sometimes challenging vocabulary of Biology. All animals need basically the same things to survive: water, calories, vitamins and minerals. However, animals acquire these necessities from a wide variety of sources. Some eat only one type of food for their whole lives while others may have different food at every meal. Biologists can usually tell what kind of food an animal eats by looking at their and teeth andRead more