EnrichBits: A monthly look at animal enrichment In the last EnrichBits post, I showed Max, our steer, getting some time outside his stall and yard on a day we were closed to vistors. He got to experience many new and enriching sights, sounds, and smells while he checked out Loblolly Park (our playground). The goal is to provide new and exciting without crossing the line into stressful, so we had quite a few animal department staff out there to helpRead more
Posts tagged: #Max
EnrichBits: Max’s Monday out
EnrichBits: A monthly look at animal enrichment Occasionally, we’ll get the chance as animal keepers to see our animals react emphatically to a completely different change of routine and surroundings. Over the fall, the Museum was closed to visitors on Mondays, so we used this no-people-on-museum-grounds opportunity to give Max, our Jersey steer, some (unleashed) time out of his exhibit yard. We had never done enrichment like this before, and weren’t sure how Max would react. He is a bigRead more
Summer breeze, makes me feel fine . . .
Those who know me know that I’m not a big believer in signs and omens. However, I was greeted with this site on a recent morning upon entering the yard of Max the Steer. I thought maybe this was a warning about something bad, but in reality it never hit the fan and the day was uneventful. If you are not sure what you are looking at, this is the fence around the steer/goat yard and the large cooling fanRead more
Max’s Red Bucket Training
I recently posted an update about our new Jersey steer, Max. Along with being taught how to walk on a leash, we have also been training him to associate a red bucket with his food. Why would we do this, you might ask? That’s a great question! Since he first arrived at the museum, Max has always been very motivated by food. He was quite eager to receive his bottles of formula when he was a calf, and still showsRead more
The rewards of stonedusting
One of the most physically demanding jobs we have as keepers is the maintenance of our farmyard animal yards. The substrate in their yards is called stonedust, and as the months pass the stonedust in the donkey, goat, steer, pig, and even poultry yards gets packed down, raked up, and washed away. So every so often we have to re-stonedust the yards, which is back-breaking work and involves carrying heavy shovelfuls from a pile of stonedust and distributing a 1-2Read more