To kick off Bear Awareness Week, I took some Museum members with me down to the bear exhibit. Five special families joined me before the Museum opened Sunday to prepare bear diets and then serve up breakfast to the bears on the rainy morning. We first went to the animal department kitchen to prepare the meal. They had to find all the foods, choose between different types of vegetables or frozen fruits, and measure out the appropriate amounts. Then weRead more
Posts tagged: #museum
black bear escape!
It’s not really what you think. Last week I set up a drill for the Keepers. It’s what we call “emergency training”. The keepers stay after work and they are presented with some sort of scene. I would never really let the “real” bears out, so I had to find alternates. You can see “Ursula” to the right and “Gus” below. These are two of the bears they had to find. I basically told the keepers that there were twoRead more
Put YOUR pouch to good use
!!!Guest Blogger Keeper Jill!!! Opossums use their pouch to carry their young, but we can put your pouches to a good use too! Recently, the animal department has teamed up with TERRACYCLE implementing a recycling program. TERRACYCLE takes items that normally can’t be recycled and re-uses them. That benefits the environment and the animal department, because for each item that we recycle, the department gets money. Here’s how it works: Drink Pouches– remove straw,cut the tops off and rinse outRead more
Big word of the Month: Gestation
Spring is the time that many species give birth. Gestation is the period of time that a developing offspring is carried inside the mother. Biologists usually reserve this term for mammals but it is used more loosely in common speech. Below I provide some examples of gestational periods for some of the animals at the museum. Keep in mind that exact times may vary by several days depending on the condition of the mother and environmental changes.Explore the Wild BlackRead more
They make Bear Chow?
Lio. Copyright 2008 Mark Tatulli. Use by permission of Universal Press Syndicate. All rights reserved. CLICK ON THE STRIP TO MAKE IT BIGGER Lio is one of my new favorite comic strips –if you haven’t read it before, it’s a mostly pictorial view of one slightly weird little boy who hangs with under-the-bed monsters and assorted aliens and other creatures, and who deals with school bullies using his own imaginative inventions. It’s pretty funny, and the Sunday color illustrations areRead more
Spotlight: Volunteer Donald
Donald has been coming to the museum for 25 years as a visitor, bringing his children and grandchildren here, which gives him a very unique and committed viewpoint as a volunteer. For over two years now he has been coming in every week and helping care for our farmyard animals. On the right you can see him preparing feed bags for the farmyard critters. He is so important to our collective mood, that the Keepers actually argue (in a funRead more