The Animal Department does several programs a week. We have a daily 2pm Explore the Wild Keeper Talk, which changes between Bears, Wolves, and Lemurs each week. At these programs we talk to visitors about our animals, wild animals, what kind of food they eat, or any other specifics you’d like to know. We also have a Farm Yard Program at 4:30pm all days but Thursday. At these programs we close the Farm Yard which includes feeding the animals andRead more
Posts tagged: #reptiles
QuikPost: Headshot
I walked by Mudsy and Water snake’s tank the other day and saw them both at the same time, easily. I thought I would share my photo. See a video of the water snake eating – Marilyn shared it with you in February.Read more
Canebrake Rattlesnake Tubing
We’re hands-off with our venomous snakes at the Museum. What you see in the photos below is “snake tubing”. Kent is holding the snake tube with the canebrake rattlesnake inside. The tube itself is a hard plastic, about 3 feet in length. The most important factor is the diameter of the tube. You want the diameter of the tube to be only slightly larger than the diameter of the snake. This prevents the snake from being able to turn aroundRead more
Trip to the National Zoological Park
On Friday I spent much of my day at the National Zoological Park in Washington, DC which is part of the Smithsonian Museum Complex. I spent most of time getting glimpses of some of the areas where the Animal Keepers work. I started my morning in the Reptile Discovery Center where I learned some helpful hints on exhibit design and modifications and saw there emergency system for dealing with venomous snake bites. As you can see from the pictures, anRead more
BWOM: Accuracy or Precision?
This month’s Big Word of the Month post involves two words that are not very big but have very specific meanings in science. Take a look at our collections of hygrometers/thermometers from the reptile room. The electronic and analog meters are in very close agreement on temperature, all around 79°F. There is a little more disagreement in the measurements of relative humidity. The electronic ones are in the 20’s while the analog one is reading around 50%. So which oneRead more
Big Word of the Month: Parthenogenesis
Parthenogenesis is a word of Greek origin that roughly translates into “virgin creation”. You may remember learning about asexual reproduction at some point and recall that it involves an organism producing offspring without mating or exchanging genetic material with another individual. Parthenogenesis is a special type of asexual reproduction seen in organisms that produce seeds or embryos. You might be surprised to learn how widespread this type of reproduction is in the Animal Kingdom. In the Invertebrate world (90% ofRead more