Box turtles are territorial

The Keepers got a call last week from someone trying to do a good deed by rescuing this turtle. It’s a box turtle, and if you look closely in the area of its back right leg you can see some shell missing. It appears to be an old injury that the turtle has long recovered from. If you find a turtle in the wild, please let it be. If you find one wandering down the road, move it to theRead more

Born Free, Bat Free!

A few months ago we discovered we had an uninvited guest living on the 3rd floor of the Museum of Life + Science. During the cold of winter a big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus, was found snoozing near some storage areas in the museum’s attic. We did not release the bat immediately because the likelihood of it surviving was very low. This species normally hibernates much of the winter and would not normally be seen outside in colder months. Luckily,Read more

Bile farming of the Asiatic Black Bear

As part of Bear Awareness Week, I thought I’d share the plight of the Asiatic Black Bear (also called the Moon Bear for the yellow crescent across their chest). I first learned about this bear at a bear-keeping conference I attended last year. Our keynote speaker was Jill Robinson, founder of Animals Asia Foundation, who works on Moon Bear rescues, and by the end of her talk the whole audience was in tears. While China works on a “green” OlympicsRead more

Bear Rescue in California

I received the following email from a staff member and thought I would share this interesting story: A bear was walking across Rainbow Bridge (Old Hwy 40 at Donner Summit, Truckee) on Saturday when two cars also crossing the bridge scared the bear into jumping over the edge of the bridge. Somehow the bear caught the ledge and was able to pull itself to safety. Authorities decided that nothing could be done to help Saturday night so they returned SundayRead more