Durham Yard Sale

 YARD SALE!

supporting the NC Piedmont AAZK

SATURDAY JULY 18th 7:00am-11:00

at the Picnic Dome across from the Museum of Life and Science

A few of the keepers here at the museum have joined together with some of the keepers (or techs, as they're called) at the Duke Lemur Center, to form a local chapter of the American Association of Zookeepers (AAZK).

The AAZK is a non-profit, volunteer organization of professional zookeepers and other persons dedicated to professional animal care and conservation. 

The mission of our chapter, the NC Piedmont,  

                                                                 

is to promote the continued development of animal caregivers and the welfare of animals through encouraging excellence in husbandry, supporting continuing education and collaboration between professionals, and promoting conservation through fundraising and stewardship. 

The Museum is graciously letting our group hold a fundraising yard sale at the Picnic Dome this Saturday! Proceeds from this sale will be used to support chapter goals like animal enrichment, keeper professional development, and wildlife conservation.   If you'd like to nab some extremely nicely priced goods, come out and visit us, and support animals and their caretakers!

Report of an Incident

As I'm sure is the case with most work places, when anything occurs at the Museum that could be refered to as an "incident", we write an incident report. An incident report is just a summary of what happened, to whom, and when. It's quite straightforward really, but as you might imagine, the incident reports that come out of the animal department can be pretty goofy. Below is a slightly edited version of the incident report I turned into Sherry when I got stung on the eyelid by what I'm guessing is a wasp. Enjoy!

It was Bastille day, and in honor of the holiday (viva la France!), I was piping classical music throughout the farmyard (it was a special Bastille day program: French composers. This also doubled as the animal's weekly culture/history lesson). Sir Boles (known to the common man as Larry) joined me in celebrating France's rise as a modern nation by scooping poops avec moi. After a brief hiatus while Barnes supply was being dealt with, I returned to my scooping/holiday observing activities. I had just finished scooping the sheep yard, and my thoughts were of the day: how the morning felt like early fall does, and how it was transporting me back in time to last fall, how interesting how summer and fall have such different emotional feelings, how summer is lovely and long but so stealthily draining, but the breeze through the farmyard was refreshing and made me feel alive again when I hadn't even known that it was missing. I was thinking this as I was rounding the corner to go back into the goat barn, when suddenly something flew into my eyeball. Reacting in what was most assuredly a comical fashion, I propelled my sunglasses from my face with both hands while jumping back and making a sound that I cannot remember exactly, but most likely sounded something close to, "Ennnhhhh! Ennnhhh!". I then stopped my frantic waving, swatting, and exclamations and waited for the brief sting of something flying into your eyeball to go away. When it didn't go away after I was most confident that the foreign insect had exited my ocular area, and when the pain in fact proceeded to intensify, I finally realized the horrifying truth: I had been stung on my eye. This was around 10am. I immediately covered my poor, innocently attacked eye, which was at that point tearing up, and ran with much haste down to the building. Outside the Animal Department I discovered a small congregation of keepers and volunteers, one of whom was Annie. She was the first I told, knowing that I could get the most sympathy, help, coffee cake, and worried motherly affection from her. She, of course, did not disappoint, and followed me into the bathroom where I inspected my poor, poor eyelid, where a tiny red dot was visible mere millimeters from my eyelashes, implying that if my reflexes did not mirror those of a tiger as much as they do, I would have been stung right on the eyeball. I was taken into the vet room where a larger congregation of people were congregating, including Dr. V, one of the vets who was in for vet rounds. She immediately used her veterinarian skillz to assess my eyelid and used her motherly skillz to comfort me and make me feel much self pity for my poor, poor eye (which, at that point, was starting to hurt very badly.) A bag of frozen popcorn kernels was fetched, orders for benadryl and water were barked, and my pulse was checked old-school style several times by Annie, using only my wrist and her watch. A bottle of frozen water shortly replaced the popcorn kernels, and I was seated in a rolling chair, and assigned as the charge of Annie while she finished cleaning. I was placed strategically in the hallway, where many a person passed by and had the chance to be simultaneously appalled by and sympathetic to my condition. At it's most impressive point, my eye was swollen almost completely shut. I was a patient patient, and after about an hour, the swelling had gone down, and most of the sleepy feeling from the benadryl had dissipated, so I was sent home. 14 hours later, the swelling was gone, but a tender, slightly stinging feeling remained to remind me both that I'm lucky to be sitting here today with both of my eyeballs, and also of my own mortality. To the bee who stung me while I was minding my own business thinking only lovely thoughts, I have only one word: karma.

What a crazy day (at least for me)

Today started out at 7:00. Katy, Marilyn, Cassidy and I caught our female wolf. We wanted to get a look at her incision site on her chest from her surgery, as well as draw blood and take a look at a new scratch we noticed on her hip over the weekend.

Dr. Vanderford was here for vet rounds (which is why we were catching the wolf), but it made for a busier than usual Tuesday.

Kent was off so Erin was working in the Farmyard and we got a delivery of 80 bags of sani chips to be unloaded. A few minutes after the delivery, Erin was stung on her eye lid. The photo is after benadryl, ice, and time- her eye was much worse but we were focused on other things rather than getting the best photo (next time we'll make sure the good photo comes first).

Larry went up to cover the Farmyard work, at least after he came with me and drove our wolf to the building for her procedure. (Jill then helped in the Farmyard after her work too). I headed to the Farmyard to help after delivering the wolf to the building.

The small scrape we thought the female wolf had was a deep puncture wound (likely from a stick or a branch). It's hard to tell in the photo but the wound is about an inch in diameter. She's on antibiotics and we'll check her again on Monday when Dr. Staab-Carter is here.


I bought the Keepers lunch, took Annie to get her car, ordered drugs from two different veterinary supply companies.





In a few minutes I am meeting with Katy and Kristen. I am going to spend some time with Katy on her bear training. This should be a nice end to a busy day.





I really should clean my office since I almost fell trying to make my way out of it, but I think that will have to wait for another day.

Our talented bears

If you ever had any doubt about how very dexterous a black bear is, how's this for evidence?

This is a watermelon produce sticker that I found in the bear yard yesterday while scooping. (yes, we are using up all those watermelons on my desk) I've actually found even smaller apple and orange stickers before, taken off so smoothly that you're still able to read the produce number!

I'm not sure whether they are using their teeth or their claws, but it's fairly impressive. Two things have convinced me that it's not just the sticker "falling" off the produce. 1) it is a great frustration when I make up the bear food and have to pry those darn things off (and I have primate fingers!) and 2) I've seen the bears shell sunflower seeds better than a baseball benchwarmer.

Even though the produce stickers would not be harmful to the bears, we usually try to de-sticker all the fruit and vegetables before feeding. Occasionally we'll miss a sticker, and Urs, Virginia, Mimi, and Gus take care of things for us!

Big Word of the Month: Piloerection

You may have recently read about our new pig, Miss Piggy; she just moved in with our older pig, Squealer. Pig introductions don't usually happen without at least some scuffling to establish dominance. During the introduction, both pigs displayed quite a bit of piloerection, or raised hairs.

The word piloerection comes from the Latin root pilus, which means hair. Piloerection occurs in many mammals and happens when the tiny muscles at the base of each hair follicle contract. Piloerection can happen in response to cold and the raising of the hair helps insulated the skin. In humans, this process produces "goose bumps".

In many mammals, the response has been co-opted by natural selection to serve as a signaling mechanism. The raised neck hairs (or "hackles") on our pigs were not a response to cold but rather a signal to the each other of heightened awareness and the threat of aggression. Our pigs are getting to know one another and we aren't seeing much piloerection now.

A Bear of a Week

You know about the "extra" bear we had to deal with Saturday. We're still processing and reviewing the situation. I'll be meeting with all the Keepers together tomorrow, as thus far we have only talked about it in smaller groups, many times.


This is a cast that we took of his paw print that we found in the mud around our perimeter fence- where he climbed onto Museum property. (sorry I don't have a photo of the bear- I was busy doing other things.




What else happened Saturday is that at 5:30, the keepers found Gus, our youngest bear, lame on his right front foot. Back in December he was lame on his back left foot, which was much better the next day. We gave him some anti-inflammatory and pain meds and locked him in the house overnight to reduce his activity level.


Sunday morning he was putting weight on his foot again, but we kept him in the house an extra day to be sure, and keeper Katy let him out of the house Monday afternoon.

On Tuesday she noticed a small patch on the top of his foot, about the size of a dime, that was missing fur. I went down and got a good look at it, and to my surprise, his foot was a bit swollen and there was one puncture wound. Together, Katy and I were able to keep Gus still. (Katy has been working on operant conditioning with the bears and was able to get Gus to stand up and "stay". We offered him syrup to keep him steady for awhile). We were able to move around the fur and see a second puncture wound.

Yup- it is likely a copperhead bit him! He seems to be doing fine, but he is still on his pain meds, as well as some antibiotics to prevent infection.


He's doing well, but there's always something, and when it includes a bear, it's always interesting.

Another Bear at the Museum

I never thought I would be running around Museum grounds after a bear that wasn't a pretend bear that was part of an emergency training. And, if a bear was on grounds I would of assumed that a storm had come through and knocked out some of our bear fence and I would need to catch one of the Museum's bears.

Saturday I was paged and on my beeper the emergency code showed up. I live around the corner from the Museum and was over in a minute. A minute later I was up by the farmyard looking directly at a bear: a wild bear that had made its way onto Museum property.

My guess is that it was maybe around 160 pounds and likely 2-3 years old. We had it cornered by the perimeter fence by the Farmyard while Animal Keepers prepared darts. The bear took off running through Loblolly Park (over the slide, through the large culvert pipe, and back behind the pipes and dustpans to bang on).

What a bizarre day, but what an exciting day. The keepers handled themselves brilliantly, as did the rest of the Museum staff quickly getting people inside. About an hour after spotting the bear and moving people inside, we felt it safe to re-open the outside portions of the Museum. We lost track of the bear but felt confident he was not in the area and was not interested in being around people (we did have staff stationed in all outdoor areas though just to be sure).

I learned this morning of a bear hit by a car in Hillsborough. I assume it was the same bear. It makes me sad that (s)he didn't make it back to the woods away from people and roads.

If you have questions, please leave them in the comment section. I am happy to answer them.

A breath of fresh air

If you have been reading the blog for a while, you may remember back in March of last year when we constructed an outdoor playpen for our indoor animals to exercise in. More recently, you may remember a post about us receiving two new baby opossums. Well, the opossums (named Sonny and Cher) have grown fast and today was their first time getting to use the outdoor playpen! Now that the weather is nice, we like to give our indoor animals an opportunity to enjoy the fresh air. But with the temperatures getting hot in the afternoons, the exercise time has to take place in the mornings. Fortunately, since I had two helpful volunteers today, I was able to get some of our animals outside before it got too hot.

New experiences like this can be great enrichment for our animals. There are new surroundings, smells, and sounds for them to take in. Being opossums, these two seemed to enjoy staying up high on the second level of the enclosure. But maybe next time they will explore the lower level a bit more.

Above is a picture of Sonny trying to decide if he wants to play a game of bowling or tennis. The picture to the right shows Cher in the back while Sonny is about to go on a climbing escapade (I guess neither sport seemed that appealing to him!)

Why You Should Never Go On Vacation

Or: How to kill 2 birds with 46 watermelons.

Summer is here! And its arrival bares the fruit of watermelons aplenty! Sherry seized the summer sales and supplied our salivating species with some watermelon sustenance. She bought 26 so far, with about 20 more to come later next week. We gave 7 already to the bears (and I smuggled one out of the truck for the keepers for the next crazy hot day), but a problem arose when we realized we had nowhere to store the rest of them.

Luckily! keeper Kristen is on vacation, and the longstanding tradition is to do some hilarious prank on her desk when she's gone. And so, we are able to kill 2 birds with 46 watermelons (and that's why you should never go on vacation)!

Smiling Bears: a fun and interesting evening event

My friend Lisa Stewart at the Appalachian Bear Rescue sent me this photo of one of the cubs she is rehabbing now. It's pretty cute so I had to share it with you (even Larry would have to say it was cute).


If you love bears you are not going to want to miss our evening event
Thursday June 25 at 7:00. Bear behaviorist and former animal keeper Else Poulsen will be here to share stories of her work with bears: polar bears and grizzly bears and black bears. She worked with these animals for years at the Calgary and Detroit Zoos.

She recently published a book called Smiling Bears: A Zookeeper Explores the Behavior and Emotional Life of Bears. You will have the opportunity to ask her questions about her work and to purchase a signed copy of her book. After the presentation, you'll be able to take an evening stroll down to our bear exhibit, learn and ask questions about the Museum's black bears, and help give the bears their dinner.

There are still some spaces left and you must register in advance. Click here to learn a little about the event, or just call extension 313 at the Museum (919-220-5429) to register.



I hope you can join me for this unique opportunity.

EnrichBits: Keepers' favorites

EnrichBits: A monthly look at animal enrichment


This month, we thought it'd be fun to ask around and see what the keepers enjoy best in terms of animal enrichment. "What's your favorite enrichment to watch or give?" got these responses:

Marilyn: I really like when the bears get a box-in-a-box-in-a-box. (This is where we hide a yummy treat in a box, put that box in a bigger box, and that box in a bigger box, in order to create a bunch of layers to tear through and prolong the puzzle) Especially when popcorn's the treat, and they'll tear through, popcorn goes flying, and usually a bear ends up with a box on it's head!

Kent: It's pretty cool when we give the bears those big ice chunks in the moat and they play with them.

Erin: I like to watch how intelligent our pig is when we give him a treat in a pizza box. He can pop it open perfectly with no hands!

Cassidy: I really like to give browse ( leaves from trees) to the sheep because they get so excited. They fling their heads around and act silly. The other day, instead of putting their food in the bowls, I spread it out all over the yard, and then moved on to clean pig's yard. When I glanced over, the sheep had found and eaten it all, and then were running around their yard head butting and acting frisky. I was pleasantly shocked!

Kristen: One of my favorites is to watch the turtles when they choose to bask under their heat lamps. I always laugh when they stretch out their back legs for maximum skin surface area getting warm.

Jill: Anything where the animals get to tear stuff up. I don't like to clean up ripped up phone books and cardboard boxes afterwards though!

Sherry: I like to watch the bears do most anything, like leafing through piles of fresh cut tree limbs, or trying to reach sweet treats like drops of syrup and honey that have been placed high. They always try to get more than the one drop that's coming out of our honey drippers (honey drippers are capped PVC tubes with a small hole in the bottom. Once hung from a height, they'll slowly drip honey, so bears have to keep coming back and checking in to see if a treat awaits them)

You've heard some keeper favorites. What's yours?

Creature Feature: Red Wolf Surgery Part 3

This video is the third and final part of a three part series. Watch the first and second part or see all three in the same video.

Well, a lot has happened with red wolf #1227 in the last week or so. Yesterday's video showed you the procedure of the mass being removed, and today's video will allow you to see what happened to #1227 after the surgery and how she is doing now.

#1227 arrived at the museum in November of 2008. Before coming here, she lived at the Texas Zoo for three years where she was paired up with another male red wolf in hopes that they would have pups. Unfortunately, that never happened. So the Red Wolf SSP decided to match her with a different male (#1369) here at the museum. These two red wolves are considered to be valuable genetically, so it would be great if they successfully bred together. That did not happen this year, but we are keeping our fingers crossed for next year!

We were told about some of #1227's behaviors by the keepers at the Texas Zoo when she came to us. Apparently, she was known for running off with the keepers' tools if they were left unattended with the keepers in the exhibit. Although she hasn't done that with us, she is much more bold than the male and will come within 15 feet of us while we are in the exhibit. She is very curious about what we are doing and what sort of enrichment we might have for her! In the morning, when she hears us drive up, she will run down to the viewing area to see if we have anything for her. She is also a bug chaser, which is quite amusing to watch (you may even see a bit of that in part 3 of the video). She has been a very enjoyable wolf to have, and her funny behaviors make us all smile!

You can come by and visit her at the museum to see how she is doing. We will also post updates on the blog with whatever actions we might take in the future with her.

Creature Feature: Red Wolf Surgery Part 2

This video is the second part of a three part series. Watch the first video here.

WARNING: This video contains graphic images of surgical procedures that may not be appropriate for all viewers.

In yesterday's post, I said that I would tell you more about red wolf #1227 for the second part of the video. However, we received the pathology report yesterday afternoon, and I didn't want to wait until tomorrow to share the results with you. So I will talk more about #1227 in the final part of the video tomorrow.

The mass was a type of soft tissue sarcoma called a Hemangiopericytoma. This means the mass was, in fact, cancerous. These sarcomas are typically seen on the limbs, or more often the hock region, of dogs. However, these sarcomas are considered "low-grade", which means they rarely metastasize or spread to other parts of the body. But they do tend to reoccur locally, so there is a chance that another mass will appear on her chest again at some point.

For right now, #1227 is doing very well and her quality of life is excellent. In the meantime, we are consulting with oncologists, our veterinarians, and members of the red wolf species survival plan (SSP) to figure out the best course of action from here. We will keep you posted as we learn more about our options and figure out our next steps.

Creature Feature: Red Wolf Surgery Part 1

You may have read a post last week, or possibly heard about it on twitter, that our female red wolf (#1227) had surgery to remove a large mass from her chest. That was last Monday, and now we have a terrific video of the surgery to share with you! The video has been broken down into three 2-minute parts, which will be posted over the next three days (Tuesday through Thursday). The surgery was a great success, and the mass was sent off for testing so that we can learn exactly what it was and whether it was malignant. We hope you enjoy this rare inside look at a surgery being performed on one of the rarest species in the world!


Above is part 1 of the video. For tomorrow's post, which will feature part 2, you can learn more about red wolf #1227. The pathology results will be back and we'll be able to post those on Thursday with the last part of the video.

Big word of the month: adapiforms

This month's instillation of the BWOM is inspired by the recent unveiling of a phenomenal fossil from the Eocene epoch (approximately 55 to 35 million years ago). This period in geological history is notable for the emergence of many modern forms of mammals. The fossil, dubbed Ida by its discoverers, is from the Messel Pit in Germany which has yielded many exceptional fossils. Her scientific name, Darwinius masillae, honors Charles Darwin (one of the founders of modern evolutionary biology) and the area of Messel in Germany where she was unearthed. All paleontologists agree that the specimen is amazingly well preserved. Only the left leg is missing and many details like the texture of the fur and the contents of the stomach are easily observed.

The scientists that completed the biological description of Ida placed her in a group know as the Adapiforms. This group contains many extinct species that resemble modern lemurs but has no living members. Paleontologists disagree on exactly where the group fits in the evolutionary history of the two main groups of primates. The authors of the study describing Ida believe she represents an important transitional fossil or "link" between the prosimian (lemurs and relatives) and simian (monkeys and apes) lineages of primates.

The authors have assembled an unprecedented publicity apparatus for their discovery. You can learn more about their interpretations at their website, on their History Channel documentary, or by reading the associated book.

As with most major discoveries, scientists are still debating the details of the significance of the fossil. Several paleontologists take issue with some of the specifics of the study of Ida's fossilized remains.

The story of Ida's discovery and the subsequent debate about her role in primate evolution are a great way to learn more about the process of science. Disagreements about Darwinius masillae will not be settled quickly. Some observers mistakenly believe that this debate reflects some weakness of the scientific method. On the contrary, the process of community examination of the claims of the original authors is the way that scientists will finally reach a conclusion. Only when the idea has survived extensive examination can it be considered a viable theory.

Darwinius masillae photo from Wikicommons.

Red Wolf pups- lots of pups born to wild wolves

I mentioned a few posts ago about red wolf births. Not that many pups were born in the captive population although I have not heard a final report yet. The numbers are looking much better for wild red wolves. As of May 15, there have been 11 liters with 41 pups, plus the 4 pups that were fostered.

I head out for the red wolf SSP master plan meeting in Tacoma the end of July, and will report more specific information then. (Click here to read about last year's red wolf SSP meeting).

Miss Piggy

We have a new arrival at the museum that just got here 3 days ago! Miss Piggy came to us from Pig Pals because they thought that she would be a great companion for our current pig. She will be in quarantine for at least a month to make sure she is healthy and free of any parasites before joining Pig, but eventually you will be able to come visit her in the farmyard. Stay tuned in the future for a Creature Feature to learn more about her!

Red Wolf Surgery

Yesterday, our female red wolf, studbook # 1227, had surgery to remove a mass from her chest. I am sure Marilyn will be posting about it later. We took a video as well that we'll get it up soon. For those who follow us and our animals closely, I wanted you to know this happened and that the wolf is doing well. In the photo, Katy is on the left, and Dr. Staab-Carter is on the right (wolf is in the center).
To see a photo of the mass that was removed, click here.

We hope to return the female to the main exhibit area Wednesday morning.

Spotlight: Marilyn Johnson

This is Keeper Marilyn. Marilyn started working in the animal department almost 6 years ago. She started working 10 hours each week, and worked herself into a full time job after about 9 months. (On the right she is trying to get a weight on an opossum).

Marilyn's attention to detail is outstanding. She loves to learn and is always thinking of innovative things for the animals. If you need someone to help you don't even have to ask, she'll just jump right in. And she works hard. Really hard. When it comes to projects that are out of the normal routine (like staying until 10:00 PM to scrub the top of the aviary in Carolina Wildlife) she is the first one to volunteer, or be volunteered by everyone else (and she doesn't mind being volunteered).
Marilyn's a good sport too, as the rest of us tease her about a wide variety of things. She refuses to sit across from me in meetings- too much confrontation that way. She asks a ton of questions too, and is okay with the eye-rolling she gets from everyone when she asks interesting hypothetical questions.

To the left is a much younger Marilyn, walking with a much younger Scout, our Muscovy Duck.

I'll take the older and wiser Marilyn I know now and work with her any day, although preferably not first thing in the morning- it takes her awhile to wake up).

Show and Tell

We got this really nice shed from one of our pine snakes the other day and thought it would be good to share. Pretty impressive, huh?!

Red Wolf "Birth" Update

No. Don't get excited. No red wolf pups were born at the Museum this year, and with about one week left in birthing season we are not expecting any this year. We'll hope for a better outcome next year, maybe even some fertility dances.

All pups are born typically in April or May because red wolf females only go into estrus once a year, usually for a two week window sometime in February or March (also known as "cycling" or menstruating). This means there is only one period of time per year they can become pregnant, and why all pups are born around the same time, rather than spread throughout the year, like people, for instance.

And, with just about a week left in birthing season, there have not been that many pups born in the captive population. Thus far, only three litters. The litter of four pups at Sandy Ridge, a single pup born at Western North Carolina Nature Center in Asheville, and a large litter of eight at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.

Four of the pups born at Lincoln Park were fostered to a pair of wild red wolves at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. Fostering is the best way to get wolves from the captive population to the wild population. The way fostering works is wildlife biologists locate a wild red wolf who has given birth around the same time as a wolf in the captive population. The captive pups must be fostered within three weeks of birth: the transfer has to happen before the pups eyes open, that way the first thing they see will be their parents and siblings. It's really cool, and it works as it has been done successfully int he past.

I'll try to get an update on how the wild population of red wolves has been doing as far as number of litters and number of pups. Look for this information next week.

Madagascar animals

Cassandra (a Ringtail Lemur) explores her exhibit

I think our six lemurs here at the Museum are pretty good ambassadors of their species. But if watching and learning about them hasn't been enough to make you want to support habitat conservation in Madagascar, click here for another couple hundred of reasons.

Volunteer Recognition

The animal department could not function without the many volunteers that help us out. We've written many posts in the past about the many roles they play in our department so I won't repeat what we have already said.

This year the department nominated Donald and Sofia for the Volunteer Center of Durham's Key Volunteer Awards.The luncheon is an opportunity to recognize volunteers from agencies around Durham that work to improve the community. I was proud to join our two great volunteers and represent the Museum at the banquet.

I know I speak for everyone in the Animal Department when I say THANK YOU! to Donald, Sofia, and all our other hard working volunteers.

Creature Feature: Banded Water Snake

This snake came to us in September of 2008, but its estimated birth date was in August of 2007. The previous owners had it for 6 months and then gave it to a pet store, which then donated the snake to us. We are not sure if the snake is male or female, and I am hesitant to speculate due to the most recent mix up with our black rat snake! However, what I am sure about is that this water snake is unlike most of its kind. Why, you ask? Because it is quite docile and easy to handle!

If you are a fan of water snakes, you probably already know that they are best left alone. If threatened, they will sometimes stand their ground instead of immediately slithering away. And if intimidation doesn't work, and you still insist on messing with them, they will not hesitate to strike or bite. However, our banded water snake must have been handled a lot by its previous owners, because it seems very comfortable with being held. This unusual behavior for a water snake makes it a perfect candidate for being an education animal!

But we have a bit of a dilemma when it comes to this non-venomous snake, because we also want to use it as an exhibit animal. The reason why is because water snakes often times get mistaken for the venomous cottonmouth or copperhead snakes, and they are killed unnecessarily (of course, venomous snakes are killed unnecessarily as well, because even they serve a great purpose... but I digress.) So, as much as we would love to use our water snake as an education animal, we also want to put it on exhibit so that people can learn the differences between the banded water snake and the copperhead. For now it is living off-exhibit, but eventually it will be moved on exhibit where it can hopefully be a good educational tool for our visitors.

Banded water snakes are quite common in Eastern North Carolina and can be found in all types of waterways. Their main food sources are small fish and frogs, but they will also eat salamanders and other small creatures that frequent the water. They are often times seen basking on rocks or tree stems that hang over the shallows of the water. We have plenty of water snakes in our wetland here, and on warm days you can usually find at least a couple of them basking at the water's edge or in low-lying trees. The next time you visit the museum, make sure to look for them in the wetland!

Here is a great video of a closely related species, the northern water snake, taken at Yates Mill in Raleigh by Brad Herring, the same person who puts together all of our munch cams. Speaking of munch cams, look for one in the future of our banded water snake. It's pretty cool to watch him catch his minnows in the water and then eat them in one big gulp!

My apologies to Kent, who was very unhappy with me for not providing a more natural background with the water snake's glamour shot for this post.

My visit to the Atlanta Zoo

I was in Atlanta last weekend and visited Zoo Atlanta on a rainy day. I was thrilled to have cool weather and less people. (click here to see a map of the zoo).

When I visit zoos I don't typically get my thrills from seeing the animals. I like to look at the exhibits and layouts and get enrichment ideas and see what I can bring back to use at the Museum. I spent extended time at the lemur exhibit, as well as the meerkat exhibit (there were some tunneling structures that I thought might be of use for us).

I was quite captivated, however, by two particular animals: the Orangutans and the Hornbills. (As well as my daughter pretending to be a lion). I don't have any photos of the orangutans, I really was just awestruck watching them, especially some of the younger ones and seeing how they rolled to places rather than walked. I was reminded again of their plight due to the destruction of the rainforest they call home. (Palm oil is used in lots of foods and rainforests are being destroyed so that palm oil plantations can take over).

I did take a little video of the hornbills. I walked up to their exhibit and immediately smiled. They are big birds, with bright orange around their face. The Southern Ground Hornbill is the largest of all the hornbills. I found myself unable to stop looking at them. The two were also strutting around showing what they had in their beaks. (If you don't like to see dead rats, don't look at the video!) I hope you enjoy the birds as much as I did!

Spotlight: Kristie Mozzachio, DVM

To the right is our pig, Squealer, and Dr. Kristie Mozzachio. She is a pot bellied pig specialist, operating a mobile veterinary service that caters exclusively to pot-bellied pigs. This is a part-time gig for her.

Currently, she works as a toxicologic pathologist. This means she spends most of her time looking through a microscope. She looks at slides of tissues from animals, trying to identify any abnormalities.

Pigs are her passion though. She is the veterinary advisor for NAPPA (North American Potbellied Pig Association) and has lectured on the species at the yearly Potbellied Pig Symposium as well as the Special Species Symposium and the SCAVMA (Student Chapter of the American Veterinary Medical Association) Symposium. She is also on the board of directors for the Duchess Fund, a privately funded and publicly accessible collection of miniature pig medical data.

She's helped out the Museum (our pigs and other Farmyard animals too) for many years now. She was here on April 4th for our farmyard physicals: giving Pig his annual vaccines and checking him out. That's how we know he is healthy and swine-flu free.

I can always count on Dr. Mozzachio to have a smile on her face and be ecstatic to see pig. She also always shares some interesting facts about pigs: Did you know that pigs are the only domestic species of animal that can get sunburned (just like humans). And, pigs have true hair and not fur (so might be a good choice for those allergic to animal dander). Pigs do not have very many sweat glands so who knows where the term "sweat like a pig" came from! But - "eat like a pig" is a very true saying because pigs are extremely food-motivated and always hungry.

Big word of the month: Neoteny

The big word of the month is neoteny. Neoteny is a term from developmental biology that refers to the retention of juvenile traits into adulthood. Humans display neoteny compared to our living primate relatives like chimpanzees. Our heads remain relatively large throughout our lives, for instance.
I was inspired to write about this issue by the response to our new baby opossums living in Carolina Wildlife. I think everyone that sees them usually utters the word "cute" within 30 seconds. What makes so many people think baby opossums are cute when so many find the adults unattractive? Look at the two pictures below, which one is cuter?









If you had a preference it was probably for the second photo (unless you are our volunteer Annie, then you like them all!). The first is a perfectly handsome adult opossum, the second is one of our new baby marsupials. Like most young mammals, opossums have large eyes and ears as well as shorter noses than adults of the species.

This pattern of facial features in baby humans seems to trigger the "cuteness" centers in our brains. The response is thought to be adaptive since it makes us more likely to take care of offspring. But the "cute center" in our brain is not very specific, it responds to almost any animal with the correct features. Most of the animals we think of as cute have large eyes and bigger heads and ears. Koalas, panda bears, and domestic dogs and cats all follow the cute pattern.

Advertisers and entertainers know this too. Disney took an animal that horrifies people when found in their home and turned it into a billion dollar enterprise.

Read more about the science of cuteness in this article from the New York Times.

Opossum photos from the MLS animal department blog
Human head comparison from Wikimedia commons

Surprise!

Every keeper has experienced the unpredictable at some point or another. It just comes with the job when you work with animals. No matter how well we think we know our animals, they still randomly do things that will shock or amaze us. Whether it be getting themselves stuck in places that we never imagined they could fit into (such as our tiger salamander with his water bowl), or finding out that one of our sweetest animals is a petty thief (such as Wendy the woodchuck with Sherry's invoices), there will always be outragous stories to share if you are an animal keeper!

Well, last Sunday was another great example of the unimagineable happening. Now, keep in mind Sundays are one of our short-staffed days, where there's only three keepers here instead of seven. Katy and I already had to deal with the tiger salamander being stuck in his water bowl a few months ago on a Sunday, but strange things don't wait for a good time to happen, so we just have to roll with the punches. Last Sunday, Sherry was filling in for Katy while on vacation, and she was the first one to discover this unforseen occurrance. Imagine my confusion when I heard Sherry radio Kent and ask him if it was possible for a male black rat snake to lay eggs! At first, I thought she was on the phone with someone who was asking her this question, and she was just confirming her answer of "no." But, in fact, she was talking about our off-exhibit black rat snake. Yes, that's right, she found nine eggs in the black rat's cage while cleaning that morning. Apparently this snake is a female, and not a male, like we first thought.

Of course, the eggs are not fertile because all of our snakes live alone, so there will be no babies. It was certainly unexpected, but was still something outside of the normal routine that helps to keep the job interesting. It just goes to show that, when working with animals, we always have to expect the unexpected!

Baby Opossums Here

Two baby opossums arrived today at the Museum. Each is about 8 inches long. The male weighs 70 grams and the female 62 grams.

We normally quarantine new animals behind the scenes but this time we decided to let these two start on exhibit so that you can see them while they are still young.

They'll grow quickly, and soon they will have to be separated. One will eventually be used for our education programs while the other remains on exhibit in Carolina Wildlife for guests to come visit.

Look closely at the exhibit because they might be tucked into any crevice they can find. The photo below is of the female tucked back in a little nook. It's just her, and her reflection from the glass. Come by and see them, and look for a future Blog posts to learn more about these two 'possums and how they came to call the Museum home.

Another produce shopping trip

I only had to do a mini run to the grocery store this week for produce. We just needed greens, beets, and some other random fruits and vegetables that aren’t available at the buy-in-bulk store where I sometimes stock up on apples, oranges, grapes, etc.
It’s taken me a good while to get into the habit, but it is finally second nature to grab my cloth bags with me before I head out. For many years, I agonized over which was the better choice to make for the environment- paper or plastic? After a while, it was clear...neither is a good choice! I needed some reusable bags!
When I first started trying to use cloth bags more, I’d often forget them completely. Or I'd leave them in my car, forcing me to run back out to the car while my overflowing cart sat in the grocery store terrorizing the poor employees ("aaaahhh- are we going to have to restock all that produce?!?")
Here’s a pic of my more eco-friendly grocery cart, and as you can see, I try to advertise the museum on my trips out for supplies!

If you’re trying to move to cloth, don’t give up just because you’ve forgotten sometimes. Force yourself to turn around once, or run back to your car once or twice, and the next time you’ll remember!
I’ve been able to remember in my personal shopping as well, thanks to my husband's trick: Hang the bags on your front door knob as soon as you finish unloading groceries; that way they'll make it to the car when you next go out. Then, even when you make an unplanned trip to the store, the bags are magically there for your use!

Swine Flu

With the recent outbreak of swine flu I wanted to assure everyone that our pig is healthy and fine, and it is safe to be around him.

Swine flu is a herd disease and therfore the only way for Pig to get sick, or for people to get sick at the Museum, would be from other people. We will continue to monitor Pig and make sure he remains healthy.

The best thing for anyone to do is to practice good hygiene, by washing hands frequently with soap and warm water, keeping your hands away from your face, staying away from sick people, and staying at home if sick.

The best place to learn more information about the swine flu is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For more information you can click here or go to any of the links below.

http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/key_facts.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/swineflu_you.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/investigation.htm