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!)