2009 « Animal Department

Archive for 2009

by Erin Brown, Keeper

I started volunteering at the museum when I was 13 (I'm 22, and they pay me now, which is nice). Favorite work activities include, but are not limited to: bathing our steer, talking about bears, playing guitar (sometimes for the animals) and riding my bike around grounds. And blogging, of course.

I work Tues-Sat and can be tweeched @ernbrn.

Spotlight: Volunteer Jack’s Girlfriend

December 31st, 2009

So I know Sherry usually does the spotlights on people, but I thought I’d try my hand at one. Please excuse my amateur spotlighting, I’m still in training.

The other Tuesday brought a fun surprise when Jack, a volunteer who’s been helping us out 3 days a week for a few months now, brought his girlfriend for us to meet. I’ll point out two significant things to note. The first is that he was brave enough to bring his girlfriend to meet all of us. The second is that Jack has been laboring for 12 hours a week with us, unpaid, for several months, and his girlfriend who worked for 4 hours gets a spotlight first.

Turns out that Jack’s girlfriend, Carliegh, was a member of the Bouncing Bulldogs jump rope team. They are a super cool jump rope team with members ages 5 to 25, based in Durham and Chapel Hill. They’ve been national jump rope champions for 6 years in a row. If Kristen hadn’t been in the room, we would have merely commented about how cool that sounded. Luckily, Kristen was in the room. She’d seen them perform several times and really likes them, so she made–I mean asked–Carly if she would give us a jump rope demonstration. Because we were unprepared for a jump rope emergency (obviously an oversight to our usual severe weather, fire, injury, power outage, and animal escape emergency trainings), there was no jump rope to be found. Luckily Carly was a pro, and luckily we have lots of extension cords, and luckily I keep a camera in my pocket. Check it:

As impressive as that was using an extension cord and wearing cowboy boots, it was even more impressive that she came back the next week with a change of shoes and an actual jump rope to give us a proper demonstration. Note my obviously impressed noises, and Kristen’s enthusiasm:

Join the conversation:

That was cool!!! I appreciate that you have a camera on you at all times Erin! Go Carly!

Posted by Marilyn

11:42 am on January 2, 2010
The Farmyard is the perfect place for rope tricks. Yay!

Posted by Wendy A

11:58 am on January 4, 2010
Wow, I came to read about the new bear and found this! Amazing!

Posted by Anonymous

5:37 pm on January 23, 2010
The anonymous comment is from Jack's Mom, by the way. Looks like a fun time!

Posted by Anonymous

5:42 pm on January 23, 2010

Most Popular Posts With These Tags

If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.

If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.

by Marilyn Johnson, Keeper

I have been working at the museum since 2003, and I feel fortunate to have a job where I can start my day with amazing animals surrounding me. I enjoy camping, hiking and rock climbing in my spare time when the weather is nice.

I work Tuesday through Saturday and spend a lot of time behind the scenes, but you might find me at a public program or feeding the farmyard animals in the afternoon.

Tags: animals, Auggie, farmyard, introduction, keepers, Marilyn, miss piggy, museum, pig, Videos

Meet your new roommate

December 28th, 2009

You may have heard about our newest addition to the farmyard, Auggie the pig. He is a cutie! Originally, he had been living elsewhere on grounds while he was in quarantine (which just means he is kept away from the other animals while we monitor him to make sure he is healthy). Once he was ready to move to his permanent home in the farmyard, it was time to introduce him to his new roommate, Miss Piggy.

We decided to record the initial meeting between Miss Piggy and Auggie. It is normal for pigs to fight when they are first introduced. They have to figure out who is going to be the “boss.” The keepers first experienced this type of difficult interaction when Miss Piggy met our last pig, Squealer. Although it was hard to watch Auggie go through the same introduction, we know from experience that it is best to just let the pigs hash it out. If we tried to separate them every time they weren’t getting along, then the fighting would escalate each time we tried to re-introduce them. However, by keeping them together and monitoring them closely for the first week, they will eventually work through the initial rivalry and eventually become companions.

Although Auggie is much smaller than Miss Piggy, he is also faster! Which means, fortunately, he did not sustain any injuries during the introduction. We are pleased to tell you that now, about 2 weeks since their introduction, they are sleeping side-by-side in their hay at night and are getting along quite well!!

You can hear some of the commentary from the video, which is an array of different keepers talking while they watch the introduction take place. All of the keepers working that day, along with Sherry and her daughter, were monitoring the pigs while they were first introduced. You may be able to hear Sherry mention the word piloerection, which is one of Larry’s “Big Words of the Month.” You can also hear Sherry say at the end of the video that Kent would need to check on them every 15 minutes while he was cleaning the farmyard that morning.

Join the conversation:

Most Popular Posts With These Tags

If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.

If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.

Behind-the-Scenes Behind…

by Sherry Samuels, Director

I've been at the Museum sooooo long - almost as long as Erin's been alive. I do a little bit of everything as part of my job: care for the animals, work with the keepers and other staff, spend time with guests. Lucky me!

I spend a lot of time behind-the-scenes, or here after hours, but if you really want to see me, I am often in the bear yard scooping poop Thursday mornings.

Tags: Ashlyn, Christmas, donald, museum, Sherry

Christmas 2009

December 25th, 2009

So, it’s not over yet, but Christmas 2009 has not been so bad. It’s not perfect- there wouldn’t be much to say if it was. I got in around 6:30, and slept pretty well so that’s a plus from previous years. There is heat in the building, which is excellent because there were some issues yesterday. I go to check on Nimbus, and she seems well. She takes her meds pretty well but leaves a present on my pants, as seen below.

I get the rest of the treatments ready- lots of ferret meds and opossum stuff to get ready. I got more of the efa cap oil for the opossums on my sweatshirt than in the opossum food. I pull two more pills out to actually get some for the opossums…I believe my sweatshirt is ruined though.

Around 7:30 volunteer Ashlyn and her family show up to help before they hit the road to visit family in South Carolina for Christmas. (She emailed me yesterday and asked if I wanted her to come in and do the education animal holding rooms). I missed the shot of her husband inside the rabbit cage, and you cannot see her daughter locked in the cages with the ferrets. Ashlyn is laughing because she hasn’t dropped and broken the dishes yet (usually I break dishes, but not this year- thanks Ashlyn for covering me on this one).

In the Farmyard, Auggie and Miss Piggy are fine, although they want to come out and eat. It’s not raining, so out they went.

Donald came in to help also, yay! He helped doing most of the Farmyard all by himself. I got a radio call from him when I was at lemurs that Lightning was running around -he had slipped out of his halter. So, let me also thank Donald as it was not I who let an animal accidentally roam free this year.

We caught up Lightning and finished up the Farmyard. The gate to Scout’s (our Muscovy Duck) yard is broken- I think this is new. It will need to get fixed, but not today. We almost squeaked by without get rained on, but alas, we’re soaked. I wasn’t using the water-proof, drop-proof camera that Erin usually uses so I have no more photos to share.

Nothing that horrible has happened yet. All the animals seem fine, except one dead feeder-fish (these are the fish we keep on grounds to feed our water and garter snakes).

If you want to read about past Christmas’ at the Museum, click here. I hope everyone is having a relaxing and fun time with family or friends, or enjoying time by themselves on this Christmas. I am off to see an old friend and then be back later for PM treatments and feedings and checks.

Join the conversation:

Sherry, it was an entertaining morning from my point of view. Glad that we could be there and help out…broken dish not withstanding!

Posted by Ashlyn

12:52 pm on December 26, 2009
I would also like to point out that I did remember to leave my camera, even if Sherry didn't use it…Glad everything went well!

Posted by Erin Brown

6:19 pm on December 26, 2009

Most Popular Posts With These Tags

If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.

If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.

Behind-the-Scenes Behind…

by Kristen Pormann, Keeper

I am most famous here in the animal department for "expanding" the barred owl exhibit, clogging the wolf pool, and splitting my pants. My other less notorious work, since 2003, includes keeping, purchasing our animal supplies, coordinating our volunteers, and managing our animal enrichment program.

Find me training the lemurs or in other various animal enclosures Monday through Friday, or at the grocery store on Wednesdays, when I shop for produce!

Tags: animals, Kristen, museum, scavengers, science

Opossums, vultures, and me.

December 24th, 2009

The 3rd floor of the museum, where almost every department had a ton of stuff in storage, is going to be redone and turned into offices. This means all the stuff had to move, prompting departments to do big clean ups and sorting and such.

Many items that hadn’t been used in a long time were up for grabs, and I, who love to scavenge, was able to fill a couple of cartloads of things for the animal department! (Others in the animal department are not quite as excited, given my finds usually tend to clutter up the halls).

My most excellent find were these bins (which held bird nests, beakers, and a lot of other stuff our Science Education Resource Center used to use a long time ago)

I also scavenged the following… which I’ll find some way to use in our animal enrichment program!

Join the conversation:

QuikPost: female red wolf…Issues again.

December 22nd, 2009

The Keepers noticed some blood on our female red wolf yesterday. (#1227) If you look closely you can see some blood on her chest. She is acting totally fine and we don’t notice anything today. Since she is acting fine, we’ll wait until Monday and have our Vet, Dr Vanderford, check her out. Seems like something is always going on with our girl! Click here to read about her and our wolves’ physicals this past October.

Join the conversation:

Christmas is coming

December 20th, 2009

I work every Christmas and let the Keepers have off. I reviewed the log books a couple days ago to make sure I was prepared- this way I could ask questions ahead of time. It made Kristen smile to do this with me (really, she was laughing at me I think).

Something always happens on the 25th, nothing too horrible, but usually provides some laughs or eye rolling. I’ll try and post some picture on Friday so you can see what’s happening here on Christmas 2009. Click on the links below to read about past Christmas’.

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2007

Join the conversation:

Good luck! I'm sure it will be fine. Hopefully you will get more sleep on the night of the 24th this year!

Posted by Anonymous

9:59 am on December 22, 2009

Most Popular Posts With These Tags

If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.

If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.

by Erin Brown, Keeper

I work Tues-Sat and can be tweeched @ernbrn.

Tags: Erin, Nimbus, Sherry, Videos

Where’s Nimbus?

December 17th, 2009

If you’ve been up through the farmyard before, you’ve probably seen our outside bunny, Nimbus. There have been several posts about her already. This is unsurprising, as she’s the cutest perky-eared bunny on the planet (Bugsy, our other rabbit, is the cutest lop eared or floppy eared bunny). If you’ve been to the farmyard lately, you probably have wondered where she went.

Last Saturday when I went into clean Nimbus’ cage, I saw that she was lying in a weird way. She usually lies down like this:

But she was lying like this, with her legs out to the side:

When I went to move her, she was having trouble getting her feet beneath her. I was pretty worried. When we see an animal lying with their legs to the side when they usually don’t, that usually means something is wrong with their back. Rabbits especially have sensitive backs that get hurt pretty easily. I brought her down to the building, and she went for x-rays on Tuesday. Luckily her back is just fine. The prognosis is that she has arthritis in many of her joints. We got Nimbus when she was already full grown, so we don’t know how old she is exactly, but while back Dr. English, our eye specialist, said that based on her eyes, he thought she was an older bunny.

She started on some pain meds, and today she seems to be doing better. She was lying like she normally does this morning.

That’s a good sign! She’ll stay in the building for a while longer until we’re %100 sure that she’s doing well enough to return to the farmyard. However, she really doesn’t like taking her pain meds. I was having a hard time getting her to cooperate the other day, so I asked Sherry to help me. She was having a really hard time too, and it was really funny to watch her try (Nimbus kept moving and boxing at the syringe, so the syringe was going everywhere, like up Nimbus’ nose). Luckily I had a camera in my pocket, but AS SOON as I started filming, Nimbus started to cooperate. Of course.

Join the conversation:

I love Nimbus!!! She's a great bunny (or, as your title calls her, "Nimubs"!!)

Posted by Marilyn

2:52 am on December 19, 2009
Just for the record, I had no issues getting Nimbus here meds!All went as smoothly as it usually goes for me when I work on Christmas.

Posted by Sherry

7:46 am on December 19, 2009

Most Popular Posts With These Tags

If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.

If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.

Education Educat…

by Larry Boles, Keeper

Although a native tarheel, I came to the museum from Texas, where I taught Biology courses at a small college. In graduate school I studied the behavior and ecology of marine organisms (mostly crabs, lobsters and sea turtles).

You can find me in the Animal Department Monday-Thursday. Fridays I work for the Department of Innovation and Learning all day.

Tags: animals, BWOM, Larry, science

Big Word of the Month: Osteology

December 15th, 2009

Osteology is the scientific study of bones. The skeletal remains of an animal contain many clues about the life of the organism. Diet, disease, and activities all leave tell-tale marks on the framework of the body. Here in the animal department, Keeper Katy is particularly interested in osteological subjects. She is currently working to clean up this group of bones that she and Keeper Jill recently excavated. Before I tell you more about them, I thought it might be interesting for the readers to do some digital osteology and try to determine from what animal this skeleton comes. If you have a guess, write a comment below and tell us what your evidence is for your guess. I’ll tell you more information soon.

Join the conversation:

It looks like some kind of canine from the jaw bone in the lower left corner. I'll need a bigger picture to further ID it.

Posted by Brad

3:36 pm on December 15, 2009
We, my daughter and I, think it's a bear. The bones look too big to be a wolf, or small size animal. But the teeth look like they are used for eating meat, so not a horse or herbavore.

Posted by D

11:08 am on December 16, 2009
My son and I had identified some ribs and upper leg bones that made us think it was an animal about the size of a wolf or deer. The tooth on the lower left definitely belongs to a carnivore, so we'll go with wolf as our guess. The large flat bone in the middle baffled us at first, but maybe it's a shoulder blade?

Posted by jkl

1:02 pm on December 16, 2009

Sneak Peak

December 11th, 2009

So, we’re short staffed again: vacation, sickness, babysitting…and I’m in on my day off. Oh Well.
I don’t keep a camera in pocket so I cannot, yet again, show you what’s going on around here: ERIN- HAVE YOU GONE HOME AGAIN WITH THE CAMERA?!? (To be fair to Erin, I could grab another camera). So, for you faithful Blog readers, here’s the deal. We might be getting a new bear. I’ll know more in the next week or two, but here’s a photo of our possible new Museum Member:

She’s about 80 pounds and was born this past February and is looking like she won’t be a good candidate for release to the wild. More info about her situation when I learn more details.

Join the conversation:

I might have left the camera in my pants…but rest assured, it was nice and warm last night.I think I'll start a routine where I put the battery charger next to my radio charger and charge it overnight with my radio. That will help except for the days where I accidentally take my radio home (which happens more often than you'd think…)Thanks for covering today!

Posted by Erin Brown

8:22 pm on December 11, 2009
what a gorgeous girl. definitely keep us posted on this one!

Posted by Leiana

10:34 am on December 12, 2009

Most Popular Posts With These Tags

If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.

If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.

by Marilyn Johnson, Keeper

I work Tuesday through Saturday and spend a lot of time behind the scenes, but you might find me at a public program or feeding the farmyard animals in the afternoon.

Tags: animals, funny quotes, keepers, Marilyn, museum

What are you talking about!?

December 8th, 2009

I have often thought of the types of things we (the keepers) say on a daily basis that sound completely normal to us, but would probably sound quite bizarre out of context to another person. The topics of our conversations are obviously very relevant to our jobs, but many of our random one-liner sentences are kind of funny and/or disturbing when heard by themselves! I asked the keepers to help me out by keeping a list of these one-liners as they remember them from the past or hear them in the future. I already have a list just from the brainstroming today, so I figured I would share these with you. And, apparently we talk about poop a lot! I will share more one-liners with you in the future as the keepers continue to add to the list. Erin also suggested that I take some of the great quotes from our weekly meeting notes (thanks Erin!). I will put the actual context/reference of the sentences in parenthesis after each quote.

“My favorite is when she falls asleep on the potty.” (talking about Wendy woodchuck falling asleep in weird positions while she’s hibernating)

“Did you check Nimbus butt?” (Nimbus the bunny gets her butt checked for loose stool)

“I need a fecal.” (says one keeper to another to get a poop sample of an animal)

“Is this poop or papaya?” (bunny poop and papaya seeds look very similar. Sometimes we put papaya seeds in Kristen’s chair to make her ask… haha)

“Maybe it was just a loaded diaper.” (actually said by one of the facilities guys when Katy and I were trying to figure out the source of a bad smell in Carolina Wildlife the other day)

“Owls either love foam or hate foam.” (said by Cassidy in a meeting when we were talking about how the owls are shredding their new foam perches)

“We could just put the poop behind the dinosaur butt!!!” (says Kristen during a meeting when we are discussing scooping the bear cliff and how difficult it is to haul the heavy bags away)

“Wait, the bear’s built like a bucket?” (said by Katy in a meeting, but she has no idea why)

“My glasses fell in bear poo.” (No explanation needed… that’s just disgusting)

“To get a woodchuck off the side of the road, roll down your window and say,”Get out of the way, you’re too close!” (via Larry’s friend, who has a degree from Woodchuck School…. and was in response to Katy’s original question of, “What do you do if a woodchuck is on the side of the road and you’re afraid it’s going to run out in front of a car?”)

“Peek poo season.” (Said in a meeting during the Fall when we had to scoop the bear yard more often)

And, last but not least…

“I still have my poo Bugsy sign.” (says Katy to Sherry in reference to a chart she had made so that we could record the consistency of Bugsy’s poop)… see the picture of the poo sign below!

Join the conversation:

That sign is one of my favorite things to come out of the department. That's actual poop glued to paper, folks!

Posted by Erin Brown

10:25 am on December 9, 2009

Most Popular Posts With These Tags

If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.

If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.

Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC

Archive for 2009

Join the conversation:

You Might Also Like These Posts

Most Popular Posts With These Tags

Join the conversation:

You Might Also Like These Posts

Most Popular Posts With These Tags

Join the conversation:

You Might Also Like These Posts

Most Popular Posts With These Tags

Join the conversation:

You Might Also Like These Posts

Most Popular Posts With These Tags

Join the conversation:

You Might Also Like These Posts

Most Popular Posts With These Tags

Join the conversation:

You Might Also Like These Posts

Most Popular Posts With These Tags

Join the conversation:

You Might Also Like These Posts

Most Popular Posts With These Tags

Join the conversation:

You Might Also Like These Posts

Most Popular Posts With These Tags

Join the conversation:

You Might Also Like These Posts

Most Popular Posts With These Tags

Join the conversation:

You Might Also Like These Posts

Most Popular Posts With These Tags