One Sunday morning while checking on all the Explore the Wild animals I couldn’t tell if there was one or two bears sleeping in the bear cave. So I used our visitor camera at overlook and zoomed in to check it out. Then I saw the cutest thing- Mimi was spooning Gus! Super cute and it brought a great big smile to my face first thing in the morning.
Here are a couple photos of bears having fun.
Gus and Yona playing, Gus is standing
Gus playing with his feet- classic
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Okay all you amateur cryptozoologists out there! Newsflash time! (In case you’re wondering, cryptozoology is the study of unknown animals. Check out this link for an earlier post on it!) But it seems that now you are required to have a permit to search for Bigfoot. Recently a man in Arkansas was leading a tour of Sasquatch enthusiasts in a national park and was cited by rangers and given a fine of over $500 for hunting for Bigfoot without the proper permit. So it now seems that to search for an animal of possibly unknown existence, you need to pay a permit fee to legalize it.
My thoughts on the matter? If they can charge for it, then it must exist! 
Now onto the Loch Ness Monster!
My source says that’s because the leader of the search around the Buffalo National River had charged people money to join in – from $300 to $500. In other words, he was acting as a concessionaire. And in a national park, that’s a no-no.
I mean it’s a no-no unless one has a contract with the national park.
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Especially this dedicated reader who sent in a picture
Rommy the cat reading a blog post
That is such a gorgeous cat! And soo smart!
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At the end of the day on Thursday I was discussing a leaking pipe with some keepers and drawing on the board to try to get a visual. Let’s just say my drawing skills are poor-at-best. One of the keepers then says to me can you draw us walking out the door and going home.
Below is my drawing of the three keepers heading home. Do you want to guess which three they are (in order, left to right?) (this drawing is not edited nor touched up, as tempting as it was to re-draw or make changes, no such actions occurred).
I’m guessing Kent, Kimberly and Aaron but I didn’t think they all lived together and I’m pretty sure none of them live in a cardboard box.
I’m going with Kent, Kimberly, and Marilyn.
I’m guessing Kent (hat), Kimberly (shortest of the three, with long flowing hair), and Marilyn (tall with a little bit of hair). Not sure if those circles around the eyes are glasses, but that qualifies them too, if those circles are indeed glasses.
I agree with Sarah and Ranger Greg
Well I know it’s not me or Jill, since we were closing that day and got to see the picture when we came back in from Explore the Wild!
Why do they live in cardboard? I thought they all lived in houses!!:)
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Hi everybody! Hope you guys are doing well, I am all kinds of fine and ducky, thanks for asking! For this post, we’re going to have a bit of a game. Now, I know you guys are all aware of my intellectual awesomeness, but now I’m going to give you a bit of a test. Ever play those “What doesn’t belong” games when you were a kid? Well here it is in blog form! I’m going to write a fun little blog post. And there will be an undetermined number of mistakes in it. your job is to go ahead and find them!
Opossum and young
For instance, I may be talking about opossums. And I say “Opossums are wonderful arboreal mammals. They have a prehensile tail, a great sense of smell and are one of only two marsupials that live in North America naturally.” What about that statement is wrong? Their tail IS prehensile, they DO have a great sense of smell and they ARE arboreal. The wrong fact is where I said they are ONE OF TWO marsupials in North America. Actually, they are the only species of naturally occurring marsupial on this continent. You guys got it? Find my mistakes and catch my errors – enjoy my friends!
So it’s almost spring time (sorta). Some days it’s freezing and rainy, others it’s almost 80 degrees and sunny. But even if the weather can’t seem to make up it’s mind, the animals already have. Anyone who was getting a little lazy with the coming of the colder weather is definitely starting to bounce back. Henry our Woodchuck has been eating more of his daily diet, plus is much more active. All four of our bears are out and moving for more time during the day instead of sleeping in the cave or on the cliff and only rousing themselves at meals or training times. Of course none of our reptiles were affected too much by the winter season. They all live inside in a climate controlled room. So both the native and the exotic species fared wonderfully. From the Banded Water Snake to the Asian Bearded Dragons, our cold blooded friends didn’t miss a beat. And everyone in our Farmyard is also doing just great. Time for some of them to shed though!
March is also a fun Month of novelty days. And not just for animal stuff. Just to name a few, March 3 is “If Pets had Thumbs Day”, March 9 is “Panic Day” -All I can say is “Danger! Danger Will Robinson!”, March 12 is “Plant a Flower Day”, March 14 is “Learn about Butterflies Day”, March 19 is “Poultry Day”, March 22 is “Give a Calzone to a Zookeeper Day”, & March 28th is Something on a Stick Day (I recommend some kind of meat, preferably wrapped in bacon. Like a corndog, but better!)
Also, with the coming of spring many of our outdoor species are beginning to pop up again. Ranger Greg has been sighting more and more species in the wetlands and around the rest of the park. The past few days of warm weather have started many aquatic turtles sunning on the rocks, a number of waterfowl are enjoying the Explore the Wild area, and I have been finding Bullfrogs in the bear filter baskets again each morning. I know this is just the beginning. Soon we’ll have all the bugs out (oh, and Aaron found the first ticks of the season in the Wolf yard the other day! Marilyn is so thrilled!), the trees will be blooming and the we’ll be getting calls to go out and move snakes from the paths. If they’re the usual rat snakes we usually just let them go on their way, but sometimes we have to move the poisonous copperheads to a different location so they’re out of visitor range. You’re all welcome!
Turtles do love soaking up some UV rays!
By the way… if you keep up with my earlier posts, it seems Katy has struck again! Definitive proof that she is too environmentally minded and attempting to recycle our animals!
The Woodchuck got chucked!
A very large sewer rat has somehow gotten into our department... I feel like I'm back in the Bronx...
And while the above picture may look like Galileo is getting into the trash himself, don’t be fooled! He’s being coerced from off camera! His breakfast is being held hostage!
Okay Guys and Dolls, it’s time for me to pack this one in. I’m going to go and close up, tuck the animals in for the night and make sure all is right with things. Plus, I have to feed the alligators before we start. They’re growing well, just about up to eating whole capybaras now See how many mistakes you can find and I’ll put up the answers soon. Until next time!
P.S.- The Loch Ness Monster exists! 
This is a really cute pic!! Where did you find it?
Hey Gabriella,
Depends on which picture you’re talking about- some came from us taking them at the mueum and some came from Google
I love the pic when the woodchuck got chucked!! That one is funny! Any more animals in the trash yet?;)
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I wanted to share some Lemur photos.
If you remember back several months ago- we had two interns Casey and Jessica who did their enrichment project for the lemurs- it was a teepee tree. We still use it and here are some recent photos of the ring tails climbing on it.
Lycus climbing
Cassandra and Satyrus climbing on their enrichment
As for the red ruffed lemurs, we were treating Iris twice a day with medicine that we put in mashed banana, which often meant her sister and mother also got mashed banana as a treat. Here are photos of Jethys (Iris’ sister) who was so “excited” about her banana- she took the bowl right out of my hand and held it herself- hahaha
Jethys holding her own bowl with both hands
One hand!
When she was finished she dropped it on the ground
Hope you enjoyed- here’s Lycus to say GOODBYE
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So my friend Katy is another keeper here who specializes in the Veterinary aspects of our collection. She does the majority of her work through our vet room and making sure everyone stays healthy (animal wise, at least). But sometimes when we are a little short handed, she jumps right in and lends a hand to help clean exhibits or anything else that needs to be done. Unfortunately, in the excitement of cleaning an exhibit and scrubbing poo off of things she sometimes can get a little distracted and make a slight error…
Uhhh...Katy?
I mean, really! Who throws away a perfectly good opossum?! On the other hand, Einstein (that would be the opossum in the trash) is probably pretty disappointed that it’s not a real trash bin with lots of yummy leftovers to pick through.
Nope. He doesn't look guilty at all!
We may have to watch out… if Max comes up missing, I know who my money is on!
Disclaimer: Please don’t hurt me Katy, I’m just kidding!
Hello, The is a great write up the above is cool can someone reply to tell me how to sing up for your newsletter
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Last year, we had our woodchuck Henry predict the Super Bowl winner. He chose correctly, this year Henry chose the PATRIOTS . I do not have this prediction on video because the camera wasn’t working correctly.
However, I do have our opossum Galileo picking the GIANTS to win. I am really torn on what animal I should support. I am from New York so naturally I should side with Galileo, but Henry is my main woodchuck pal!
Now, the video may look “slightly rigged” because you only see the Giants sign to choose from but, I assure you that even though there is an overwhelming desire for them to win in the Animal Department,he could have easily chosen the PATRIOTS sign on the other side.
To prove this we did the scenario again, this time a little closer. He picked the Giants…AGAIN!
Galileo loves the Giants
I knew Galileo was right the whole time! Go Giants!!
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Once again, this is what happens when you leave your locker open and then leave for the day…
It looks like pretty much anything that wasn't nailed down was stuffed into Aaron's locker.
We are definitely a group of pranksters around here. Check out some other posts about the pranks we’ve pulled.
http://blogs.ncmls.org/keepers/2011/08/19/come-to-the-dark-side-we-have-cookies/
http://blogs.ncmls.org/keepers/2011/01/12/fun-with-a-fake-sheep/
http://blogs.ncmls.org/keepers/2010/08/22/quik-postphone-messages/
http://blogs.ncmls.org/keepers/2009/06/26/why-you-should-never-go-on-vacation/
OK, this one isn’t a prank, but it’s a darn good post! http://blogs.ncmls.org/keepers/2008/08/28/summer-breeze-makes-me-feel-fine/
I’ve started collecting stuff for the next open locker!!!
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I was reading the news the other day and ran across this in several publications.
This little opossum was found on a the subway system in NYC. From the various articles I read people thought it was a huge rat and the riders had to evacuate the train. I am from NYC and would hope to know the difference between a rat and an opossum.
Good ending was that animal control came and was able to re-release the opossum somewhere else.
Here is a link to another opossum ending up in places they shouldn’t be!
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Mimi is so sweet to Gus! Very very cute!!!
love the pictures Thank you for posting