News From The Mews

"Aren't you afraid of her beak so close to your face?" That's a question I hear occasionally during raptor programs when Carson the Red-tailed Hawk sits on my glove. Though her sharp, hooked beak is inches from my nose, I am honestly more concerned about her feet. Raptor beaks are usually just for eating; talons are made for grabbing. To avoid those talons, I am always very careful about how I move my right hand. When offering tidbit treats, I always hold the food in forceps to keep my hand at a distance. And I deliver the food high, straight to her beak. If I move it too low, she might be tempted to grab the food with her foot. Sometimes my hand needs to come within striking distance of those talons like earlier this week when I applied a leather conditioning grease to her anklets. This required my full attention to avoid getting a talon in my hand. Before coming near her feet, I showed Carson my open hand to say, "see? No food here." I reached around the b...

Looking for inspiration to spruce up our snakes' enclosures, I went to iNaturalist.org to search for photos of hognose snakes in their native habitat. The observations submitted by naturalists across the country contained photos ranging from quick phone snapshots to professional-quality images. I was particularly charmed by this lovely photo from Kansas. I noted the gravelly ground and short grasses in this snake's home and wondered how we might mimic some of those habitat features for our snake, Digger. Updates for Digger will take some planning, but in the meantime, I may just need to make this photo my desktop background. Western Hognose Snake in Kansas, 2025. 📷: Dylan Mermis,  iNaturalist

It was time for a beak trim for Otto the Great Horned Owl. As long as he was down for the procedure, I also planned to replace the leather equipment on his legs. I cut off the old anklets with difficulty, navigating around bunches of fluffy leg feathers, and was surprised how stiff the leather felt. I tried folding the old leather strip in half and heard a snap. It was so brittle that a crack had formed along the length! The leather didn't break completely, but it was still good that I had replacement parts ready to go. These new strips were lathered in a protective grease to keep the leather supple until their next replacement. 

I noticed recently that the rope on Carson's perch was rather smooth. Smooth surfaces are rare in nature and can cause foot problems for our raptors. It was time to re-rope the perch! I unscrewed the perch from the wall and removed the old rope. I carefully wound the new sisal rope tightly around the 2x4 and reinstalled the perch. When Carson returned to her mew, she looked indifferent. But I like to think that she appreciated my handiwork! 

I started recording our snakes' behaviors  in 2023 and invited Museum visitors to contribute their observations while visiting the Curiosity Center. A QR code routes to a form where staff or visitors answer questions about what the snakes are doing. Where is the snake? What is she doing? How does she respond if you move in front of her window? I checked in on the results this week and was pleased to see so many responses, over half of which were submitted by visitors. One commented, "Love this interactive info request!" I'm so happy that this project has given people a new way to interact with our live animals! Not surprisingly, the data pointed to two common reptile characteristics. Both Digger and Emory spent the most time close to their heat lamps, and they both spent most of their time motionless. As ectothermic animals that can't create their own body heat, it makes sense that they spend time in warm places and conserve energy by resting. I also noticed trend...

Do reptiles have long-term moods? A research paper published this year would say yes! They found that tortoises who approached a bowl more quickly, hoping for a tasty treat, were also more comfortable in a novel environment. The researchers concluded that these tortoises were optimistic.  A Red-Footed Tortoise, the same species used in the study. Ethologist Karolina Westlund compares this type of animal to Gene Kelly when he sings:  "I'm singing in the rain, just singing in the rain What a glorious feeling, I'm happy again I'm laughing at clouds..."* When we're in a good mood, we can laugh at clouds! Westlund says we perceive potentially negative experiences as laughable, friendly, or safe. The optimistic tortoises didn't know if they would get a treat at the bowl or not, but they approached it quickly as if they thought there was a good chance of getting a reward. And they showed fewer stress behaviors in a new place, perhaps assuming that the new enviro...