News From The Mews

I have a friend who shares AI-generated photos on her Facebook page with this challenge: how can you tell this photo is not real? Sometimes it's as obvious as a woman's third arm. Sometimes the clues are more subtle, like shadows cast in different directions. As AI becomes more popular, it is an important skill to spot phony images and be critical of trusting AI-generated content. An animal trainer recently published a paper reviewing a training framework called the Constructional Approach. In one of her live video chats, she shared an AI-generated slide presentation summarizing her paper. I've been confused about her approach since hearing about it, and the AI clip clarified some concepts for me. It was a nice synopsis with fancy-looking graphics. I was impressed. But then I looked back at the slides with a more critical eye. Can you spot the AI graphics that made me scratch my head?  1st image: Why is the banana thinking? What is it thinking? It appears to be a lightbulb...

While the birds are ramping up their food intake for the winter, the amphibians are cutting back. A few weeks ago, the tree frog would dive for a mealworm inches away. Now, I tickle his mouth with the worm and he might take one after a few seconds. Or not. The salamander in July would tackle five or six little red worms. Our November salamander might take one or two, then settle back into his burrow to rest. The salamander considers taking a red worm. 

Every fall, Carson's weight skyrockets along with her appetite. Though our Red-tailed Hawk doesn't need migration reserves stored away like some of her wild relatives, Carson still has the instinct to bulk up for winter.  Carson eagerly awaits her next rat tidbit while standing on the scale. We bumped up Carson's daily food amount in September as she started acting more and more desperate for her meals. Her weight climbed steadily. She reached over 1,500g (3.3lbs) and I began decreasing her food gradually, trying to keep her within her healthy weight range. But it always amazes me how her weight continues to increase even with less food. How does her body do it?

"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.