News From The Mews

One thing that amazes me about animal training is that the basic principles can be applied to any animal. Dog, cat, hawk, fish, porcupine, and elephants. Even wild ones. Yes, you can change the behavior of wild animals in your backyard - or in Africa. Animal trainer Ken Ramirez has been working on a conservation project in Zambia to protect a dwindling herd of elephants. The herd's annual migration path meanders through Zambia where they are protected from hunting. But part of their path crosses the border into Democratic Republic of the Congo, where poaching is rampant. Many elephants are killed in this small section of their journey.  So the conservation team began to wonder if they could train the elephants to reroute their migration path to stay within the political boundaries of Zambia. Ramirez developed a training plan using the same principles that he would use to train a dog. First, they made the dangerous path more difficult by installing a tall stick barrier at a narrow s

Each morning I lovingly say, "Hi, Crazy Lady," to Carson the Red-tailed Hawk. This nickname most often comes out when she is most active and vocal in the spring (breeding season) and fall (migration season). But I started rethinking my morning greeting during her daily weigh-in in the office this week. A few volunteers happened to be taking a break from exhibit construction and stopped to admire the impressive hawk. We asked our fantastic volunteer, Val, what Carson would be called in the Ojibwe language. " Kekekwe ," she said. "Lady hawk." Kekekwe* . What a lovely word. I wondered if the name originated from a hawk's vocalizations. Carson commonly makes short shrieks as part of our morning routine. I could never quite describe them, but "kek-kek-kek" might be a good term for these calls: Maybe I could start to use  kekekwe as a kinder nickname for Carson's morning greetings. Though I may still call her "crazy" sometimes, I lov

  A plastic storage container has been Digger's favorite spot in her habitat this week. I noticed the hognose snake's eyes were starting to look cloudy, a sign that she is getting ready to shed her skin, so I offered this simple box. It is filled with damp moss to make a high humidity space that should help her skin peel off smoothly in one piece. 

I'm paying close attention to the snakes' activity levels since starting a behavior-based feeding routine. Instead of feeding regularly every Saturday, I wait to feed the snakes until they start to look hungry. One obvious sign is increased activity. If a snake is moving around more in their habitat, they may just be searching for food. Usually Emory the Great Plains Rat Snake spends most of the day curled up in one of her hides. When I caught Emory climbing up her branch in the middle of the day this week, I made a note of it. Was she looking for food?  A few hours later, I took another peek at her habitat. She was calmly resting under the heat lamp. My eyes scanned to the lower level of the habitat and saw a lovely fresh scat. It turned out she wasn't hungry earlier; she was working out a poop!