Box Turtle

I don’t see many box turtles at the museum. The habitat’s right but I can remember seeing only one or two of these terrestrial turtles in the twelve plus years I’ve walked the outdoor loop at the museum. Perhaps their scarcity is due to the fact that our 84 acre campus is surrounded by suburbia and ever increasing traffic on the roads around and through the area. These turtles have a bad track record in face-to-face encounters with cars. BoxRead more

Cold Weather Snake

The sharp eye of Animal Keeper Katie caught sight of a black rat snake clinging to a Carolina maple tree trunk in Catch the Wind on Wednesday (3/15/17). It’s not unusual to spot a rat snake here on campus, they’re a common sight. What’s unusual is that the temperature was in the mid-thirties at the time. It’s tempting to say this snake was caught out in the cold unexpectedly. After all, the entire month of February here in the CarolinasRead more