Top Photo: Gray squirrel enjoys food from a relatively safe location, trash bin. The red wolf in the above photo has something hidden behind the pine tree to its left. The animal keepers entered the red wolf enclosure today (1/30/15), as they do every day, to feed the wolves. The keepers typically toss about meat balls throughout the enclosure, on rocks, in clumps of grass, halfway up the hillside in the enclosure, for the wolves to sniff out andRead more
Posts filed in: Mammals
What’s all the ruckus?
As the red wolves relaxed, two male yellow-bellied sapsuckers, one of them a young bird, began to scuffle over who the trees inside the wolf enclosure actually belong to. The woodpeckers chased each other around the trees, flying back and forth, shuffling around and around the tree trunks. The female wolf carefully watched the fracas. At one point, the sapsuckers took off in aerial combat, fluttering to the ground. The wolf was up andRead more
Caught Sleeping
Look who I caught napping just off the path in Explore the Wild. A nice surprise, indeed!Read more
Nests in the trees
The squirrel in the picture was busily running up and down the trunk of the pine tree that it was perched on, collecting material to add to its nest. The nest was placed on a horizontal branch of a pine directly over the boardwalk in front of the Black Bear Overlook. Most squirrels build their nests in a crotch or fork of a tree adding support to the mass of leaves and twigs that make up theRead more
A warm winter day
After several rainy days at the beginning of the week, the past few days have been warm and sunny, days conducive to rest and relaxation. While over at the Red Wolf Exhibit… There’s nothing like a warm winter day to stretch out and soak up some sun. Read more
A Stranger in Our Midst?
The tracks above were found on the pavement on the north side of the Wetlands here at the Museum. The tracks came from the edge of the muddy water, onto the pavement and continued directly across the path and into another wet area on the other side of the path. The animal had apparently been walking along the mud at the edge of the water and decided to cross the path. It looks to me like a coyote’s tracks.Read more
Sleep. Very important.
We all need sleep and red wolves are no exception. Our female red wolf’s favorite sleeping spot is behind the mound of dirt directly in front of the Red Wolf Overlook. Occasionally, she’ll rest slightly to the right of the backside of the mound. That’s where I found her for the photo above. Her sleep, as with most wild creatures, is rarely so deep as to not be alert to what’s going on around her. Her ears are perkedRead more
What’s on her Mind?
Whatever it is that’s on our female’s mind, I can safely report to you that both wolves, our new male 1784 and female 1794, are getting along well. During the female’s first week or so at the Museum, she didn’t allow the male to come near her. She would bare her teeth at his approach. But just yesterday, I saw both of them walking together side by side. The male is still being cautious, taking nothing for granted inRead more