The photo above was taken on Friday, February 17, 2012 at 11:00 AM. The photo below was taken on Friday, February 15, 2013 at 10:54 AM. If you don’t know what’s going on in the photos, the wolves are mating, or rather, have already mated and waiting for the swelling to go down before they separate, which is normal. The timing of this mating is interesting and may give us a clue as to when to look for this behavior inRead more
Posts filed in: Mammals
What comes out on warm nights?
Bats! Tuesday and Wednesday of last week were exceptionally warm days with mild nights. It was apparently warm enough to awaken some of the local bats. I wasn’t at the Museum to witness bats actually flying over the campus on either of those nights but Ranger Rock spotted one floating in the Sail Boat Pond on Thursday morning. The bat, unfortunately, was not alive. How had this bat ended up in the water? I can’t say for sure but IRead more
Killer Kitties?
That’s not my title. It’s the title, or at least part of the title, of an NPR interview on All Things Considered. I happened to be listening to NPR on the radio on the drive home the other day. An animal ecologist, Pete Marra, from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute was being interviewed about a study he and colleagues of his had recently conducted. The study was focused on determining how many animals are killed in the states each year by us,Read more
Squirrel wounds
The squirrel above was at the bird feeders. The wound, which appears to be rather fresh, didn’t seem to bother the squirrel as it went about feeding. But I suppose that there’s not much the squirrel could do even if it did bother the varmint except lick the wound. I guess the question is, how did the squirrel get the injury? If it were earlier in the year I might suggest that it was a warble that the squirrel keptRead more
What’s that sound?!
Why, it’s 1414 howling! If you’re lucky enough to be in Explore the Wild when the wolves start to howling you’ll get quite a thrill. It’s both thrilling and chilling to experience these wolves doing what they used to do in the wild many years ago throughout the Southeast. The only place in these parts that you can experience Red Wolves howling nowadays, without treking out to Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in Eastern North Carolina, is right here at theRead more
Another winter update, w/wolf on the side
Hazel Alder, which grows on the north side of the Wetlands, typically blooms in February. It looks as though it’ll be right on time. There are both male catkins and female flowers (small reddish spikes at top of photo) forming on the plants. The fertilized flowers will become tiny “cones” which look very much like miniature pine cones. Over at Bird Viewing (the feeders) I saw a couple of Red-breasted Nuthatches after not seeing them for several weeks. And, aRead more
You snooze, you lose
Yona had the yard all to herself yesterday afternoon as Gus snored away in the cave, Mimi reluctantly slept outside the cave on her little bed of straw, and Virginia snoozed up on the cliff. She took advantage of the time alone to enjoy the bear chow offerings left by the Animal Keepers on one of the four stumps in front of the Bear House. Take your time and enjoy, Yona, everybody else is off stacking z’s.Read more
One handsome dude
No pressure, 1414, but let’s hope he does what’s expected of him. Note: Red Wolf estrus occurs in January/FebruaryRead more
The Howling
I usually don’t post much about the animals on exhibit, focusing more on the wildlife around the campus here at the Museum. But Red Wolf 1414 has been getting so much press lately that I feel compelled to give a little time to our female wolf, #1287, if only with just a few photographs. So, without further delay, here she is. Female 1287 often howls at the passage of sirens in the distance. Fire engines, I believe, are what setsRead more