As  a keeper, there are many challenges in each day and lately the cold weather as really been tough for us. When the temps are in the teens and 20s, locks freeze, enclosure doors freeze to the ground, hoses freeze and water in water buckets freeze, not to mention, we freeze! It takes more time and lots of energy to feed the animals when it’s this cold, but we do it for the animals. Some of our animals do not tolerate really cold temps, so they come inside and enjoy some warmth. We are really looking forward to a heat wave with temps in the 30s and 40s!

Our newest additions to the CNC Red Wolf pack arrived this weekend! We received two 9 month old brothers who were born at Sandy Ridge, NC. Their father is the same father of our 2007 pups and their mothers are sisters. One has a stub tail that happened when he was less than 3 months old. They are just beginning to settle into their enclosure, learn their surroundings and our routines. We’re glad to have them here!

All of us keepers are known to talk to the animal ambassadors, but Christina, our Visitor’s Center receptionist/volunteer coordinator takes it a bit farther. Christina is a professional singer and has written a darling good night song she sings to all the animals in the Hidden Creatures of the Forest exhibit each evening. While animals certainly don’t have the same mental capacity as humans, I remain convinced that they recognize us and respond to each of us, so  I feel certain that Christina’s song is well received each night.

After an owl or hawk eats his meal, it spits up a pellet. Owls do not digest the bones of their meal, so in an owl pellet, you will always find, hair and bones. Hawks digest the bones, so in a hawk pellet you only find fur. Sometimes in our rat order, we get hairless rats. After the hawks ate the hairless rats, one of the keepers noticed that there were no pellets to pick up. No hair on prey = no hawk pellet!