slow motion footage of three of our owls

Check out this superb video featuring Omega the Eastern Screech Owl, Radar the Barn Owl, and Tamarack the Great Horned Owl!

Produced by Christian Daugstrup (4 Point OH Productions), Nick Anderson (Silver Lightning Media), and Christopher George
Music: Chris Zabriskie - "John Stockton Slow Drag"
Filmed on the Sony NEX-FS700 at 240 frames per second with the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS lens

Behind-the-scenes shots of the filming process (courtesy of the production staff) show Michelle Leighty holding Tamarack and Omega for the camera:

Sam!

Sam Keum is a high school student at Hathaway Brown and has been interning for us in the wildlife department at CMNH for over a year. Earlier today she presented a poster of her experiences at the Science Research & Engineering Program reception, where she talked to hundreds of guests about working with the animals at the museum. Thanks for all of your time and hard work, Sam!

new falcon Endeavour

The Wildlife Resources department is pleased to announce that it recently added a Peregrine Falcon named "Endeavour" to its collection!



(photo by Traci Lambert - click to enlarge)

Endeavour arrived just a few weeks ago from a wildlife rehabilitation center in the state of Washington, where she was deemed to be non-releasable due to visual impairment. She is not able to see well enough to hunt on her own. Her eyes are structurally sound so the problem is with her nervous system, most likely the result of a trauma. We are currently assuming that Endeavour is a female based on her size compared to our known male. Peregrine Falcon females are usually considerably larger and stronger than the males. We plan to do a blood test in the spring to confirm.

Endeavour has a dark chest right now since she is a juvenile. She will get her adult plumage at around one year of age. Peregrines can live up to 15-17 years in the wild and even longer in captivity, so we hope to have her for a very long time.

Peregrine Falcons are most famous for the speeds they reach during a hunt for prey. When they spot another bird, they will go into a stoop or dive reaching speeds of up to 200 mph. Even their normal flight is faster than most other birds at 62 mph. They are very adaptable and can be found on all continents except Antarctica. In fact their scientific name, Falco peregrinus, means "wandering falcon." In the wild they nest on rocky cliffs but have also adapted to using tall buildings and bridges in cities.

The peregrine population was nearly wiped out east of the Mississippi river in 1968 due to the use of a chemical called DDT that weakened the shells of their eggs. In 1972 the use of DDT was restricted. In 1989 a program was started to reintroduce the falcons to Ohio. As a result they are now considered "threatened". As of last year, there were 36 known pairs at nesting sites in Ohio. 23 of those pairs produced a total of 59 juveniles.

If you would like to see a Peregrine Falcon up close please join us in the Perkins Wildlife Center where "Lou" is on display. Endeavour is going to be an education bird at CMNH. She is already quite good at stepping up on the glove so you may meet her taking a walk with one of our wildlife specialists. Once she is trained to go into a travel carrier she will be used in the educational programs.

Traci Lambert
CMNH Wildlife Specialist

Training Beaker

Here at the museum we have many raptors that are gloved trained. These animals are used in shows, education programs, and often walked around the galleries for visitors to see. Not all raptors have the appropriate disposition to be gloved trained. When a facility gets a bird that is not releasable the bird is evaluated to determine whether it has the temperament to be glove trained or whether it would be better suited for display.

Most recently we have been working with Beaker, a new Barred Owl. He came from a wildlife rehabilitation center here in Ohio with a wing injury that deemed him un-releasable. Upon his arrival, he was a little nervous around all the new people and surroundings. This meant that our first step in training him for use on the glove would be spending as much time with him as we could and getting him comfortable with us being around. We spent weeks sitting in his mew with him, hoping he would soon get used to our presence.

When training an animal to do something new, a step by step training plan is written and a reward is given when the animal performs the way you want. Many animals are motivated by food. Some animals, however, are a little more complicated. Beaker did not seem to be very motivated and had no interest in taking food from us. We had to think of something that could serve as a reward when training Beaker to step up on the glove. We decided that the reward should be us leaving his mew. So, when Beaker performed as we wanted him to we would reward him by quickly leaving him alone and stepping out of his territory.

Beaker progressed quickly and became more and more comfortable with us getting close to him. We were soon able to get to the point where we could walk right up to him and the majority of the sessions have him step right up on the glove. He sits on the glove quite contentedly and seems to enjoy getting out and meeting the public. Soon he will be used as an education bird in many of the wildlife programs here at the museum.


Whenever you are training an animal there will be bumps in the road and the occasional setback but you must remain positive and never lose sight of the goal. All of your hard work and efforts will eventually be rewarded when the animal learns a new behavior.

Melissa Terwilliger
CMNH Wildife Specialist

Groundhog Fun-day 2013!

Eddie the Groundhog painted his first masterpiece of 2013 earlier this week!

Painting is a good enrichment activity for our animals and also produces unique animal artwork humans can enjoy. Eddie paints by walking through non-toxic paint and then onto a blank canvas. He is rewarded throughout the process with tasty banana chips, his favorite treat.

His artwork will be raffled at our Groundhog Fun-day event on Saturday, February 2nd. Eddie will make two appearances in the museum's auditorium as well. This Groundhog Day festival will also feature crafts, activities, and live animal programs showcasing Ohio hibernators.

More information (including the schedule) can be found at this link:

http://cmnh.org/site/ClassesandPrograms/SpecialEvents/Groundhog.aspx

I look forward to spending Groundhog Day this year with a real live groundhog and hope you will come join in the fun too!

Michelle Leighty
Perkins Wildlife Center Co-Manager

Christmas Trees for Critters!

Each year after the winter holidays the Wildlife Resources department takes donations of Christmas trees. The trees are wonderful natural enrichment items for the animals and they also dress up our exhibits a bit.

This year we received a record number of trees, so nearly every animal at the museum has had a chance to interact with one. The birds use them for perching, the opossums and snakes climb in the branches, and the bobcats and hares like to hide deep within the greenery.

Here are a few pictures I took earlier today of the raccoons enjoying one of the trees! I hid some of their vegetables for the day far inside of the evergreen so that they had to climb and forage in order to get their snack. Click the images to enlarge.

Thank you to everyone who brought us a tree and helped provide the animals with a festive and fun enrichment activity!

Michelle Leighty
Perkins Wildlife Center Co-Manager

Spaulding

All,

It is with sadness that I have report to you that Spaulding, our exhibit gray fox for the past ten years, was euthanized on Monday, November 26 upon the recommendation of Dr. Lewandowski, Chief Veterinarian at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.

Spaulding had shown symptoms of distress on Saturday and was taken to the zoo. Chest films showed lungs and pericardial sac full of fluid and his enlarged heart barely visible. Needless to say, Spaulding was in respiratory distress. Intensive treatment with oxygen tent therapy and large amounts of diuretics brought some relief and improvement by Sunday morning enough so that Spaulding ate some medicine laced meatballs. However his condition deteriorated on Sunday night and into Monday. He wouldn't eat and thus wouldn't take his medications. He again was in distress. Dr. Lewandowski felt that if we pursued herculean efforts, perhaps Spaulding would recover and linger a few more months. But the reality of the congestive heart failure is that he would be in intense pain, stressed by constant handling to administer medications, and he would have zero quality of life. Based on his assessment, I gave the go-ahead to euthanize Spaulding and permanently ease his suffering.

I want to thank Nikki McClellan, Melissa Terwilliger and Joe Dell'Anno for quick action on Saturday, identifying the problem and getting him to the zoo. He received world class care over the past three days.

Spaulding was a scrappy little fox with a great personality. Coming from a fur farm where he was kept under horrendous conditions, he was obtained by CMNH in 2002. In the move from the Raptor Center, where he was temporarily housed, to his exhibit, his leg broke. Upon treatment he was discovered to have metabolic bone disease, a condition that would lead to a lifetime of arthritis, dislocations and dental problems. This condition was a result of the abhorrent conditions of the Grand River Fur Farm where he was kept in darkness and fed a nutrient poor diet for the first year of his life.

And yet in spite of all of that he was a great exhibit animal, very responsive to training and enrichment and very interactive with visitors, often spending time in the very front of the enclosure, curious at passers-by. For ten years he was an outstanding ambassador for the Museum, educating and entertaining our visitors, giving them insights into this little known Ohio canid and only tree climbing member of the dog family. I will always have fond memories of him joyfully rubbing his back in the otters' towels, provided as enrichment, as well as lounging from the top of the artificial tree in his exhibit.

And in the end I am appreciative that he was able to spend his life with us, rather than be housed in a crowded wire cage suspended from the ceiling of a low dark pole barn, where his only use to his master was as a source of urine.

He will be missed.

Harvey