Wildlife Specialist Michelle Leighty introduces Huxley the red fox in this Creature Feature video:
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Feeding the Raccoons on their Stations
I took this video a couple of days ago while I was feeding the raccoons, Nobbum, Kelly, and Brad.
They are trained to stand on assigned stations (in this case large tree stumps) before getting their food. There are several reasons the wildlife specialists have trained the raccoons to exhibit this behavior. One is that it is an easy way to keep track of how much food the raccoons are eating and to make sure each is getting its fair share. Feeding them this way also prevents aggression and fighting that may result if the food was scattered around the exhibit. One of the raccoons is on a daily supplement and it is very easy to hand her the medicine in food on the station and ensure that one of the others is not getting it instead. Station training is also helpful for weighing the animals. The wildlife specialists can place a scale on top of the stump and then ask the raccoon to stand on it. Daily training exercises also help keep the animals mentally healthy.
Michelle Leighty, CMNH Wildlife Specialist
They are trained to stand on assigned stations (in this case large tree stumps) before getting their food. There are several reasons the wildlife specialists have trained the raccoons to exhibit this behavior. One is that it is an easy way to keep track of how much food the raccoons are eating and to make sure each is getting its fair share. Feeding them this way also prevents aggression and fighting that may result if the food was scattered around the exhibit. One of the raccoons is on a daily supplement and it is very easy to hand her the medicine in food on the station and ensure that one of the others is not getting it instead. Station training is also helpful for weighing the animals. The wildlife specialists can place a scale on top of the stump and then ask the raccoon to stand on it. Daily training exercises also help keep the animals mentally healthy.
Michelle Leighty, CMNH Wildlife Specialist
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Meet Horus!
Meet Horus, one of our most recent additions! Horus is a juvenile peregrine falcon, born in captivity in the spring of 2010. When an animal is born in captivity, many times it is not releasable into the wild. The animal can start to identify with humans rather than its own kind, which is called “imprinting.” Although they may still have some wild instincts, they lack basic survival skills, which they would normally learn from imitating their wild parents.
Horus is an imprint and needed a permanent place where he could stay and live a great life. In the late spring/early summer of 2010, Horus arrived at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Currently, Horus is being trained as an education bird. He will travel to schools, events and classes in and around the museum, in order to teach people the remarkable story of the peregrine falcon.
Before WWII, the estimated number of breeding pairs of peregrines was between 350 and 400 in the eastern United States. However, due to predators, human disturbance and pesticides their populations began to decline. After WWII, the peregrine population was thought to be extinct in the eastern US. Populations still remained in the west but were declining quickly. In the 1970s, DDT, an insecticide and large culprit in peregrine decline, was banned in the US. With the banning of this chemical, along with a Peregrine Recovery Plan established by the government, peregrine numbers were soon on the rise.
Today we have 39 peregrine nesting sites just in the state of Ohio alone!
Melissa Terwilliger, Wildlife Specialist
Horus is an imprint and needed a permanent place where he could stay and live a great life. In the late spring/early summer of 2010, Horus arrived at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Currently, Horus is being trained as an education bird. He will travel to schools, events and classes in and around the museum, in order to teach people the remarkable story of the peregrine falcon.
Before WWII, the estimated number of breeding pairs of peregrines was between 350 and 400 in the eastern United States. However, due to predators, human disturbance and pesticides their populations began to decline. After WWII, the peregrine population was thought to be extinct in the eastern US. Populations still remained in the west but were declining quickly. In the 1970s, DDT, an insecticide and large culprit in peregrine decline, was banned in the US. With the banning of this chemical, along with a Peregrine Recovery Plan established by the government, peregrine numbers were soon on the rise.
Today we have 39 peregrine nesting sites just in the state of Ohio alone!
Melissa Terwilliger, Wildlife Specialist
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