Peregrine Falcon Banding

Last week, the three peregrine falcon chicks on the Terminal Tower were banded by the Ohio Division of Wildlife. The small metal band around each bird's leg assigns it a unique letter and number combination, and with this identification tool various aspects of the individual's life can be tracked and studied, including territoriality, migration, longevity, reproduction, and so on.

The young birds were also physically examined and blood samples were collected for a DNA database. And they received their names: Arrow (female), Dart (female), and Spike (male).

I was lucky enough to attend the banding ceremony and take some photographs (click images to enlarge).




Before the Ohio Division of Wildlife biologists opened the window to access the nest on the building ledge, a "drawbridge" was raised which prevented the chicks from backing away and falling off the edge to the pavement twelve floors below. The drawbridge can be seen in the next photo, which also pictures the chicks being returned to the nest.


And finally, the drawbridge was lowered and SW (a.k.a. "Mom") was reunited with her freshly banded young.



Michelle Leighty
CMNH wildlife specialist

Phone Book for a Fox

An extremely important part of the job of the CMNH wildlife specialists is to provide the animals living in the Perkins Wildlife Center with environmental and behavioral enrichment. Enrichment is any stimulus that captures an animal's interest and encourages healthy mental and physical activity. Enrichment comes in many forms, including (but certainly not limited to) scents, toys, novel items, training programs, varied feeding schedules, social interaction with humans and other animals, sounds, rearrangement of living spaces, and puzzles.

The wildlife staff strives to deliver engaging and effective enrichment to the animals on a daily basis. On a typical day, for instance, I may feed the otters their fish frozen inside of large ice blocks, give the raccoons food that has been hidden inside of boxes they must manipulate and open, train the bobcats to leap from platform to platfrom in their exhibit, play recordings of songbird vocalizations for the peregrine falcons, give an opossum-scented blanket to a fox, place a mirror inside of the crow enclosure, and fill a snake's tank with a novel substrate such as sand or shredded paper. The possibilities are numerous and the staff enjoys developing creative stimuli for our wildlife collection.

The primary goals of enrichment are to keep the animals mentally stimulated, encourage natural behaviors, increase physical activity, prevent neural disorders, and improve the overall quality of life of each individual.

Earlier today I took a short video of an example of enrichment for this blog. I presented Huxley the red fox with a phone book with some of his diet hidden inside. My goal was to encourage him to use his excellent sense of smell to detect the food, and also to encourage natural species-specific behaviors for a fox such as digging and tearing. Check out the video to see whether or not I was successful!








Michelle Leighty, CMNH Wildlife Specialist

2010 Terminal Tower Peregrine Falcons

Many peregrine falcons make their homes in large cities, nesting on man-made structures such as skyscrapers, bridges, and power plants. These constructions are comparable to the cliff ledges and mountains where non-urban peregrines build their shallow nests, or scrapes.

One of CMNH's many educational projects is the FalconCam, which provides photographic coverage of the peregrine falcon scrape on the Terminal Tower in downtown Cleveland.

At the time of this blog post, the pair at this nest site consists of a female known as SW and a male named Ranger. This is SW's ninth year at the Terminal Tower and Ranger's first!

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of visiting the site on a trip to install new cameras for the FalconCam. With my own camera I was able to snap some photos of the action!

When we arrived Ranger was sitting in the nest box (click photos to enlarge):




Wildlife Resources director Harvey Webster attached the new cameras to the building while SW kept a close watch:



Later SW perched near the scrape and allowed me to photograph her:



The falcon activity at the nest can be monitored online 24 hours per day on the FalconCam website, found here:

http://www.falconcam-cmnh.org

Springtime is a particularly exciting time to check in on the falcons, as often there are eggs to observe and then newly hatched chicks to enjoy!

Michelle Leighty, CMNH Wildlife Specialist

Second Annual Groundhog Sun-Day

Well it’s been three weeks since our second annual Groundhog Day Celebration and Eddie, our groundhog, is getting back to normal.

It was a long process getting our little hoggy ready for his big stage appearance. In early December the wildlife staff began preparing Eddie for his big day. Since I have the pleasure of being Eddie’s primary keeper I was glad for the opportunity to spend some extra time with him.

Twice a day for six weeks we worked on a variety of behaviors: target, station, scale, and kennel. These are the behaviors that Eddie would be demonstrating to the crowd in Murch Auditorium on Groundhog Sunday. The first three weeks of training we worked exclusively in the Animal Room, where Eddie resides. It was during these sessions that Eddie had free run of the Animal Room. He really seemed to enjoy exploring every nook and cranny and on more than one occasion his poor whiskers were so weighed down with the accumulation of cobwebs that he looked like a well-used mop.

For the following three weeks, fellow wildlife specialist Michelle and I took Eddie to the Auditorium to desensitize him to the stage and the acoustics of the room. Eddie, being a true showman at heart, did exceptionally well.

Attendance at the museum during our Groundhog celebration was just shy of 1000 visitors. There were plenty of activities for young and old alike: tunneling like a groundhog through a makeshift burrow, face painting, crafts and activities, story time, and live animal programs highlighting Ohio hibernators. But the main attraction was Eddie. During Eddie’s Auditorium debut, visitors were entertained as well as educated as to the wondrous ways of one of Ohio’s true hibernators. After the show visitors were invited on stage to get an up-close encounter with Eddie via a plexi-glass corral constructed just for this purpose.

It was a great day and I eagerly await next year’s Celebration. Until then we will let Eddie just sleep the rest of the winter away. Oh to be a Groundhog…

Danette Rushboldt
Wildlife Specialist

Otter Update!

Everything is going swimmingly in the river otter exhibit in the Perkins Wildlife Center!

The naming contest for the new male otter came to a dramatic close, with the name "Linus" edging out "Harry P. Otter" for the win. Thank you to everyone who voted!

Lucy and Linus have been introduced and get along famously. They can be seen on display together every day, and pass their time playfully wrestling on land and splashing in their pool. During periods of relaxation they have been spotted nuzzling each other.

Linus has recently been showing off a new behavior. With the abundant snowfall in Cleveland, he has been spending a great deal of time sliding around the slippery exhibit on his back. Perhaps this is the first winter he has experienced snow; he is from Louisiana after all. Fortunately, he seems to otterly enjoy it, and visitors and staff alike are delighting in watching him bound and dive through the snow piles.


Michelle Leighty, CMNH Wildlife Specialist

Name That Otter!

He is small, dark, and handsome. And at the moment, nameless.

His pastimes include rolling in mulch, swimming to the bottom of his pool, and eating raw fish. Visitors to the Perkins Wildlife Center can observe him interacting with enrichment items, relaxing in the pond, and exploring the trees and logs and mud of his exhibit.

“He” is the museum’s new adult male North American river otter, who is adapting quite nicely to his new home, which he shares with the playful female otter, Lucy.

Staff members have been temporarily calling the little guy “Lucky,” but we have run into a few obstacles with this moniker. For one, “Lucky” and “Lucy” differ in spelling by merely a single letter, so at a quick glance it is very easy to confuse the two names. For instance, on the labels on their food containers. And on their medical files. And training paperwork. And enrichment records. And so on. Additionally, the names are fairly similar when spoken aloud, which could lead to confusion for the animals when we train them together on exhibit. As a solution, we have decided that Lucky needs an official name and that the public should have some input, and thus, a naming contest has been born!

We compiled a list of name suggestions and then held a top secret meeting to narrow down the choices, which will appear in a poll on the museum’s website. It was a difficult job eliminating many great submissions, and I am sorry to report that my own entry of “Officer Torpedo” did not make the cut. We selected four notable options, so keep checking the website and cast your vote!

In the meantime, the soon-to-be-officially-named male otter is having a fine time familiarizing himself with his new abode and the wildlife staff. We are also in the process of introducing him to Lucy, which is going well, and we hope the pair will be romping on exhibit together in the very near future. Be sure to visit Perkins to see him, and also be sure to vote for his name!

Michelle Leighty, CMNH Wildlife Specialist

"Ribbit"

Whoa, the Vernal Pool is erupting with green frogs! You can find it at the Ralph Perkins II Wildlife Center & Woods Garden, the 2.2-acre outdoor gallery adjoining the Museum via a glass-enclosed exhibit space off of Kirtland Hall. More specifically, the Vernal Pool is next to the Eastern Screech-Owl Exhibit just across from the Song Bird Aviary. This pool teems with amphibian, invertebrate, and plant life both above and below the surface year-round, but is most visible RIGHT NOW. Vernal pools are temporary woodland and meadow pools that naturally hold snowmelt and rain runoff in the spring and early summer.

Some vernal pools, such as the pools at Mentor Marsh, are actively managed to enhance species success. Plants that may be found in vernal pools are: keeled bur-reed, yellow water lily, and pickerel weed. Many species of salamanders, frogs, and toads also use these pools for breeding. Aquatic insects, such as some dragonfly and damselfly species, find vernal pools a perfect habitat. The Museum’s Stewardship Program has restored vernal pools at the Grand River Terraces and Mentor Marsh. In visiting the Perkins’ Vernal Pool exhibit this summer you will undoubtedly get a close-up encounter with green frogs and possibly hear their call. They sound like a loose banjo string. Look for adults, tadpoles and 'froglets' - individuals in the transitional state between tadpole and adult.

Can you find the green frog hidden in the photo?!?

Marty Calabrese, CMNH Wildlife Specialist