Name Our New Barn Owl!

The CMNH Wildlife Resources department has a new male barn owl and you can help it name him! Follow this link to watch a video and cast your vote:

http://cmnh.org/site/AtTheMuseum/Wildlife/BarnOwl.aspx





He was hatched in captivity in April of this year and CMNH acquired him when he was just a couple of months old. The wildlife staff has been having a great time getting to know him this summer through his responses to enrichment and by glove training him for use in educational programs and live animal shows. He is not on display in one of the Perkins Wildlife Center exhibits, but he will frequently serve as an ambassador for his species in programs, classes, and outreach events. So be sure to keep an eye out for him and also help us choose his name!

Michelle Leighty, CMNH Wildlife Specialist

Birds, Beasts, Brats & Beer photos

Here are some photos from last night's event, taken by CMNH staff photographer Cory Molner (click images to enlarge).

bobcat training demo by Wildlife Specialists Nikki McClellan and Joe Dell'Anno:

CMNH Executive Director Dr. Evalyn Gates:

Wildlife Resources volunteer Peter Pesch with Tamarack the Great Horned Owl:

CMNH educator Nathan Taxel with Lightning the Red-tailed Boa:

Wildlife Specialist Michelle Leighty with male barn owl:

Wildlife Resources volunteer Claudia Bennett with iguana:

Birds, Beasts, Brats & Beer!

Tonight from 6 - 8:30 p.m. is an annual event developed by the Nature League which showcases the Ralph Perkins II Wildlife Center & Woods Garden and the creatures that inhabit it. Birds, Beasts, Brats & Beer is a casual evening with food, drinks, and entertainment in the form of live animal feeding, training, and enrichment demonstrations by the Wildlife Resources staff. Plan on seeing bobcat, fox, raccoon, and river otter demos as well as behind-the-scenes tours of the Raptor Center. Staff and trained volunteers will also be circulating with various birds of prey on gloves to invite intimate viewing opportunities. More information can be found here:

http://www.cmnh.org/product/SE075/BirdsBeastsBratsBeer.aspx


Come join in the fun!


Michelle Leighty, CMNH wildlife specialist

Spaulding's Stinky Towel

The gray fox Spaulding enjoyed rubbing all over the scented towel he received for enrichment this afternoon. Check out the video and watch him go!




Michelle Leighty, CMNH wildlife specialist

Wildlife Brown Bag!

The Wildlife Resources department will be presenting a brown bag seminar in Classroom B on Wednesday. All CMNH staff, volunteers, interns, and so on are encouraged to attend!

Michelle Leighty, CMNH wildlife specialist

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