3:00 snapshot #699

Pet place is where the animals used for education programs are kept. It's a strange building, originally designed to be a small concessions kiosk. The hood and backsplash plate for the grill are still in there, but all the appliances are gone. It's kind of weirdly in the middle of all the Children's Zoo exhibits, but it's not designed to be an exhibit itself. If you press against the windows you can see chinchillas, or Madagascar cockroaches, or maybe a snake or a lizard. A big male cockatoo named Crystal will interact with you through the window, putting his crest up and croaking "Hi Crystal!"

For Steph: A Prairie Dog

Steph requested a pic of a prairie dog. Well, she requested a pic of a prairie dog fighting a squirrel, and I didn't come across that happening and it would be unethical to engineer it. In fact, this is the only glimpse I've had of any of the prairie dogs in the past couple months. They stay on exhibit during the winter, but are less active.

Prairie dogs are highly social ground squirrels found in the plains of North America. Historically they occurred in huge numbers, and were a keystone species for the plains ecosystem. They had the misfortune of occupying land that humans found to be useful for grazing livestock, and so were assigned the status of pest in their native habitat. Prairie dogs are still shot on sight in many places, though two of five species are listed as Endangered. The wholesale destruction of prairie dog towns led to the near extinction of the black-footed ferret.

Our prairie dogs are black-tailed prairie dogs Cynomys ludovicianus the species which still occurs in the largest numbers. This exhibit holds ten animals (I think) at the moment. The design of the exhibit (actually an old seal pool filled with soil) allows the guests to see the animals very closely. If you make the right kind of kissy noise at them, the prairie dogs will alarm bark and raise their forepaws in an adorable manner. They have a complex array of communication behaviors and probably think that our barking at them is pretty stupid. The prairie dog exhibit is one of the most popular animal exhibits in Children's Zoo.

Thanks for your donation, Steph! I'll be sending the stickers later next week.

If you have a request for a zoo animal you would like me to photograph, simply click the button and donate $5.00 to the New England Chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers! Thanks!

3:00 snapshot #700

The boss' office in the Tropical Forest.

In Other News, we are moving. Like really moving. How do I know? In about a half hour we'll be unplugging the router from this apartment, bringing it to the Dedham House, and waiting for the installers to come and set up internet over there. No more internet in Brookline, which diminishes the appeal of this place considerably. We set up the new bed last night, which along with internet, was the last thing holding us back from really feeling like we lived there.

Of course, we also need to move the video game system over, and the many pieces of rock band equipment. Television isn't vital to us, but we need them to play video games and watch DVDs (computers will work for these purposes in a pinch, I understand).

Enough snow melted yesterday that we had a 15 by 15 foot square of bare ground to stand in, under the big pine trees. That alone made me so happy--here we bought this house for the giant yard, and for the first month and a half or so we've been unable to really enjoy it. (In fact, it's been a real negative, as we've shoveled twice as much snow as usual just trying to keep a dog run open--not that I'm complaining.) I don't even really want to do anything with it right away, just sit around with space all around me. And I keep saying I'm going to do this 100 species in my yard project (2 a week, and I'm 7 weeks behind) but I haven't settled into the place really. Now it begins. I'm terrified and excited!

Boston British soldiers.

Alexis and I have an ongoing challenge for ourselves to find the most urban British soldier lichens in Boston. ("Closest to Boston" was how we were phrasing it.) British soldiers (Cladonia cristatella) are charismatic lichens with bright red spore-bearing bodies. Lichens in general are not tolerant of air pollution, and so are more rare in urban and industrial places. Some lichen species are more tolerant than others, and the presence of various species and how well they are thriving can be excellent indicators of air quality.

We found some British soldiers near our place in Brookline, and that stands as the closest to the heart of the city so far. The closeness of the Emerald necklace might help air quality in that neighborhood. The lichen community (with some moss and other organisms) pictured above is from the roof of one of the admissions booths at Franklin Park Zoo. This is the first of this species we've found actually in the City of Boston, though the Brookline patch was actually closer to the middle of the City. Using City Hall Plaza as a landmark, the Brookline lichens were 3.1 miles away while the zoo lichens are 4.6 miles out.

Check out this Oregon Public Television clip about lichens, featuring lj friend omphalina!

p.s. First LJ post from the Dedham House!