urbpan: (Default)


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!"
urbpan: (Default)


River cooter Pseudemys concinna

These turtles closely resemble the small pond turtles like sliders and painted turtles, but grow to be much larger. This individual, in the river habitat exhibit in Bird's World, has a shell length of nearly a foot. A zookeeper explained that this turtle was more at ease since another turtle that used to harass her had been removed from the exhibit. River cooters turn up in the pet trade, but quickly outgrow the set-ups that most pet owners provide for them.


The same exhibit houses an African white-backed duck.
urbpan: (Default)


One of my coworkers hosted an owling expedition tonight, after hours on the zoo grounds. We didn't find any owls, but it was fun anyway.

Read more... )
urbpan: (Repo Man)

The service yard as seen through a screen door.
urbpan: (potto)

The hippo and vulture exhibit in the tropical forest building, with visiting ibis.
urbpan: (Suit)


A surprisingly woodsy view out my office window.
urbpan: (potto)
When I worked at Drumlin, I posted pictures from work all the time. With all the restrictions on what I can publish regarding my work at the zoo, I haven't posted hardly any.

This past Monday was rainy and very warm--it reached 60 degrees. Here are some pictures from Monday:


I keep finding hidden groves of witch hazel in unused parts of the zoo. Read more... )
urbpan: (potto)


Pygmy Hippopotamus Hexaprotodon liberiensis

The pygmy hippopotamus is about a fifth of the mass of its huge cousin, the Nile hippo. A pygmy hippo is about the size of a small pig, on the average about 500 pounds. Pygmy hippos spend far less time in the water compared to Nile hippos, instead deftly and quietly moving through dense rainforests, feeding on fallen fruit and other vegetation. Also unlike Niles, pygmy hippos are solitary, coming together only to mate. They leave messages for one another by defecating and rapidly wagging their tails to disperse the fecal matter. Pygmy hippos are found in a relatively small range of jungle habitat in western Africa, the largest amount concentrated in Liberia. They are preyed upon by leopards and humans.

This is Cleopatra, a fifteen year old pygmy hippo who comes from the Toronto zoo. She is on loan to Zoo New England, and is on exhibit in the Tropical Forest building.

pics from Toronto )

On this day in 365 Urban Species: Greenhouse slug.
urbpan: (potto)



Ostrich and Ailanthus.


On this day in 365 Urban Species: Camel cricket, an orthopteran that seems to provoke an arachnophobic response.
urbpan: (potto)


Read more... )

On this day in 365 Urban Species: Matrimony vine
urbpan: (south african starling)


On this day in 365 Urban Species: Boston ivy.

Nap time

Sep. 20th, 2007 08:24 pm
urbpan: (fox eyes)


On this day in 365 Urban Species: Oak apple gall wasp.
urbpan: (pigeon foot)


On this day in 365 Urban Species: Boletus bicolor
urbpan: (fox eyes)

Masai Giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi

Giraffes are among the most bizarre of all mammals and the most familiar of all zoo animals. They are the tallest mammals (male Masai giraffes can be 18 feet tall) with extremely long legs and grotesquely long necks, adaptations for feeding at treetops. Their long black tongues grasp twigs, stripping acacia leaves from their thorny branches. Whole branches can be torn off and the giraffe's powerful molars can grind the acacia thorns up. Like most large mammals, giraffes are generally diminishing in population, though they suffer less from competition with domestic animals than some other African wildlife. This may be because domestic livestock forages on much lower growing plants.

This individual is Jana, "the most genetically valuable female Masai giraffe in North America." Currently, the giraffe barn is being renovated, and it is always possible for the Jana and her mate Beau to be on exhibit. When they are out, they are with the Grevy's Zebras, at Franklin Park Zoo.

On this day in 365 urban species: Great golden digger wasp. This post has a number of anonymous comments from people (apparently alarmed to find a big orange wasp in their yard) who found their way there via Google searches.
urbpan: (fox eyes)


Western Lowland Gorilla Gorilla gorilla gorilla

Between 6 and 8 million years there lived an animal that whose descendants would include both gorillas and humans. Gorillas are the largest existing primates, with big males like Kitombe weighing up to 400 pounds. Gorillas eat plant material and, occasionally, insects. They are the least arboreal of the great apes, spending most of their time foraging on the forest floor.

Kitombe is one of two three males at Franklin Park Zoo; he was born in 1986 at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. He is the father of Kira Kimani, who was born earlier this year. The whole group has their own website with information about each individual.

On this day in 365 Urban Species: Evening primrose.
urbpan: (Deer?)


Grevy's zebra Equus grevyi

Endangered by hunting and competition with domestic livestock, Grevy's zebra are found only in small arid zones in Ethiopia and Kenya. Unlike other zebra, Grevy's guard territories with water sources rather than mates. They are the largest of the wild equids, with stallions reaching nearly 1000 pounds.

Franklin Park Zoo has several Grevy's zebras housed along with Wildebeests and other African plains animals in the Serengeti Crossing exhibit.



On this day in 365 Urban Species: Spotted sandpiper. We've been seeing a lot of these along the Muddy River lately.
urbpan: (marmot)

Prairie dog Cynomys sp.

Prairie dogs, like many rodents, were long considered to be useless pests, destroying forage and making western ranch land dangerous for livestock. More modern ecological thinking is that they are important part of the North American grassland ecosystem, turning and fertilizing the soil with their extensive burrows. Conflicts over whether prairie dogs should be controlled (with poison and hunting) or protected are current. Supporters of protection point to the black-footed ferret, one of the continent's most endangered mammals, which depends on healthy prairie dog colonies for its survival.

A dozen prairie dogs live on exhibit in the Children's Zoo at Franklin Park Zoo.

(In my icon is another large burrowing North American rodent, the Northeastern marmot or woodchuck--or groundhog, or whistle pig.)

On this day in 365 Urban Species: Mugwort and burdock, a weedy field day for the herbal medicine enthusiasts!

Profile

urbpan: (Default)
urbpan

May 2017

S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
1415 1617181920
21222324252627
28293031   

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated May. 29th, 2025 08:51 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios