Animal Artists

When you join us for Nights of a Thousand Candles this year, make sure to visit the two indoor galleries.  The beautiful galleries are decorated by our Horticulture and Sculpture departments, but the zoo animals prepared a special decoration as well.

When we have enough time, the zookeepers allow some of the animals to create art by walking through the paint onto canvas or watercolor paper.  We use the same non-toxic paint that is used for finger painting with small children. The paint easily washes off with water.  

Our otter cleanup is super easy - we just let them go for a swim!

 Our baby alligators made some interesting abstract art.

The red/blue painting is otters, the red/green is opossum, the red is striped skunk, and the black is a ratsnake.  Our greenhouse supervisor made lovely frames and arranged the paintings in the gallery.

If you would like to own one of our animal paintings, we have some available for purchase in the Keepsakes gift shop.  Each painting is unique and original, so there is a limited supply!

Nights of a Thousand Candles

Our staff has worked very hard to transform Brookgreen Gardens into a spectacular holiday display. 

Most of our light displays are created or supervised by the Horticulture department, but all of our staff try to help out in some way.  Many departments prepare and test strands of lights.  Some people clean out our reusable luminaries or help decorate garden trees.  The zoo was responsible for decorating the garden gates.

Each light bulb is attached to the gate using a cable tie.

The zoo also decorated some of our new lighted animals.

Each light bulb was tied to a frame, and the cable ties were trimmed off.  

I named this one porcurabbit - watch out, he bites!

Daphne, our butterfly keeper, did an amazing job on the large crane.

Horticulture arranged the animals in the Children's Garden, and they look amazing!  

This fox was decorated by our butterfly admissions staff.

Our final three Nights of a Thousand Candles are December 19, 20, and 21st.  Tickets can be purchased at the gate or online at  https://www.tickets.brookgreen.org/public/auto_choose_ga.asp?area=10

Please join us as we celebrate the holiday season.

Baby Goat Video

Our baby Spanish Goats at Brookgreen Gardens are having a great time in their exhibit.  

Please enjoy the video at the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRPBC4NRYNs

Baby Alligator Update

Our five baby alligators are doing very well.  We started exercising them in a swimming tank this week, and these pictures are from their first experience.  It took them a while to realize they could put their feet down!

To visit the baby alligators, begin at the Lowcountry Center.  As you exit, turn left on the sidewalk (away from the river).  This leads down Magnolia Allee and straight to the Tarbox House.  The building is not accessible to the public, but take a look in the windows of the front porch!

Today I installed a swim tank in the viewing window.  You may only see three alligators.  Their two siblings are a little more picky with their food, and are in a tank right beside them.

Pictures from Harvest Home Weekend

We had a really great time at our Harvest Home Weekend!

 

Wildlife Rescue

Because Brookgreen Gardens provides homes for non-releasable animals, we often get confused with a rehabilitation center.  Rehab centers take in orphaned or injured animals and attempt to give them enough care to return them to the wild.  When we have space for a new animal, we work with our local rehab centers to provide homes for the animals that cannot be released.

One of my zookeepers was able to rescue a baby squirrel yesterday.  It was desperately treading water in our Cypress Aviary.  Heather was finally able to convince the baby to grab onto a tree branch.  She took the squirrel over to the bank, where the mother squirrel was waiting.  The mother pried the baby off the tree limb, and carried him or her back home.

Sometimes animals need a little help.  They may get tangled in a fence, or need help crossing a busy road.  But many times, if we scoop up baby animals and take them home, we do not realize that the mother is just around the corner.  She possibly got frightened away by you!  When I worked at the Birmingham Zoo, we received a confiscated baby beaver from someone that scooped it into their canoe.

Some animals, like deer and rabbits, leave their babies alone during the day.  They leave to find food and to draw predators away from the nest.  They fully expect to come back and find their babies waiting at the end of the day.

This is one of the best (and funniest) bird charts that I have ever found.

You can make a nest out of almost anything, as long as it has drainage holes in the bottom.  The nest can be hung with rope or cable ties if wire is not available.  For locals, check out the related links on the right side of this blog.  Ark Animal Hospital and The Center for Birds of Prey are great resources.

Baby Spanish Goats

Say hello to the newest members of our Brookgreen family!  We've had another good year for goat babies.  Nine mother goats delivered eleven baby goats.  We have nine boys and two girls.

 

A big thank you to Anne Malarich for the photos!

Harvest Home Weekend

Please join us for our fall festival, Harvest Home Weekend!  

The event is Saturday October 12th and Sunday October 13th, and it is free with garden admission. 

 Music at the Zoo and Welcome Center

Scarecrow Building and Crafts to make and take home

Lots of great photo opportunities, including a eight-foot tall cornucopia

We will also have hayrides, food, and spooky boat rides available for purchase

 Pick your pumpkin!

Brookgreen Gardens is open from 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM.  We hope to see you there!

Alligator Hatchlings!

We are excited to announce the birth of four alligator hatchlings at our Lowcountry Zoo.

If you remember, our female alligator laid 48 eggs in July of 2012.  The eggs were removed and incubated, but none were fertile.  Zookeepers watched her nest building this year, and we removed 49 eggs on August 1, 2013.

 She was not super happy with us!  We cannot allow the eggs to hatch on exhibit because the male may eat them, and they could escape through the fencing.  For the same reason, we can't release the hatchlings back to the exhibit.

 

The eggs were very carefully removed and labeled by our keeper Caleb and summer intern Dacota.  We can't allow the eggs to turn, or the egg will never develop.

Back at the office, the 49 eggs were candled.  The wide opaque band in the center means that the egg could be fertile.  We kept and incubated 23 fertile eggs at 30.5 degrees Celsius.

We also weighed each egg.  Most zoos use grams and kilograms instead of ounces and pounds.

On September 14th, we noticed chirping, and one of the eggs had a gator nose sticking out.

When they did not hatch on their own, our new zookeeper Heather helped two chirping alligators out of their shells.

The next day we assisted with another baby gator, and we hatched our fourth on the 18th.

We will be choosing one or two alligators to keep and use as animal ambassadors in our programs.  They will be an occasional guest at the Meet the Animals program.  The program and our two zoo tours are held daily, and they are free with garden admission.  We have arranged for another zoo to take any additional hatchlings.

Update on New Otters

We have been working very hard to introduce our two orphaned otters to their new social groups.  Smell is very important to North American River Otters.  In the wild, otters visit latrine areas and smell what is going on with other otter groups.  The first step in introducing two otters is often switching bedding and toys between the two otters.  The next step is visiting hours!  Zookeepers place the otters where they can see each other, but not interact too closely.  When they are ready, we place them in two adjacent areas that are seperated by small mesh.  This step often takes the longest, and sometimes the otters can only handle 15 minutes with their new acquaintance.  Next, we open the door for a "full introduction".

I'm pleased to announce that our new male has made good friends with our three young males.  They are currently on our outdoor tidal exhibit, and we hope to try him in River Basin Retreat next week.  If you see a group of four otters, he is the smallest!

Unrelated female otters are more difficult to introduce.  They take a lot more time, and sometimes the females never make friends.  Our new young female was unusually easy to mix with our older female, the mother of our otter triplets in 2011.  We think that she feels a bit motherly toward the young otter.  Now, we just need to introduce our older male to the two females!   If you see one otter in an exhibit, it is our older male.  We work on his introduction to the females at night, and we hope to have the three of them on exhibit very soon.

Otter Pile!  These pictures are from our last group of four otters

- our oldest female and her three triplets.