Happy Thanksgiving!

Our animals like to eat every day, so zookeepers work holidays, weekends, and all the days in between.  These photos were all taken on Thanksgiving 2012 at Brookgreen Gardens!

 

It's a turkey...vulture.

This wild turkey avoided being someone's dinner.

 

Mute Swan

Grey Fox

 

 Black Crowned Night Heron (adult)

 We can't have a good hair day every day! (juvenile Night Heron)

Zebra Longwing

 

Fox Squirrel

 

Red-tailed Hawk

More from Harvest Home Weekend

Here are some photos taken at Harvest Home Weekend by our wonderful volunteer photographer.  Enjoy!

Harvest Home Weekend

We had a wonderful fall festival this year!  Visitors to Brookgreen Gardens enjoyed hay rides, scarecrow building, animal programs, and music.  Here are some pictures from Harvest Home Weekend. 

 

 North American River Otters checking out their decorations

 Alligator program presented by Jerry Walls

 

Virginia Opossum out for a stroll

Build your own scarecrow!

The Lowcountry Veterinarian

I would like to introduce our veterinarian, Dr. Sharon Jansky.  She works at Ark Animal Hospital in Surfside, SC, but she also takes care of our animals when they are sick or injured.  Once a month, Dr. Jansky does a visual check on all of the animals.

Dr. Jansky (left) is drawing blood on one of our triplet otters during its second exam.  He was born in March 2011.

 Megan (zookeeper) telling Dr. Jansky about one of the white-tailed deer.

Many of our animals are potentially dangerous.  Our vet has to use skill and caution (and a good dose of bravery) to examine this bald eagle during it's annual exam.

Virginia opossum annual exam.

She is testing the pressure in this Great-horned owl's eye.  Many of our birds are injured wildlife from rehabilitation centers, and this bird has a history of eye problems. 

 

We are fortunate that our vet is a patient teacher.  The zookeepers are often curious about the medical treatments.  Here, she is teaching our new zookeeper Kevin how to do a blood draw on a raptor.

  

When Elliott the otter was found orphaned on property, he was extremely malnourished.  Dr. Jansky came in to treat him and is giving him one of his first bottles.

Most of our foxes are not this cooperative with their exams, but the zookeepers use positive training and conditioning to allow some animals to receive voluntary medical care.  This red fox had some irritation in one of his eyes.

We also use a large animal vet for our farm animals, but Dr. Jansky cares for all of the rest.  She has the ability to care for so many different species - from snakes to screech owls!

Fallen Live Tree

    I'm not sure about every tree, but this tree in the forest certainly made a big sound. Around 8:30 in the morning, zoo staff was alarmed by a loud crack followed by a bassy thud. The sound was loud enough for other departments in Brookgreen Gardens to hear it. There was no lightning around so we figured a whole tree toppled over.

      We hurried down to our barn area and saw that a huge live oak limb had fallen near our chicken exhibit, crushing part of the fencing but luckily missing the chicken coop and all of our chickens. Zoo staff gathered up the slightly ruffled chickens and relocated them to an off exhibit holding area until their enclosure can be fixed.

      Live oak trees can live to be over 200 years old. One of the oldest in America is located right here in South Carolina. It is about 100 miles south of Brookgreen Gardens near John Island. Its name is Angel Oak and it is estimated to be between 500 and 1500 years old! Live oaks are the heaviest native hardwood weighing a little over 50 pounds per cubic feet when dry.

     We are glad none of our animals got hurt and we quickly saw the silver lining to this huge limb coming down. We grabbed a couple cart fulls of limbs and delivered them to different animals throughout the zoo. Our spanish goats and red devon cows loved all the browse we gave them. We also aquired a lot of gnarly limbs so keep an eye out for them in our aviaries shortly!

     Zoo staff would like to thank everyone from horticulture, landscaping, security, and Mike from DNR for acting so swiftly to get the zoo up and running in no time.

Alligator Egg Collection

In May of 2011, we brought in two female alligators from St. Augustine Alligator Farm.  Both girls were about six feet long and weighed about 28 kg (62 pounds).  After their quarantine, the girls joined our 12 foot male alligator in the exhibit.  He has lived at the zoo since the 1970's, and we estimate his age to be 65-70 years.  He tolerated both females very well, but has paid special attention to one of them.  Look at the difference in their sizes!

In May of this year, we saw the female building a nest very close to the visitor area.  Alligator nests look like a pile of mud, grasses, and twigs that help regulate the temperature of the eggs.

Zookeepers checked the nest on May 18th.  There were no eggs, but the female continued to guard the nest.  Then she built a second nest on the other side of the exhibit!

On July 10, 2012 we decided to check both nests for eggs.  Zookeepers Kevin and Matt prevented the female from charging as our Curator Andrea and Intern Caleb, dug up the nest.  (Notice that I volunteered to be spotter from outside the exhibit!)  The nest in the above photo contained 48 eggs - 46 of which were intact!

We had already decided to remove the eggs from the exhibit.  If the babies hatched on exhibit, the tiny hatchlings could escape through the fencing, or even be eaten by the male.  Female alligators guard their babies, but a male alligator may have a hard time passing up a free meal.  Zookeepers had to mark each egg and be careful not to tip it.  Alligator eggs will not hatch if flipped over.

We moved on to the next (original) nest, and sent our intern to dig it up.  Matt and Kevin had to guard Caleb because the male alligator was not happy with the zookeepers.

We had ourselves a little National Geographic moment, but everyone did a great job, and the procedure went very well.

Each egg was labeled, weighed, and placed in an incubator.  We cannot tell whether the eggs are fertile, but may be able to tell in a week or so.  If fertile, the eggs should hatch within the month!

 

More Baby Goats!

Our Spanish Goat program has been very successful.  We are having a hard time naming our goats...because we had 10 babies born this week!  We manage two herds of goats, and each herd has one breeding male.  Our herds are managed by the American Livestock Breed Conservancy.  Purebred Spanish Goats are on ALBC's conservation watch list, so we are happy to have lots of babies this year.

Our intern Caleb holds Tarjeta.  Her mother is Letty.

Pinta.  Her mother is Nina.

Cabrita's baby girl was born yesterday afternoon.

Tarjeta and Mia's baby.

All of our mothers and babies are on exhibit (as of today), so come and visit them!  They may not always be visible because of the natural trees and bushes of the exhibit, but they are very curious, and will explore more as they get a bit older.  Please respect their privacy, and do not leave the paved visitor path.  We hope to see you soon!