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!