Snow Day

Brookgreen Gardens had some unusual weather this week.  The roads and paths are very icy, and we even saw some snow this morning!  Unfortunately, we were closed to visitors yesterday and today, but things will warm up tomorrow.

When we have severe weather of any kind, the zookeepers have a decision to make.  Most of our animals like to eat every day!  We have to balance the safety of our staff with the needs of our animals.  For this winter weather, the zookeepers that lived closest to Brookgreen came in to get everything done.  It gives us an appreciation for our northern coworkers!

 

 Turkey vultures

Fortunately, we have only South Carolina native animals in our collection.  It does get cold here, and they are well adapted for the weather with a little help from us.  Other zoos have to worry about keeping African and tropical species happy in the winter!

The animal sculptures had a nice layer of ice on them.

 

The zoo birds just tolerate the weather, but the otters have a great time playing in the snow and ice.

In January and February, Brookgreen is a fantastic place for birdwatching.  For those of you that get a little overexcited when you see a cedar waxwing, I included my bird list from today:

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Yellow-rumped Warbler

American Robin - saw over 150 yesterday

Red-winged Blackbirds - about 50

Cedar Waxwing

Dark-eyed Junco

Blue Jay

Cardinal

American Crow

Mourning Dove

Great Egret

Anhinga

Lots of Eastern Bluebirds and Carolina Chickadees around, but not today!

FrogWatch USA

There have probably been many times when you’ve been sitting on your back porch at night, listening to all of the sounds emanating from the wild.  There’s a good chance you don’t know what a lot of those noises are. Many of them are from a variety of nocturnal animals, including different species of birds, mammals, and insects. In addition to those animals, many frogs and toads are vocal during the night hours.

Now is a great opportunity to learn the calls of these amphibians and become a citizen scientist with the Brookgreen Gardens chapter of FrogWatch USA. Citizen science is a collaboration between scientists and volunteers to expand the collection of scientific data that might not otherwise be possible. The data collected by volunteers is used to help develop practical conservation methods for frogs and toads. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), about 1/3 of amphibian species are threatened with extinction, so the more data we can collect, the better!

FrogWatch USA gives you an opportunity to learn the calls of the many species of frogs and toads of South Carolina, and an opportunity to spend more time outside learning about the natural world with your friends and family. After you complete training, you may register a wetland site of your choosing, and then you go out at night for a monitoring session which only takes 5 minutes. You can do a monitoring session as frequently as you like.

Our first training session of the season is on February 27, 2014 at the Welcome Center's Frye Classroom.  The session begins at 10:30 am and lasts about 1.5 hours.  Please RSVP to Terry Belanger by calling (843) 235-6016.

Additional Training Options (please RSVP as above):
April 5th at 10:30 am in the Lowcountry Center Auditorium
May 8th at 12:00 pm in the Lowcountry Center Auditorium

For more information about FrogWatch USA (and amphibian conservation), you can visit www.aza.org/frogwatch.

Holiday Pictures

Nights of a Thousand Candles and our New Year's Eve event were beautiful this year.

Here are some pictures of the gardens.

Talented Foxes

South Carolina does not get much snow, but we are certainly experiencing some cold weather this week.  

I wanted to share this wonderful article about our talented red foxes.  Robert Krulwich of NPR wrote a blog entitled 'You're Invisible but I'll Eat You Anyway.  Secrets of Snow-Diving Foxes' 

"Listening With A Compass"

"First, a fox hears something. She gets really quiet and tilts her ears. (You see this on the video — her head shifts, she concentrates.) She waits. There's another sound."

 

 "Think about this ... an ordinary fox can stalk a mole, mouse, vole or shrew from a distance of 25 feet, which means its food is making a barely audible rustling sound, hiding almost two car lengths away. And yet our fox hurls itself into the air — in an arc determined by the fox, the speed and trajectory of the scurrying mouse, any breezes, the thickness of the ground cover, the depth of the snow — and somehow (how? how?), it can land straight on top of the mouse, pinning it with its forepaws or grabbing the mouse's head with its teeth."

Blog:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2014/01/03/259136596/youre-invisible-but-ill-eat-you-anyway-secrets-of-snow-diving-foxes
 

YouTube video of fox diving:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2SoGHFM18I
 

 

Please visit our own red foxes at the Lowcountry Zoo.  They have not had the opportunity to learn snow-diving, but we like them anyway!

Into the Wild Lectures

The zoo staff is proud to announce our lecture series "Into the Wild" for 2014.  The lectures are open to the public and are free with garden admission.  Each lecture is held at the Lowcountry Center Auditorium.  Just enter the ticketing area of the Lowcountry Center, and you will see the auditorium entrance on your right.

The lectures are from 12:00 PM to 12:45 PM, so feel free to bring your lunch.  It is a carpeted area, so please be careful with drinks and young children.

February 25 - Wild Babies

April 22 - Butterfly Conservation

June 24 - Enrichment & Training

July 22 - Venomous Snakes

August 26 - Meet the Zookeepers

October 28 - Zoonotic Diseases

 You've found a wild baby animal.  Now what?  Is the mother coming back?
In our first lecture, Wild Babies, we will discuss some ways that you can help wild babies.

We will also show behind-the-scenes pictures of our baby zoo animals and discuss their care.