Thursday, January 23, 2014

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.

























Monday, January 6, 2014

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:
YouTube video of fox diving:
 

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.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

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!

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

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.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

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.