Hello again,
Today I took my next door neighbor/friend/budding herpetologist Alex out to Red Wolf Sanctuary with me. He just finished a week of zoo camp, but was still ready to go see some more animals and I was happy to oblige. I was glad I brought along some extra help - it would have been very tricky to feed three fawns on my own. Wallace the boy fawn is a little piggie and can be a little bit of a bully since he is so much bigger than the girls. Dixie the littlest girl will only drink out of one specific bottle, and Joey has a short attention span and tends to get distracted by the other fawns' bottles even though she has her own. Needless to say, Alex was a big help with managing these hooligans. The good news is that they are starting to eat solids, including grass and grains. Hopefully we will be able to start weaning them off of their bottles...they went through a grand total of eight bottles this morning, and that was just breakfast!
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| Dixie |
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| Dixie (front) and Wallace (back) |
After feeding the pigs-disguised-as-deer, we said hello to the wolf pups. They are just as friendly as last time, but bigger. Kiowa was having a grand old time trying to pull my hair out of its bun, and nearly succeeded in pulling my scalp out along with it. Their puppy fur is nearly all gone, and being replaced by the denser, more wiry adult fur. The other thing that has really changed is their eye color. Sioux's eyes have changed to a soft honey color, which suits her gentle personality quite nicely. Crioux's are fading from the green-blue to the more classic wolf-yellow color. Kiowa is the only one who has managed to hang on to the striking green color, which contrasts sharply with her black pelt.
After we hung out with the wolf pups, we went to visit with Rosie. She surprised me by being extra friendly today, even allowing Alex to pet her a bit. She was also extra ornery...she tried stealing my entire camera no less than seven times. When that didn't work out, she tried fishing my phone out of my pocket, and almost got away with it too. She must be Swiper the fox's long-lost sister or something.
Next was a visit to the raptors. We fed them today - mice to the owls and hawks and chicken to the turkey buzzards. The hawk was quite hungry today, pouncing on every mouse we threw in and slurping them right up. I even managed to take some pictures today:
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| Great Horned Owl |
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| Red Tailed Hawk |
We visited the bears on our way back to lunch, and they were chowing down as bears are wont to do.
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| Tecumseh the male Black Bear |
After lunch, Alex and I went frog huntin'. This was strictly catch-and-release hunting, but hunting nonetheless. We caught numerous small frogs along the creek and got our boots stuck in deep mud for our troubles. Alex managed to catch four good-sized frogs who had taken up residence in one of the horses' old water troughs. My catch of the day was a frog who I dubbed Freddie (or he could be a toad- I actually think he's a toad, but don't know my amphibians well enough to say for certain). Observe my fine specimen of a frog/toad (as held by Alex):
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| Freddie the fine frog (or maybe a toad - my herpetology is not up to par) |
Thus ends another Saturday at Red Wolf. Next weekend my Saturday will be spent at the Cincinnati Zoo shadowing a vet, which promises to be exciting but also lacking in wolf puppies. The following weeks I am with family in North Carolina, but I should be able to get back to Red Wolf at least one more time before the summer is out (I hope!).
Thanks for reading
T
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