BOWLING FOR RHINOS ANNOUNCEMENT!
The numbers are finally counted, sorted, & crunched...
Thanks to YOU, our 2024 total raised for BFR is:
💥 🦏 👉 $9572.63 👈 🦏 💥
This was our biggest year yet! Thanks again to all our sponsors and everyone who contributed and came out to bowl with us! We appreciate all that you do for animal conservation!
#aazk #BFR #bowlingforrhinos #meskerparkzoo #crashtherhinobowlsastrike
Zookeepers have stressful jobs that they love. It always helps to have hobbies to do in their off-time (even better when they have talent for the hobbies, too). Here's one of our keepers, on her afternoon off, beginning the process of decorating a new "habitat" that will be in front of our zoo soon.
#Artist #ZookeepersDoMoreThanShovelPoop #nzkw2024 #ImAKeeper #aazkcommunityconnections
THANK YOU to everyone who donated to and visited our rummage sale yesterday! Here's a video collage highlighting our most recent enrichment purchase: a boomer ball. It will eventually be used by many animals, from our camel, Wednesday, who currently has it, to our Sichuan takin and jaguar, to our future greater one-horned rhinoceros and Sumatran tiger. By the way, this video also highlights how we use everything, including the box, as enrichment.
📷 Keeper Amy & Docent Dee
18 years ago today, our spunky, beautiful jaguar Beliza was born at Stone Zoo in Massachusetts. Yesterday, keepers threw her a party that included a "cake" made by Keeper Nora out of frozen goats milk & (beef & turkey) gravy. She also received 2 new toys -- the new pickle getting all of her attention (it might be her favorite enrichment item ever). Here's a highlight video of our girl over the last decade plus. Happy birthday, Beliza! ❤
📷🎥 Keepers Jackie, Loretta; Curator Misty; Guests Services Kristie; Docent Dee; Former MPZ Keepers Misti, Katelyn; Former MPZ Educator Kennedy
#jaguar #bigcats #birthdaygirl #picklelover
This is Bill.
Bill loves zoos.
Bill hears it's going to be cold tomorrow.
Bill runs to visit Mesker Park Zoo today.
Be like Bill.
#FunFact Because penguins have visibly short legs, a normal walking & running style would expend an incredible amount of energy. Waddling allows their muscles to do less work, and as a result, they use less energy.
🎥 Guests Services Alex R
#BillSPrestonEsq #HumboldtPenguins
It's Rocco's 9th birthday today! Rocco is our adult male greater kudu antelope, located in the African panorama near the front of the zoo.
Greater kudu and other antelope will rub their horns & forehead in mud, grasses, & bushes like in this compilation of pictures. These behaviors can serve many purposes, such as scent-marking and making them appear more formidable to both rival males and potential predators. It can also help increase their status with the "ladies."
This afternoon should be a beautiful opportunity to visit Rocco & his herd on his birthday.
📷 Keeper Katrina
It's Squirrel Appreciation Day! While many wild squirrels do live in the trees of Mesker Park Zoo, we are here for another kind of "squirrel." Squirrel monkeys. We are home to three squirrel monkeys: Roxie, Apollo, & Dio. Squirrel monkeys are omnivores; their diet consists of fruits, leaves, insects, flowers, small vertebrates. Like humans, they are diurnal -- active during the day & sleep at night. They are a highly vocal species. If you listen closely to the video, you can hear them "chatting" with each other.
Video: squirrel monkeys Roxie & Apollo working at a puzzle to get their food.
🎥 Keeper Jackie
Today is National Popcorn Day! A day celebrating popcorn wouldn't be complete without celebrating our binturong family of Anton, Vivvy, and twins Poppy & Pretzel, too! If you've ever been near our binturong habitat, then you know they smell like a movie theater. Binturongs owe their popcorn-like scent to a chemical compound in their urine. Like many animals, binturongs use urine as a way to mark territory and attract mates. Binturongs urinate in a squatting position, soaking their feet and tails in the process. They then drag their tails behind them to leave a scent trail.
You can visit our binturongs in the Enchanted Forest; and when you do, maybe you’ll get a whiff of buttered popcorn. They will have outside access when real feel temps are above 32°F.
🎥 Docent Charlene
Today, Mesker Park Zoo's groundskeepers renovated our jaguar's habitat to ensure that it was safe for an aging jaguar. Beliza, who will soon be 18, is considered geriatric despite her spunky attitude. Her keeper collaborated with the grounds department to create a secure place for her to continue thriving as the beloved cat we all cherish.
