Paws, Claws, Feathers & Wings

22/04/2024

30/03/2024

18/01/2023

I know we’re supposed to talk about cats, dogs, birds & butterflies but I met a new friend last week with fins and flippers! I met Nikki at Ocean World Marina, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. She is 9 years old. In captivity dolphins usually live until about 40-50.

Ocean World is Humane Certified and that makes me happy!
“Ocean World Adventure Park in Puerto Plata, the Dominican Republic, has achieved certification through the global American Humane Conservation program for the welfare and humane treatment of the animals under its care. Ocean World passed a rigorous third-party audit to become the first institution in the Caribbean to earn the prestigious Humane Certified™ seal of approval.”

18/12/2022

Fun fact Friday…we went to the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden for their light display. I weigh as much as 10,383,318 insects. That’s crazy!

17/11/2022

We went shopping with the donation money Kentucky Kettle Corn raised for Jessamine County Animal Care & Control.

Then I got to spend some time with the residents in the kitten colony 💕

19/09/2022

9.18.22 - Fun Fact Friday (on Sunday) - Cockatoo

They can be toilet trained. They live up to 80 years. If their feathers are up, that means they are angry. You can teach a cockatoo dance moves with a good beat including how to headbang, do foot lifts, shimmies and body rolls. If they stare at you it means they are observing your movements.

Parrot Mountain in Pigeon Forge, TN has my favorite Cockatoo, Peaches (who now goes by George)

03/09/2022

9/2/22 Fun Fact Friday - Manx

The Manx is my favorite breed of domestic cats…I have one, she’s almost 5 years old and her name is Blondie. There’s a myth that a cat was late to Noah’s Ark and while Noah was closing the door the cat ran in and got its tail cut off and that’s how you get the breed. That’s just a story but it’s fun to think about!

Manx chirp in addition to mewing. Blondie is very quiet, she never mews and rarely chirps.

They come from the Isle of Man (Manx) and may have a short tail, a nub or no tail at all. Their back legs are longer and their faces are cuter than regular cats.

Manx are known to be quiet and loyal to their people. They can follow you around like a puppy and they want to be with you where most cats it doesn’t matter.

We love our little Manx, she’s a sweet princess.

03/09/2022

Manx

27/08/2022

8/26/22 Fun Fact Friday - Zoo Camp recap

When I was at Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden for enrichment camp I got to pet a Rainbow Boa. They’re not slimy, they feel like a finger nail. I also saw a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. They sound like a cat hissing!

I made enrichment for the elephants, a macaw, a porcupine, a kookaburra and a screaming hairy armadillo.

My favorite part of the week was the cheetah run. I got to see Moose (Donnie’s dog) and Remus (Kris’ dog). I got to see Willow and Donnie run!!!

I saw the Wings of Wonder show. I got to see a Blue-Tongued Skink, the Children’s Zoo show, a python, and a Yellow Billed Hornbill. A person from the people who make enrichment for the zoo came to our room to talk about how enrichment is made, I liked that!

I learned a weird song and we had teams to make enrichment for any animal in the zoo. The team I was in made a deer enrichment for Mexican wolves. The enrichment team got to see them for ideas and the moms and dads got to see it too!

I can’t wait for next year’s zoo camp!

***mom’s input: all of the animals she talks about seeing are ones she had an up-close encounter with***

10/08/2022

Aubrey is in zoo camp this week at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden and is loving it. Hearing her talk about her day with so much passion when we pick her up is awesome! There is no doubt in my mind her future career involves animal conservation in some way.

We homeschool but since everyone else is posting first day of school pics, here’s a 3rd day of Zoo Camp picture for you!

05/08/2022

8/5/22 Fun Fact Friday - Monarchs (endangered)

Monarch wings are orange with black borders and veins, and white spots along the edges. They’re about 4” wide.

Monarch caterpillars are striped with yellow, black, and white bands, and are up to 2” long before they make their chrysalis.

The monarch chrysalis is a beautiful! It is light green with tiny gold spots along the top edge.

Milkweed is important because the butterflies use it to lay their eggs on, the caterpillars use it for food and they make their chrysalis on it. Milkweed makes a poison that doesn’t hurt Monarch’s but makes them poisonous, at every stage, to predators.

Monarchs migrate between southern Canada to central Mexico, where they hibernate from November to March. It takes three to five generations to complete the migration because adult butterflies only live 4-5 weeks.

THREATS
There is a chance that the Monarch population will be almost extinct in the next 20 years.

Causes for numbers going down are:
- a loss of native milkweed (caused by building and using herbicides)
- insecticides that kill the monarchs
- car strikes (2 areas in northern Mexico showed over 200,000 killed in one year)
- Parasites (they get in the chrysalis with the caterpillars, multiply and attack when it beaks out)
- some plants that have come here from Europe look like milkweed but are poisonous to Monarch caterpillars
- Climate change

CONSERVATION
The National Wildlife Federation recommends that the best way to help monarchs is by restoring their natural habitat by planting native milkweeds and nectar plants (https://www.nwf.org/nativeplantfinder/), eliminating pesticides, and encouraging others to do the same

Sources:
Worldwildlife.org, Wikipedia, WWF

31/07/2022

Kentucky Kettle Corn raised money for Jessamine County Animal Care & Control and let Aubrey go shopping for them. She took her goodies in to donate yesterday and got some kitten cuddles in while we were there!

31/07/2022

7/29/22 Rainbow Lorikeets (different than Lories!) live in Australia.

Their small size (6-7” tall) and bright colors help them hide in trees. Their predators are birds of prey and snakes. Hundreds of Lories & Lorikeets will roost in one tree for the night. Sometimes they sleep on their backs with their feet straight up in the air.

Their tongue is like a brush that helps them eat fruit and nectar. They climb around on branches and hang upside down to get to all the flowers on a tree. They can spend 70% of their time eating & can eat from 30–40 Eucalyptus flowers in one minute!

They usually mate for life!

There are over 53 species of Lories & Lorikeets and at least 13 are endangered or vulnerable. Some reasons are habitat destruction, introduction of other species (rats, cats dogs, mongoose and mosquitoes), accidental introduction of exotic diseases, and trapping for pet bird trade.

Sources: Google, The Louisville Zoo, San Diego Zoo

31/07/2022

7/22/22 Fun fact Friday - Ladybugs

Of course you know that ladybugs is just a name, there are both boy and girl ladybugs. Ladybugs have different names like lady beetle or lady bird beetle.

Ladybugs can be red, orange, or yellow. They can have spots, stripes or no markings. They play dead when threatened.

There are over 5000 species of ladybugs. Some migrate in groups so large they can cover a 100 foot by 100 foot area with 30,000,000 ladybugs!

31/07/2022

7/15/22 Fun Fact Friday - Black Panther

"Black panthers" are not a real thing! A panther is another word for puma, and there is no such thing as a black puma but there are black jaguars and black leopards.

31/07/2022

7/8/22 Fun Fact Friday - Fennec Fox

Fennec foxes live in the Sahara Desert. They are also called a Desert Fox. They are the smallest of all foxes weighing only 2-3 pounds! They have big ears that can grow up to half the size of their body. They can hear under the sand! Their ears help cool them down. They are not endangered.

31/07/2022

Dad noticed that Mom forgot the 's' in Paws on the page so we had to edit it through FB and have lost all post since July 4th :-(

31/07/2022

Kentucky Kettle Corn raised money for Jessamine County Animal Care & Control so Aubrey went shopping for the animals and delivered the goodies yesterday (plus got her kitten cuddles in!)

29/07/2022

Rainbow Lorikeets (different than Lories!) live in Australia.

Their small size (6-7” tall) and bright colors help them hide in trees. Their predators are birds of prey and snakes. Hundreds of Lories & Lorikeets will roost in one tree for the night. Sometimes they sleep on their backs with their feet straight up in the air.

Their tongue is like a brush that helps them eat fruit and nectar. They climb around on branches and hang upside down to get to all the flowers on a tree. They can spend 70% of their time eating & can eat from 30–40 Eucalyptus flowers in one minute!

They usually mate for life!

There are over 53 species of Lories & Lorikeets and at least 13 are endangered or vulnerable. Some reasons are habitat destruction, introduction of other species (rats, cats dogs, mongoose and mosquitoes), accidental introduction of exotic diseases, and trapping for pet bird trade.

Sources: Google, The Louisville Zoo, San Diego Zoo

22/07/2022

Fun fact Friday - Ladybugs

Of course you know that ladybugs is just a name, there are both boy and girl ladybugs. Ladybugs have different names like lady beetle or lady bird beetle.

Ladybugs can be red, orange, or yellow. They can have spots, stripes or no markings. They play dead when threatened.

There are over 5000 species of ladybugs. Some migrate in groups so large they can cover a 100 foot by 100 foot area with 30,000,000 ladybugs!