Fauna Learning Center

29/05/2024

24/05/2024

23/05/2024

⚠️It’s officially turtle crossing season! ⚠️

We have gotten in an influx of turtles that have been hit by cars. Please be on the lookout for turtles crossing the road!

Here are some tips for helping them out:

• If you can do so safely, help the turtle across the road in the direction they were heading.

•Do not take turtles home as pets or relocate them, taking them out of their habitat can be detrimental

•If you find an injured turtle please contact a wildlife rehabber!

22/05/2024

Thank you, thank you!!
I asked for help with KMR to feed the baby raccoons and you all answered the call like soldiers going into battle. The Amazon boxes arriving are truly amazing. And, not just KMR, but esbilac, miracle ni***es, dog food, baby food, and even an intensive care unit. All things we desperately need as well, but hate to ask. Thank you so incredibly much. Your support means the world to me. Knowing you are behind me motivates me to keep going. I will admit it has been hard. I graduated college and am working at least 80 hours a week with absolutely no pay. I see death, blood, and guts, daily… it can be pretty depressing. But, I am rich in knowing I am keeping animals from suffering by giving them pain meds and a safe, comfortable place to recover. I am rich knowing I’ve got people like you who have got my back. You are always giving me kind words and a thank you, and now all these wonderful donations. This truly is an incredible community and I can not thank you enough.

02/05/2024

Welcoming “Julian #58” to the family. We are very honored to provide him a forever home🖤
Disclaimer: King Julian is an owner surrender/intake animal. This is different than a rescue scenario but it’s not an animal that we sought out. I just want to be clear that he did not come from horrible conditions. His previous owner loved him but realized that she could no longer handle him. If you happen to know her please do not tag her or send her posts. We have an open line of communication between previous owners and they are always welcome to contact us for photos and even visits. But we allow them to make those decisions on their own. Talking with her I can tell this was a very hard decision for her to make. Please allow her to have privacy.

Julian like many primates (specifically ring tailed lemur‘s) became very defensive/aggressive upon puberty. This is *almost* always a given for ring tailed lemurs once they hit a certain age if they were bottle raised. They are known to be one of the most defensive species and also one of the most popular. Their natural development is meant for a troop setting with other animals their age and varying ages. This allows them to learn how to be a lemur. It’s one of the many reasons that it’s hard for the average person to provide for an animal like this. Having multiple animals in a large indoor outdoor enclosure can be costly and time-consuming. Not to even remotely say that there aren’t facilities and people who are capable of doing so. They are are plenty of amazing facilities out there. This is just to provide education on the subject of why single intact bottle babies tend to lead to rehoming.

Julian has already been quarantined, received shots, had a f***l, and been neutered. So introductions will actually start fairly quickly in regards to him joining the troop. As they are social creatures it’s important to us that he is able to start introductions as quick as possible. Introductions are done slowly and at the pace of the troop. This is for their safety to make sure everyone gets along appropriately. Each round of introductions is unique. 

Julian went to an intermediate facility to have all of his medical work and quarantine done. I would like to shout out Dragonstone Ranch for facilitating the entire intake. They have been putting a massive amount of effort into placing animals like Julian into educated homes when they pop up in need of a rehome. Finding forever homes for defensive animals can be incredibly hard. They have been doing so silently without ever asking for praise. I think it’s very important to take a moment to shout out facilities that are doing amazing work behind the scenes and in public. 

24/04/2024

Pinecone and Ivory are on high alert today. They got a new hay feeder so they’ve been extra puffy anytime they notice that it’s there. It might take some adjusting before they actually use it🤣😮‍💨

19/04/2024

A new family member joined the flock today! We are very excited to have her. She came from a very educated and loving home. So she is a healthy, happy, and confident girl.

Introducing Stormi💛

08/04/2024

01/04/2024

C-stat locals know where we’re at right now. But for everybody else you know you’re in Texas when the restaurants have venomous on display!🤣
Here we are doing some enclosure maintenance for the resident rattlesnake at the Dixie chicken along with administering medication. They hire a care team to make sure he is properly maintained and healthy! Here recently we have been offered the opportunity to take that over as the previous care team retires.

Took this great shot today! 

31/03/2024

Mikey is supervising the construction of some new enrichment builds in his area. He’s a very chatty boss… constantly giving opinions🤣

ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta)

29/03/2024

Today we broke ground on a massive porch for one of the animal buildings. On the display reptile house to be specific.
The porch alone is quite literally larger then the very first animal building I purchased right out of high school. Every day I’m still so amazed that this is my life.
When I was little “Zoe’s Zoo” was very much so a dream, and now the Fauna Learning Center is very much so a reality that is growing exponentially passed what I could’ve hoped. So grateful for everything and everyone that has helped us make this possible. The effort has been extreme but we have really built something beneficial and beautiful. Thank you to everyone that follows and support this journey online or in person. You are all appreciated🖤

26/03/2024

Yondu soaking up some sun. His orange eyes will forever be beautiful. Such a special boy🖤

25/03/2024

Michael’s doing well for those wanting an update. He’s fairly regularly participating in troop activities and sleeps with his brothers nightly! Don’t get me wrong he still seems confused about certain things. Like why we howl at the birds in the morning during yoga but he’s here for it🤣



20/03/2024

Guess who’s enclosure photos are on the background cover for zookeepers for behavioral enrichment right now?
Probably might seem trivial to some but it made my soul so happy. Carefully creating beautiful but purposeful environments for animals to thrive is one of my favorite things🥺🖤

19/03/2024

The girls are still very amused by their new PVC slow feeder toy I made them last week. They’ve gone from curious but hesitant… to amused that it spins… to extremely excited that it spits out blueberries if they spin it enough!

Pinecone and Ivory (Hystrix cristata)🤍🖤

18/03/2024

DJ is supervising the new pond build for the lemur enclosure upgrades👀

18/03/2024

As you guys know we’ve been making and buying a ton of enrichment items. I purchased these livestock scratching mats for $20. DJ is beyond obsessed. I think he’s rubbed every surface of his body TWICE😭🤣

17/03/2024

Blue and indigo our coatimundi enjoying their new swivel feeding station I suspended from the ceiling! They scored some squash and pepper🥺

16/03/2024

I rarely make posts like this, but I want to start highlighting the intricate details that are close to my heart when it comes to all of the projects we work on. Throwing away usable resources and clearing land hurts my soul. So if we can save something from winding up in the landfill while keeping safety in mind-we will. Even if the cost for taking the used recycled item is the same as doing something brand new. Here we chopped down trees that had to be cut down for development and used them to make a raised garden bed for all of the lemurs future plants. Nothing went to waste! It still looks beautiful and serves a variety of purposes. Today we filled it with a special garden soil safe for livestock, filled with lots of nutrients. We’re adding a variety of different plant life. When you add little details like this up it creates an amazing usable space overtime🖤

14/03/2024

Pretty baby Ivory🤍
Crested porcupine (Hystrix cristata)

12/03/2024

Redoing the entire porcupine enclosure but these two aren’t having it! They want all the scratches and cuddles possible🤣 
New logs, additional toys, 2 tons of extra dirt, more bones, a few more boulders, etc!

10/03/2024

Made this adorable yet simple little pipe feeding station today for our ring-tailed lemur troop! I attached it to their existing rope structure with a carabiner and swivel so that it spins and swings. They have been heavily occupied so far!🖤

09/03/2024

Porcupine update: Pinecone and Ivory have been living together for roughly a week uninterrupted! We’ve done a super thorough and lengthy introduction. It seems to have worked out very well as they sleep together every night and often groom each other🤍🖤

07/03/2024

Rita enjoying her new free roam structure. Its entirely handmade🧡
Citron-crested cockatoo (Cacatua citrinocristata)

06/03/2024

We made lots of bird toys this week! Plus we created some really neat free range areas above the various indoor enclosures suspended from the ceiling🦜

05/03/2024

I built this really neat, yet super simple suspended enrichment feeder for the lemurs. It’s on a spring swivel so getting the food is a balancing act that puts all those little muscles to work, including their brain. Here, Yondu is letting out a call of success🤣

04/03/2024

The face Michael gave me when I told him that “forage days” he meant he has to go find his food after I hide it…. rather than it getting handed to him in a bowl/puzzle like normal🤣

03/03/2024

Im spending the next few days making another round of toys and enrichment items for the various birds, primates, coatimundi, opossums, snakes, porcupines, etc! Starting small first with a few adorable items like this swing for Hootie🦜