Animals I Work With - Coyote

what a handsome snake! I hope they enjoy their new safe home with you Jill :)

Stunning snake! I'm glad its found a new safe home

What a handsome fellow! He's still uncertain, but surely he will be fat and happy soon. Glad you could accept him and keep him from euthanasia!

What a stunningly gorgeous snake! My goodness, I bet he/she doesn't realize what a great new life lies before it at your facility now. :) Thank you for sharing with us and keep us updated on this handsome specimen.

Yes, such a stunning snake! Wonderful home now, it must be so fun when new arrivals come, and seeing their personalities start to flourish!

Thanks all! Still waiting to vote on a name until we get a hands on vet check, but it's doing great so far.

Let's finish meeting the tree frogs. My last three Hylidae are three Cope's or Southern Gray Tree Frogs (Dryophytes chrysoscelis). These three are all about 1.5 years old. We raised them from froglets (which is when they look like tiny frogs but with tails). All of them are named after plants: Linden (for a linden pine), Chinkapin (for a chinkapin oak), and Sphagnum (for sphagnum moss).
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Here they are as froglets and very young frogs! I cannot tell them apart at this stage. They are all bright green, and turned mottled gray later. They lived in separate enclosures until their distinctive adult markings came in. We use the marks under their eyes for identification. Their color can change drastically from very light gray, to almost black, to a light green, so you can't use color to identify!
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Cope's Gray are visually identical to Gray Tree Frogs. The best way to tell them apart (outside of where you are, because there is some overlap of ranges) is their call. The gray (not cope's) has a more musical, slower trill. The real difference, though, is that they have differing numbers of chromosomes - so they cannot even breed, despite being visually almost identical!
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These are some of our older gray tree frogs who have since passed, but the pictures are too cute to not share! Their names were Kermit, Two-Dot, and Baby. We also had one named Gramps who lived to be fourteen!! I don't have any photos of him, though, because that was before I worked this area.
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Been awhile since I posted anything AGAIN, things have been crazy at work! Added quite a few new animals to the string, which is always busy, and the outdoor turtles are starting to wake up for spring. Very exciting times!

Speaking of turtles, I work with several different species. One of my favorites, though, is the Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina). We have only two of them, and we'll eventually have only the one because we don't have a really good set up for a healthy adult. Hazel, however, is an exception.

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Hazel is a female who was hit by a car probably while traveling to lay eggs. She was found under someone's crawlspace where she had crawled and hidden with severe injuries. She was lucky to be alive and lived for over a year under veterinary care, receiving shell patching and most significantly a rebuilt and wired jaw. This injury in particular makes her unable to survive in the wild because her mouth does not open all the way, less than an inch, making it impossible for her to catch her own food. She is still missing a large piece of her beak, as she can see.

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This injury is also what allows her to live with us. Our outdoor turtle pond, the only aquatic habitat we have large enough for her, houses several other aquatic turtles as well. Ordinarily, a snapping turtle could injure another turtle by biting at legs, tails, and even heads, but Hazel is unable to do so, so she was deemed a good addition to out collection and she can now live out her life in safety wth specially made meals fed to her!

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She is a tremendous animal, I love her intensely. She only weighs about 12 pounds which is a somewhat small for an adult female (they can reach 35-40 pounds), and she likely will not have as long a lifespan as they are thought to have (80+ years!). Guests rarely see her (nor do we!) because she is submerged most of the time. Some years we may see her only two or three times! She is a tough old bird and beautiful in her own way, haha. (One staff member calls her Hatchet Face )

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Our other snapper is a much different story, the opposite in fact. Myrtle is one of three snapper hatchlings we "head started" after finding them stranded on the property and she is the last to be released back into the wild. She has outgrown her little tank for sure, though she started off so tiny!

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She will be released this summer (assuming a good exit medical exam), and then we probably we not have any more young snapping turtles considering we don't really have enough room for them after a couple of years (Myrtle is going to be 5 this year).

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Snapping turtles do bite quite readily, of course, and the main reason is because their shells do not allow them to retract (their plastrons are much too small, for mobility). Therefore, their main defense to be as nasty tempered as possible. Myrtle is pretty chill but she has gotten me a few times, and even a snapper this size stings.

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We don't know for sure if Myrtle is a male or female (actually it's starting to look like she might be a male!), but she won't be here long enough for us to know for sure as she develops. I will miss her a lot, snappers always have great personalities and they are neat for the guests to see, but I hope she lives a long and happy life out in the wild.

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Really cool job

widukind wrote:

Really cool job

Thank you, I agree! I feel very lucky to be doing this!

Some more turtles! We have quite a few pond turtles, but these are the two that live inside all year round (for now). The rest live in our outdoor pond, and I'll try to get some good photos of them later when they wake up for spring. They don't much care for me getting too close.

Frida is our juvenile Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta). She is only two years old (estimated) and was less than a year when she came to us.

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She was a rescue. She was found in a park left beside a river, but instead of being released (like so many people do with their pet turtles), she was abandoned in an empty tank just sitting there. I'm not sure what whoever left her was thinking, since she would certainly have died in that tank, but thankfully she was found and brought to us! She was underweight but otherwise doing well, and is spunky and sassy now.

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Someday she'll go live outside in the bigger pond, since she will outgrow any aquatic enclosure we have inside. We have two adult painteds outside currently, Salvador the male and Janet the female. All our painteds are named after artists. Frida (Kahlo), Salvador (Dali), and Janet (my grandmother). (Frida may actually be a male, we're not sure yet.)

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Our other inside pond turtle is Edwin the Spotted Turtle (Clemmys guttata). He will live his whole life inside because he is not going to get any bigger and because spotted turtles aren't technically native to the mountains, only to the warmer coast of our state.

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Spotted turtles are endangered, and we originally had two juveniles we were going to head start for release. The man who bred them had a special permit to do so in a private home, but unfortunately he passed away very suddenly before the project could be followed through. We do not have the required permits for release and I don't really know what happened to that program, but we ended up keeping the turtles. As they grew, however, they were too large to share a habitat, so one brother went to live at a different zoo and Edwin stayed with us.

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Edwin is extremely personable and active and likes to watch us and guests from his log. He sees us coming and gets excited because he knows we're the food-bringers. He is a very popular animal with the public!

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This topic is such a joy to read/see, and it is extremely kind of you to show it ! THANKYOU !!  

Yes, I'm really enjoying this topic too, it's nice to see them all but even more interesting to read the backstories behind them, and what they're like to know and look after. Makes us feel like we're meeting them rather than just looking at pictures!

I love sharing them, so thank you guys for reading about them! Who doesn't like to show off their children?

My last two aquatic indoor turtles are Kinosternidae - named for the fact that they have moveable hinges on their plastrons kind of like a box turtle, but not able to close so completely. Musk turtle have one and Mud turtles have two. Linus is our Common or Eastern Musk Turtle (Sternotherus odoratus). He has been here longer than me! I don't really know his acquisition story, but considering we used to also be a rehabilitation facility, I suspect he was a patient at one point. He is an estimated 15 years old.

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Linus is fickle turtle. He loves to try to bite us and the guests through the glass and he'll chase balls rolled in front of his habitat, but if anything actually enters his space, he's quick to scurry and hide. He's always interested in what's going on outside the glass, though. And he absolutely loves produce, especially tomatoes and romaine lettuce.

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He has never actually bitten me, though he holds his mouth open in a threat the whole time he's being looked at by the vet or weighed.

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Our Eastern Mud Turtle (Kinosternon subrubrum), Donatello, is much shyer. He spends most of his day in his floating log, watching. They are ambush predators, so this behavior mirrors what he might be doing in the wild - just waiting for something to float by.

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Donny came from another facility who had him off exhibit. Our old Mud turtle passed, so we had the space for a new one, so we gave him a home. He did not have a name when he arrived, so we named him after a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, as you do. He is 16 years old. He's an incredibly picky eater, but remains chunky nevertheless.

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They are very, very beautyful in their own way.
We think dinos were strange creatures, but what about these ?  

Look at Linus lying there like a teddy with his front legs hanging down, but a very alert look in his face  
What a cute, little extraterrestrial face  

Jill wrote:

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All your pictures are extremely charming !
I never heard about these before, but your pictures make me read and enjoy

I love your delightful turtles! They are so graceful to watch swimming! And poor poor Frida, I am so glad you rescued her, such a lucky turtle and so deserving of such a wonderful new home!

Thank you all!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] That is my favorite photo of Linus, haha! He's such a weird little guy, in the best way.

Delayed update due to not having photos of some of my turtles, and forgetting to get them. But here are the Eastern Box Turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina)! At least the ones that live inside. There are eleven in our outdoor enclosure, but I do not have pictures of all of those.

Eastern Box Turtles are the state reptile of my home, North Carolina! (Did you know US states have state reptiles? I did not know that for most of my life.) They are pretty common in our area, though less so than they used to be. Unfortunately, many of them have negative encounters with cars, lawn mowers, and pets, meaning many end up in wildlife rehabilitation. Our collection of box turtles are all rehab graduates who were not candidates for release. Some were also no candidates for living outside, either due to injuries that made them vulnerable or personalities that made them bad roommates.

Rosa and Mayberry are two females who recently moved under my care. They are education ambassador animals, meaning they are used for programing, including off site outreach at schools and things. I have been getting to know them over the last several months, and both of them are wonderful ladies. All reptiles have distinct personalities, but box turtles really express it. Rosa is active and alert, especially to her enclosure being opened (you always have to keep an eye on her). Mayberry is more relaxed, and despite being the larger of the two, also the pickiest eater. Rosa got her name from her red eyes, which females do not usually have.
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Red is a male turtle that has to live by himself because he is such a bully. He's also a program animal, and thankfully is just fine with people. He, too, came under my care recently. The most surprising thing about him is how much he loves to climb. Whatever the tallest piece of furniture in his habitat, he likes to get on top of.
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Button was born here and has been "head-started" for the last three years. This means now that he is large enough, he will go outside (he cannot be released into the wild because he was born in captivity - there is too much risk of introducing unknown pathogens into wild populations). Hopefully he will go outside soon, because he is much too large for his house now. Here he is when he was a baby!
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And mastering a maze with crickets
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Enjoying some mirror and ball filled with blueberries enrichment
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An update on our new rattlesnake. She has been determined a female, has been cleared from quarantine, and has received a name! She is officially Mica, named after the mineral which is prolific in this area. Since clearing quarantine, I've been able to give her more furniture in her home, and she has loved climbing.

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Ooh, she's beautiful, and I'm glad to hear she's enjoying her new improved habitat with all the climbable features!

Just one Plethodontid! Percy is a Red Salamander (Pseudotriton ruber). He (or more likely she, actually) is 11+ years old. Older red salamanders lose their bright red coloration, which you can clearly see Percy has done!
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Even though we are the "salamander capital of the world" in this region, with 50 species in western North Carolina alone, we do not feature many on exhibit here. Lungless salamanders in particular require specialized habitats we are not currently equipped to provide, like seepages. Percy is not the only salamander we have, but the rest are either terrestrial or true aquatics. Percy's habitat is fully aquatic, which is as close as we can currently get. He's doing well, but ultimately when he ages out, we will not replace him until we can create a habitat that is both suitable for the animal while also allowing guests to appreciate it. He hides really well, as you can see.
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Since they can live to be 20+ years, Percy could still be with us for quite some time. He has a lot of personality, and is actually a really terrible hunter. I feed him on tongs, but it still takes him ages to get hold of the food item, whatever it is. Red salamanders are carnivores that eat mostly invertebrates but will eat anything else they can catch and fit in their mouth as well, which means Percy always has to live alone, despite always hiding and not being visible to guests.
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I have been busy and have missed so many posts! All of these turtles are so great, I like the cheeky Linus and Button the most! I looked up my state reptile (as I knew most had them but never learned mine...) thinking it would be the rubber boa or something neat... turns out my great state only has a representative amphibian coincidentally. The Idaho Giant Salamander. Now I can tick that off with the Appaloosa, Hagerman Horse, Mountain Blue Bird, etc. as my state's official representatives.

Some more salamanders! We have two species of mole salamanders, and the hardest ones to get photos of are these, the Marbled Salamanders (Ambystoma opacum).

We have two probably females, Bubbles and Bean. Males and females are sexually dimorphic, but it's pretty subtle. Male markings are white and female markings are silver or gray.

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Marbled salamanders are not very active. They spend up to 85% of their lives in their burrows, and are mostly nocturnal when they do come out, so really very bad exhibit animals. Our exhibits have half tunnels against the glass, and one of them (Bubbles) lives in there most of the time, but Bean is always buried. These photos were taken while they were out being weighed, because otherwise we do not have any media of them.

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Our other two mole salamanders are the opposite. We have two Spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum), Kudzu and Mimosa, and they are quite personable creatures, especially Kudzu, our oldest. She was previously an education ambassador animal and I guess she just lost a lot of her shyness during those years.
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Mimosa is a little more hesitant to hang out where people can see him, but he still sticks his little face out whenever he thinks food is on the way.
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Kudzu is by far the most photogenic salamander, and the rest of the images are of her, haha. She does a lot of "maze" work for enrichment, looking for waxworms either in a Lego maze or in a slow feeder dog dish.
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I also once upon a time was trying to station train them, but turns out salamanders have very small brains and it was just a little too difficult for them to grasp, but here is Kudzu with her blue "station."
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Spotted salamanders, like all mole salamanders, are largely terrestrial and do spend most of their lives underground (unless they are Kudzu). In late winter, however, they will have mass migrations to breeding pools, and if you're in the right spot on the right night, you can see hundreds of them gathering. But Kudzu almost never goes underground!
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