Posts
April 06, 2013
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The New England Aquarium's rescue team is on an East Coast endangered species express, bringing around 50 rescued sea turtles to Florida for release. Stay tuned right here for more pictures and information about the Sea Turtle Trek, follow us Facebook and be sure to track #SeaTurtleTrek on Twitter, Tumblr, Google+ and Instagram.
Click here to track their progress, live location updates from
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The New England Aquarium's rescue team is on an East Coast endangered species express, bringing around 50 rescued sea turtles to Florida for release. Stay tuned right here for more pictures and information about the Sea Turtle Trek, follow us Facebook and be sure to track #SeaTurtleTrek on Twitter, Tumblr, Google+ and Instagram.
Click here to track their progress, live location updates from the
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2:31 PM | Follow the SeaTurtleTrek!
The Sea Turtle Trek is using a SPOT satellite messenger to track our progress to the turtle release in Florida. Check the Rescue Blog for updates and pictures, follow us Facebook and be sure to track #SeaTurtleTrek on Twitter, Tumblr, Google+ and Instagram.
April 05, 2013
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We’re following an uptick in loon mortality right now, where dozens of common loons have been found on beaches from North Carolina to Cape Cod. Several birds have been shipped to the National Wildlife Health Center for autopsies, and we are trying to track the mortality both via formal SEANET surveys and by encouraging people [...]
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In my third compilation of the canine and feline endocrine publications of 2012, I’m moving on to disorders of the parathyroid gland, including the clinical problems of hypercalcemia and hypocalcemia.Listed below are 22 research papers written in 2012 that deal with a variety of topics and issues related to calcium, parathyroid or vitamin D metabolism.These range from iatrogenic hypoparathyroidism following parathyroid or thyroid surgery (1,20,21) to dietary hypocalcemia in growing dogs […]
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This is a media release cross posted from the Aquarium's News and Updates Blog. Stay tuned right here for more pictures and information about the Sea Turtle Trek, follow us Facebook and be sure to track #SeaTurtleTrek on Twitter, Tumblr, Google+ and Instagram.
Scenes from this year's record cold-stun season: A rescuer examines the mouth of a Kemp's ridley sea turtle
These sea turtles
April 04, 2013
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11:55 PM | Elephant vs. Hyenas
10 photos of African elephant protecting calf from hyena pack attack . [Yahoo News]
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9:01 PM | AARP Zoo Music
I posted recently (and favorably) about a short article I found on this summer's Minnesota Zoo music concert line-up.Now (seeing a fuller line-up) I'm even more impressed, by the likes of Dr. John, Richard Thompson, the BoDeans, Los Lobos, Pat Benetar and Edgar Winter. But the article containing the fuller line-up has a sub-head which notes that it "is heavy on AARP-loved acts"!Oh well, I've had my AARP card for 10 years or so now...and Minnesota has given this old man another reason to […]
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3:36 PM | Aquila's Return
Plans are on track to bring “Aquila” Polar Bear back in about a month. He should be on exhibit in early May. [Also lifted from recent NC Zoo Senior Staff Meeting Notes]
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12:55 AM | Minnesota Zoo offers...
...another season of Music at the Zoo: Joan Baez on June 6, Cheap Trick on July 6, Trombone Shorty and Mavis Staples on July 21, Brian Wilson on July 27, John Hiatt and Steve Earle on August 1, Elvin Bishop on August 28!And that ain't all!
April 03, 2013
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8:50 PM | Zoo Train Stop?
Philadelphia Zoo wants rail service "restored". It has been out for over 110 years! (The Zoo had it from 1874-1902.)When I was going to the Philly Zoo (late '60's and '70's), coming down the northeast extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike from Wilkes-Barre, the parking situation near the Zoo and Girard Avenue was awful.Seems that hasn't much changed. But the Zoo deserves credit. Attendance increased from about 1.1 million per year in the four years, 2002-2005, to a recent average well over 1.2 […]
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Over the last few months, I have followed the progress of a resolution introduced to the American Veterinary Medical Association House of Delegates identifying homeopathy as an ineffective therapy incompatible with evidence-based medicine. The story can be traced through several … Continue reading →
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The terminology associated with unconventional therapies has shifted a bit over the last 40 or so years. Initially, such therapies were often described as “alternative.” This fit well with the still widespread philosophical position that new or different ways of … Continue reading →
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#DENR, which oversees #NCZoo, has new customer service initiative. #wahoo— russwilliamsiii (@russwilliamsiii) April 3, 2013
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It dates back over 120 years. What caused African American families to start the tradition is uncertain. But it continues today."One theory zoo officials have offered is that African Americans went to the zoo because they were barred from the White House Easter Egg Roll. Another holds that many black housekeepers had to work on Easter Sunday...""Many members of black families [at the Zoo this Easter] said they weren’t sure about the event’s origins, but they knew that the event has been […]
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2:04 PM | Dead Bird Quiz answers
Hoorah! Lots of answers proferred on this latest quiz! For Bird A, everyone responded with scaup. But what kind of scaup? We don’t see a lot of scaup generally, so I don’t have a great deal of experience with these i.d.s, but fortunately, I have found one detail to latch onto in making the distinction [...]
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The question of how dogs evolved from wolves is complicated, but it is clear there are important differences that could arise from genetics, domestication, experience, or a combination of these. A study just published by Marta Gácsi in Budapest investigates whether dogs and hand-reared wolves behave the same during a changing social situation with a human.The wolves that took part in the study were hand-reared by humans from birth, spending the first few months of their life in a house
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Gácsi, M., Vas, J., Topál, J. & Miklósi, �. (2013). Wolves do not join the dance: Sophisticated aggression control by adjusting to human social signals in dogs, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2013.02.007
Gácsi, M., Maros, K., Sernkvist, S., Faragó, T. & Miklósi, �. (2013). Human Analogue Safe Haven Effect of the Owner: Behavioural and Heart Rate Response to Stressful Social Stimuli in Dogs, PLoS ONE, 8 (3) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058475
Merola, I., Prato-Previde, E. & Marshall-Pescini, S. (2012). Dogs' Social Referencing towards Owners and Strangers, PLoS ONE, 7 (10) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0047653
Merola, I., Prato-Previde, E. & Marshall-Pescini, S. (2011). Social referencing in dog-owner dyads?, Animal Cognition, 15 (2) 175-185. DOI: 10.1007/s10071-011-0443-0
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9:02 AM | Mudd the trampolining Bulldog
A Bulldog video to make you smile - not just because it's funny but because this dog is an example of a a longer-legged, longer-muzzled Bulldog - that is still indubitably a Bulldog. You can still hear a rasp in his bark - possibly an indicator of an imperfect airway - and he could do with a tail, but this boy looks pretty athletic and fit. Love the name, too.
Now, let's see more Bulldogs like this in the show-ring.
A reminder again, of the Bulldog that went Best of Breed at
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12:51 AM | Russlings is an Authority...
...on facultative parthenogeneis.That's right - wild virgin birth.Right after Wikipedia and the US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.And before BBC Nature.Hat tip: John Groves for help with a post of over seven years ago.
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Testing treats singly was possible key to discovery
April 02, 2013
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10:01 PM | Turtle Transport: Tagging!
Throughout this past record-breaking season we have had many
transports. Come this Saturday, April 6, we are starting one more.
This long transport south will be to release 28 sea turtles that have completed
their rehabilitation at the NEAq Animal Care Center in Quincy. For those
keeping count that leaves us with 16 turtles still in-house.
Some of the 27 Kemp's ridley sea turtles that will be
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8:56 PM | "Murmuration"
Amongst many new activities in Design/Graphics:Ø “Murmuration” a large kinetic sculpture for the Marsh will be installed the second week in April. [NC Zoo Senior Staff Meeting Notes]Another gift from wonderful Zoo art patrons, Bob & Bonnie Meeker.
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8:17 PM | No record...
but 5422 NC Zoo visitors had arrived by 3 p.m. today.Hoping all had a great day.
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We love our pets. But sometimes, when it comes to rewarding them with treats and food, we might love them a little too much. As a result, our pets are increasingly overweight and obese.To help quantify just how serious this issue has become, the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (for which Dr. Peterson serves as a board member) conducts annual surveys on obesity in U.S. pets. Just last week, the group released its 6th annual survey.In the latest AVMA Animal Tracks podcast, Dr. Ernie Ward, […]
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4:21 PM | "...only the 2nd time..."
Although I did not recall a first time, the NC Zoo reports that yesterday's closing for having reached capacity was "only the second time...""Monday's attendance was 12,775 by 4 p.m.." [The Courier-Tribune, April 2, 2013] It was prior to 2 p.m. that I found the Park closed yesterday.The Zoo record day was 17,499 in 1989, on a "free day".The paid-admission record is 15,041, set in 1994.The fourth largest was just a year ago, at 13,242.A Zoo spokesperson said the Park was asked by "highway […]
April 01, 2013
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6:25 PM | "Zoo Closed...
...We Are Full".After a late lunch and a little Zoo Society bank business, I returned to the NC Zoo at a little before 2 p.m. to find the cars turning around prior to entering the gates. Dozens of cars were turning back toward far flung homes.As I pressed on around and behind some cars full of people still trying to figure a way to salvage their Zoo trips, I found the sign in lights quoted above.My lunch had been several miles across Asheboro. As I ate, some folks joined a small waiting line […]
