Sandstone Visit

Spent a long weekend visiting friends and critters up north. It was great to see folks again and catch up!

Kaitlyn and I spent much of the weekend training birds. She even let me be an eagle trainer :)

Porcupine Kisses!

Love this face

Spike "tackling" me to get his rodent pellets

Isis

The  newest ed critter - Poppy

Back to the Northwoods

This past weekend, I headed up to visit friends and critters at Audubon. It was great to catch up with folks and see a few of my favorite animals :)

Spike investigating some raspberry

Spike and I

Northwoods Cookies!

Walking Spike

Last week I took Spike for a walk as enrichment. He seemed to enjoy it and we walked all the way to the office. Along the way he investigated everything! I have also been adding maple branches to his enclosure which he LOVES!

Enjoying some maple browse!

Checking out my camera - the dot under his eye is a wood tick

YUM! Maple!

Adorable Porcupine!

Spike enjoying some apple while teaching

This winter has been super mild. A bummer if you want to get out skiing or snowshoeing but a really good thing if you happen to be training a porcupine. Porcupines hate when there it is snowy, rainy, too hot or too cold. In these situations, they tend to curl up and not move. With the lack of snow and reasonably warm weather, Spike has made lots of progress with his training in the past couple weeks. For example, I can give Spike his cue to go into his crate and he walks across his enclosure and goes in! He also has been doing much better with the rest of the staff and teaching on a more regular basis.

I think Spike is absolutely adorable so here are a few pictures of him (and me) from the past month.

Its hard to be photogenic while holding a wiggly porcupine

Spike exploring the main room of the barn

Spike teaching!

Mammals Class

Check it out!!!

Its been a big week for Spike the porcupine and me! On Monday, I learned how to pick him up and today, we taught our first class together!

I taught Minnesota Mammals where the students learn all about what makes mammals special. While they were out on a hike, I got Spike into his crate and brought him inside for his teaching debut. I let him walk around on table top while I talked awesome porcupine adaptations. He did AMAZING for his first time out - even ate in front of the students :) What a fantastic way end to the week!!

Hello Spike!

Guess what!

The center got a new education animal earlier this week!

A porcupine!

I am super excited and think that he is adorable. I took a few pictures on his first day. He is getting to know his new enclosure and slowly exploring it and the staff. Like the rest of our education animals, Spike could not survive in the wild; he has been with people since he was a porcupinette.With a little training he will make a great education animal to use in the porcupine quillwork class and a few others.

Checking things out

Starting to climb

Made it!

How awesome is he?

As you can imagine, many folks do not know much about this rodent. So here's a few fun facts for you.

• Weighing in at up to 40 pounds, porcupines are the second largest rodent in North America behind the beaver.
• A porcupine can have 40,000 quills.
• They are herbivores and often fall out of trees. Not because they are clumsy but because they are trying to get to tasty tree buds and tender branches.
• The porcupine and skunk are the only 2 mammals in North America that are black and white. They benefit from letting others know who and where they are at all times of the day and night. In other words, even though they see you, no one wants to mess with you!
• Natural predators include fishers, great horned owls, wolverines, mountain lions and humans.

New Education Staff

Introducing Delilah and Spike

Delilah is a gray squirrel that has some health issues. She isn't as active as normal squirrels and needs to get her teeth trimmed on a regular basis. Spike is a porcupine who was found by the side of the road next to his dead mom. He has spent the past year traveling the country in a truck. 

Meeting Delilah!

Unfortunately, neither wouldn't survive in the wild. Delilah will be joining the Audubon staff this fall, once we build her an enclosure and gets the permits. Spike will likely join the team as well, we are just waiting for the final go ahead.

Snack time for spike

Today, I was in Duluth at a place called Wildwoods Rehabilitation where both animals are currently. The wildlife staff got to meet and hang out with the 2 mammals. It was loads of fun and definitely one of the best work days I had all summer! More pictures to follow but here are just a few of the cute mammals we met :)

Delilah enjoying a grape

Hanging out with a squirrel in my pocket :)

WILDLIFE FUN!

Today, I went for a walk during work (ok maybe I took a couple walks into the woods). Anyways, I got to see lots of wildlife. Of course there are the usual suspects - the blue jays, squirrels and woodpeckers. But today was special. I also got to see a raccoon walking across the trail and then climbing up a tree to its hide-y-hole. Unfortunetly, I didnt have my camera on me. Shortly after that, I went to see the porcupine. It was the first time I had seen one in the wild.

On my way back to the office, there was a lot of noise from the crows and ravens. Eventually, a barred owl was spotted.  

Perhaps I can thank the super nice weather for all the activitey and fun sightings. Hopefully they continue!