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Contents tagged with living collections
Just another day at the office
Published On 1/3/2013We try by all means to keep our programming animals fit and healthy at all times but of course occasionally despite our best efforts, they get an ailment that requires treatment. So how do you give a snake medicine? Well, if it is an injection it is relatively easy to insert a needle between the scales but if they actually have to swallow the medication it takes a little more than a teaspoon and the request to ‘open wide!’
These are the tools required. The best item for opening the snakes’ mouth is a guitar pick (yes really!) then a nice long tube to get the medicine down and some water to flush the medicine through the tube.
The guitar pick is slid carefully into the snakes’ mouth. As I said, it is perfectly designed for the job. It has smooth rounded edges so it doesn’t harm the snakes’ mouth and it covers the snakes’ glottis, which is in the bottom of the mouth. This ensures that when the tube is inserted it doesn’t get accidentally pushed into the glottis, which would essentially ‘drown’ the snake.
The tube is then gently inserted and pushed down the snakes’ esophagus. The tube should go approximately one third of the way down into the snakes’ body before the medicine is administered.
Of course, don’t expect any gratitude from the snake for this treatment. You will notice there is a second person involved in this process holding the body of the snake. Although they don’t have to negotiate the teeth they do sometimes get the benefit of the snakes displeasure in a far more odiferous manner when the snake deploys its’ musk glands to full effect. When the medication has been administered and flushed through the tube with a little water, the tube is carefully removed.
And there you have it – job done! And if all goes well, after a little time off, we have a healthy snake ready to resume its work entertaining our visitors.
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Day in the life of an animal care volunteer
Published On 1/1/2013The following post was written by Cindy Gray, one of our animal care volunteers at the Museum.
8:15 to 8:25
Arrive at the Museum, greet the cleaning woman who lets me in as she cleans the entry, get the key to the Look-in-Lab from security, check-in at the volunteer lounge, and put on one of the volunteer aprons. Go to the Lab, greet Celeste and Jamie and get ready to start working!
8:25 to 8:40
Change the swimming water for the Leopard frog and the drinking/soaking water for the American toad in Mysteries of the Marsh, and mist the American toad tank with RO water (“RO” water is “reverse osmosis” water, water filtered to remove chlorine and other elements that may bother amphibians, water bugs, fish, and some reptiles). Feed the frog and toad, trying to drop the crickets into their tanks, not on the carpet (I read that toads blink their eyes to help swallow their food, but I had trouble picturing it until I saw the toad capture and swallow one of the crickets I fed her one day).
8:40 to 8:45
Mist the green tree frog tank near the spotted turtles to maintain the high humidity they prefer. Sometimes one of the frogs will start “singing” as I mist -- I like to think it's because they are happy for the fresh "rain".
8:45 to 9:00
Provide fresh water for the Tiger salamander, Gray tree frogs, American toad, Cricket frogs, and Fowler’s toad in the Look-in-Lab and mist their habitats. Provide Harriet the tarantula with fresh water in her bowl and crickets.
9:00 to 9:25
Empty the water bowls for the snakes used for critter connections and provide fresh water. Sometimes right after I change her water, Coco the Fox snake takes a drink and then soaks in the fresh water. Change the paper substrate of their tanks if they have pooped. Mist with water any snakes that are shedding to help with that process. If a snake sheds overnight, take the skin out of the cage. If a snake was fed the night before, look to make sure it ate the defrosted mouse or rat.
9:20 to 10:10
Clean up after the box turtles that are used for critter connections. For the box turtles in the front window, provide fresh water, take out yesterday’s food dishes, throwing away the leftovers and putting the dish in the dishwasher, and redistribute the coconut fiber substrate. For the box turtles in the other enclosures, provide fresh water, take out yesterday’s food dishes, and change the paper if they have made a mess, in other words, everyday. When I take them out of the tanks, I put up the “slow traffic” sign that has a picture of a turtle and give the turtles worms, trying to keep an eye on them as I clean; it is surprising how fast a turtle can wander away and wedge herself into a small hiding space.
10:10 to 10:40
Tend the nursery for the Abedus (ferocious water beetles), providing them with clean water and crickets. The females lay dozens of eggs on the males’ backs, and we remove the males to small containers filled with water to protect the babies when they hatch. The young pass through numerous stages before they are big enough to go into the tank in the window so floating in the water are “exuvia,” the shed exoskeletons they have outgrown (a fun word I only learned after volunteering at the Museum.)
10:40 to 10:50
Provide hermit crabs with fresh fruit, fresh RO water, and clean salt water; clean and mist habitat.
10:50 to 11:25
Chat with the PIP volunteers (Public Interpretive Program volunteers) when they come in to get a snake or turtle for critter connections and to feed the frogs and toads for the public feeding. Make salad bowls for the turtles: greens, veggies, corn (their favorite if we have it), and berries or other fruit, topped with crushed egg shells for calcium, mealworms dusted with vitamin powder, and nightcrawlers.
11:25 to 11:40
Tidy up, give the rats corn on the cob, and say good bye to Celeste and Jamie. Check-out in the volunteer lounge, take off the apron, and return the key to security.
Not every day is the same. One day, I flooded the lab by accidentally opening the valve for the water snake tank and not noticing until I heard water splashing on the floor. Everyone was very nice about it and told me everyone floods the lab at least once! (The snakes were undisturbed.) Usually, the breaks from routine are more interesting: Harriet looking spiffier after her molt, new interns, the tiny leopard frog that was a tadpole the week before, or the hatchling Red-eared sliders and Painted turtles the horticulturists found in the garden last spring.
Cindy Gray
Animal Care Volunteer View CommentsAn Icon Returns
Published On 10/23/2012Those of you who visit the Museum on a regular basis will have probably noticed the lack of a key exhibit component in Mysteries of the Marsh over the last few months. At the beginning of this year we very sadly lost our beautiful Massasauga Rattlesnake to cancer and have been trying ever since to find a replacement. Because the Massasauga is such an endangered species they are very hard to come by. Private individuals are not allowed to own listed species but as a scientific and educational organization we have a permit for this snake. Even so, it took us ten months to actually locate one and this past weekend we took delivery of a very healthy three year old female.
So how do you transport a rattlesnake? Well the company that bred her was attending a large herpetological show in Tinley Park so we would be able to drive out and collect her from there. We brought all the correct equipment with us and soon had her transferred into something safe, secure and comfortable (for both her and us!)
We secured the whole tub into the back seat of the car with the seat belt and drove our precious cargo back to the Museum. We never work with a venomous snake when the Museum is open to the public so we waited until the evening to transfer her to her new habitat. Transferring ‘hot’ snakes from one spot to another is one of the most dangerous times for handlers and so total concentration and focus is a must. We ensure that our security team keeps everyone away from the area so that we are not disturbed. Firstly, using snake tongs, we lift the bagged snake out of the tub and slide the snake to the very bottom of the bag. We then hold her in the bottom of the bag so that she cannot get anywhere near to the handlers hands because, of course, snake fangs can stick through a canvas bag very easily.
When the knot is undone the whole bag is lifted back into the tub, again using snake tongs so that at no time do the handlers hands come anywhere near the snake. The snake is then carefully slid out of the open bag into the tub.
From here the final step is to carefully lift the snake, using the tongs and snake hook and lower her gently into her new habitat. And here she is, comfortably positioned in her new habitat after her long and arduous journey.
Once in her habitat, her exhibit was covered for a couple of days so that she could get accustomed to her new surroundings. Pretty soon she was ready for her first public appearance as part of the Mysteries of the Marsh exhibit. Be sure to visit her next time you are at the Museum.
Celeste Troon
Director of Living Collections View Comments
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