The theme for today is "Haiku" in the 2012 Wordcount Blogathon that I'm participating in this month. Here's my contribution:
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| Porter, our male California Sea Lion giving me a kiss for my birthday. |
Showing posts with label Zoo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zoo. Show all posts
Monday, May 21, 2012
Friday, May 18, 2012
Remembering "Rex"
Today's Endangered Species Day so I thought it would be appropriate to share some pictures of one of our leucistic (white) Bengal tigers that passed away two weeks ago.
He was known as "Rex", and he lived with his brother "King Zulu" at the Audubon Zoo for the past 13 years.
Rex, unfortunately lost his battle to cancer at the ripe old age of 16. In the wild their life span is 8-10 years.
These two tigers had a special bond, which is unusual for their species.
Normally tigers are known to be very territorial and solitary animals, but these brothers seemed to genuinely enjoy each other's company.
They acted as great ambassadors of their species to teach people about the declining number of tigers. Bengal tigers are the subspecies with the most representatives in the wild, but even they are running into hunters that see them as trophies or ingredients in medicine.
Huge thank you for all of the wonderful photos taken by vistors/adoring fans! You can see more on the Audubon Zoo's facebook page.
He was known as "Rex", and he lived with his brother "King Zulu" at the Audubon Zoo for the past 13 years.
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| Photo by: Maria DiFulco |
These two tigers had a special bond, which is unusual for their species.
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| Photo by: Sarah Rosedahl |
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| Photo by: Emily Esposito |
Visitors and Keepers alike will surely miss Rex, but I wonder if Zulu will miss him even more.
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| Photo by: Terri Casso-Witt |
Huge thank you for all of the wonderful photos taken by vistors/adoring fans! You can see more on the Audubon Zoo's facebook page.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Rudy- The Tortoise with Heart
Today (May 3rd) is National Specially-Abled Pets Day. So I wanted to share the story of an animal that I work with that is "specially-abled".
His name is Rudy and he's a gopher tortoise.
Gopher tortoises are called that because they are amazing diggers, like their mammal namesake. They are known for digging tunnels (up to 40 feet long) with a den at the end. These underground burrows are havens to more than 80 different species including endangered animals like Louisiana pine snakes, indigo snakes, and the Florida mouse. Rudy was actually doing what normal gopher tortoises do when he ran into some trouble, a lawnmower to be specific. When the man discovered the tortoise, he brought him to the Audubon Zoo in hopes that the veterinarians could help him.
Rudy lost one of his front legs, but looking at the slice missing out of his shell, it's amazing that he wasn't killed. Now that he only has 3 legs, he couldn't be released because he would no longer be able to dig a burrow for protection. So he lives at the zoo in the Children's Zoo area and was named "Rudy" because like the football player, he's got a lot of heart.
I love taking Rudy out for children to see. Usually when I place him on the ground so they can watch him move, the kids laugh at him initially because it's a little awkward. Like all turtles/tortoises, he lifts his shell off of the ground to walk, but when it's time for his front leg to move, he tips forward on his missing leg's side. Rudy does not give up though. He continues to move forward, albeit a little slower than "normal" gopher tortoises. And soon, the children start cheering him on. They go from being bullies to being advocates and I think that Rudy teaches them perfectly; we should be empathetic to others that might be different than us on the outside. We are all walking through this life together.
If you want to learn about other "specially-abled" animals that help others. you can read my posts about Faith, a dog that walks on her two hind legs giving encouragement to amputees, or the Tennessee Safety Spotters, a group of Deaf Dalmatians that teach kids about safety and Deafness.
Special thanks to my friend Amanda Mazzoni for her fabulous pictures of Rudy.
His name is Rudy and he's a gopher tortoise.
Gopher tortoises are called that because they are amazing diggers, like their mammal namesake. They are known for digging tunnels (up to 40 feet long) with a den at the end. These underground burrows are havens to more than 80 different species including endangered animals like Louisiana pine snakes, indigo snakes, and the Florida mouse. Rudy was actually doing what normal gopher tortoises do when he ran into some trouble, a lawnmower to be specific. When the man discovered the tortoise, he brought him to the Audubon Zoo in hopes that the veterinarians could help him.
Rudy lost one of his front legs, but looking at the slice missing out of his shell, it's amazing that he wasn't killed. Now that he only has 3 legs, he couldn't be released because he would no longer be able to dig a burrow for protection. So he lives at the zoo in the Children's Zoo area and was named "Rudy" because like the football player, he's got a lot of heart.
I love taking Rudy out for children to see. Usually when I place him on the ground so they can watch him move, the kids laugh at him initially because it's a little awkward. Like all turtles/tortoises, he lifts his shell off of the ground to walk, but when it's time for his front leg to move, he tips forward on his missing leg's side. Rudy does not give up though. He continues to move forward, albeit a little slower than "normal" gopher tortoises. And soon, the children start cheering him on. They go from being bullies to being advocates and I think that Rudy teaches them perfectly; we should be empathetic to others that might be different than us on the outside. We are all walking through this life together.
If you want to learn about other "specially-abled" animals that help others. you can read my posts about Faith, a dog that walks on her two hind legs giving encouragement to amputees, or the Tennessee Safety Spotters, a group of Deaf Dalmatians that teach kids about safety and Deafness.
Special thanks to my friend Amanda Mazzoni for her fabulous pictures of Rudy.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Peace Begins with a Smile- Mother Teresa
I found another article featuring a slideshow of animals smiling. They must be on to something.
If you've caught your animal smiling, send me a picture and we can create our own slideshow to be featured on my blog.
If you've caught your animal smiling, send me a picture and we can create our own slideshow to be featured on my blog.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Birds of a Feather
This summer I will be doing an 8 week rotation somewhere in New Orleans. I put the VA hospital as my first choice because I want to make sure that I have experience practicing physical therapy in many different settings. If I do get placed at the VA hospital, I plan on telling the people I work with about Serenity Park.
Serenity Park was started by a psychologist's love of veterans and parrots. Dr. Lorin Lindner was working at a VA hospital in California and she found that the veterans had a hard time opening up to her. On a whim, she took them to a parrot sanctuary that she had opened 10 years earlier. The vet's reactions to the birds were incredible.“The next thing I knew, they were down on the ground cuddling the birds and talking baby talk to them,” Dr, Lindner related in an interview.
Using her knowledge of birds and psychology, she convinced the VA hospital to open a parrot sanctuary on the property. Her plan included using the birds in animal assisted therapy for the veterans' psychological needs and the care of the birds as a reintroduction to the skills necessary for reentering the workforce.
The relationship has "taken flight". As a result of their programming, several of the veterans move on to working with animals in some capacity from dog grooming, to veterinary clinics. "One veteran now works for Los Angeles Animal Services and another opened his own animal-based construction company that builds boarding facilities and aviaries", Dr. Lindner reports. The birds have also benefited; having a place with ample space, food choices, and socialization increases the birds' quality of life. Often people will get a parrot without doing research and usually the bird pays for this mistake. Serenity Park is a sanctuary for those birds when their owners no longer want them or can take care of them.
Most parrots are monogamous and therefore take time to bond with a person. Before reading about Serenity Park, I didn't think that parrots could be therapy animals for that reason. Now I see that working with a parrot is a great way to teach about relationship building with a focus on patience. Building relationships takes time, and so does healing. At the end of both, the rewards are great.
*Boomer was relinquished by her previous owners, as were all of the parrots in the education collection at the zoo. A fellow blogger, and former keeper, explains the issues with this process in her post.
Serenity Park was started by a psychologist's love of veterans and parrots. Dr. Lorin Lindner was working at a VA hospital in California and she found that the veterans had a hard time opening up to her. On a whim, she took them to a parrot sanctuary that she had opened 10 years earlier. The vet's reactions to the birds were incredible.“The next thing I knew, they were down on the ground cuddling the birds and talking baby talk to them,” Dr, Lindner related in an interview.
Using her knowledge of birds and psychology, she convinced the VA hospital to open a parrot sanctuary on the property. Her plan included using the birds in animal assisted therapy for the veterans' psychological needs and the care of the birds as a reintroduction to the skills necessary for reentering the workforce.
The relationship has "taken flight". As a result of their programming, several of the veterans move on to working with animals in some capacity from dog grooming, to veterinary clinics. "One veteran now works for Los Angeles Animal Services and another opened his own animal-based construction company that builds boarding facilities and aviaries", Dr. Lindner reports. The birds have also benefited; having a place with ample space, food choices, and socialization increases the birds' quality of life. Often people will get a parrot without doing research and usually the bird pays for this mistake. Serenity Park is a sanctuary for those birds when their owners no longer want them or can take care of them.
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| Boomer, a Catalina Macaw that lives at the Audubon Zoo. * Picture taken by Amy Martin |
*Boomer was relinquished by her previous owners, as were all of the parrots in the education collection at the zoo. A fellow blogger, and former keeper, explains the issues with this process in her post.
Friday, January 27, 2012
You're Never Fully Dress Without a Smile
Sometimes the most healing thing is seeing a smile on a friendly face.
If that didn't do it for you, here's a whole page of smiling animals.
My favorites are the owl, elephant seal, and of course the sheep.
Hopefully this will help when you're having a bad day!
Monday, January 23, 2012
Art of Healing
Most people have finger painted before
But what about painting with the ear of a dog, or tail of a horse?
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?At Special Troopers Adaptive Riding School (or S.T.A.R.S. Inc), some students did just that. The art project was part of a fundraiser for the group but it ended up being a teaching tool as well. S.T.A.R.S. works with people with "physical, cognitive, emotional, behaviors or social challenges" so the physical act of painting was a great therapy exercise, especially when you mix in some animal partners. There's a slide show of the art work here.
While, that is the only time I've heard of animals being used as a medium for art, other groups have used animals as inspiration for art.
This is a blog that I follow and the writer occasionally offers art workshops which her animals are a part of.
http://apiferafarm.blogspot.com/p/puppetsfolk-dolls.html gives you the details about one coming up in September so you can experience for yourself what animals and art can do.
Even the San Diego Zoo has gotten into connecting animals, art and healing. Here's a video from one of their workshops:
Even the San Diego Zoo has gotten into connecting animals, art and healing. Here's a video from one of their workshops:
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Elephant Helps a Man with a Cold
Obviously this is totally far-fetched, but I had to post it anyway because it made me smile!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Happy Halloween!
Friday, September 30, 2011
Reach Out and Touch Somebody
I have been busy with school this week (mid terms are coming up) and haven't had a chance to blog. Instead, I'm going to direct you to a friend's blog where I was featured as a guest writer last month.
The story is about the important of connecting with animals through touch.
Enjoy!
The story is about the important of connecting with animals through touch.
Enjoy!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Animals in the Office
I talked about animals in the classroom but what about the workplace? I'm lucky enough to be employed at the Audubon Zoo where there are all kinds of exotic creatures. The thing is, the animals that do the most "work" are two guinea pigs named Betty and Veronica, that live in the education office.
These two little girls are called on when the workload it too much. Just holding a guinea pig, takes the tension out of your body and the longer you hold one, your stress seems to melt away. For that time period, you are lulled into a sense of calm by the purring noise they make when you stroke them. After letting Veronica nestle against your body, you feel refreshed and ready to work again. That rude person that was on the phone doesn't matter because Betty will still show you affection.
The fact that positivity breeds positivity, means that even just sharing an office space with these two happy guinea pigs brings up the morale. I could be working on writing confirmation letters, a dull tedious task, and suddenly I hear Betty bucking like a bronco in her enclosure and it brings a smile to my face. (In guinea pigs that bucking behavior is called "popcorning" and is a sign of happiness.)
Maybe this is why some companies started participating in "take your dog to work day". People are starting to realize that animal are beneficial to adults as well as children. Have you ever taken a pet to work? Or worked somewhere that had an "office pet"? Mark your calendar for next year's date June 22, 2012 and see if you can detect a difference when you add an animal to your office.
These two little girls are called on when the workload it too much. Just holding a guinea pig, takes the tension out of your body and the longer you hold one, your stress seems to melt away. For that time period, you are lulled into a sense of calm by the purring noise they make when you stroke them. After letting Veronica nestle against your body, you feel refreshed and ready to work again. That rude person that was on the phone doesn't matter because Betty will still show you affection.
The fact that positivity breeds positivity, means that even just sharing an office space with these two happy guinea pigs brings up the morale. I could be working on writing confirmation letters, a dull tedious task, and suddenly I hear Betty bucking like a bronco in her enclosure and it brings a smile to my face. (In guinea pigs that bucking behavior is called "popcorning" and is a sign of happiness.)
Maybe this is why some companies started participating in "take your dog to work day". People are starting to realize that animal are beneficial to adults as well as children. Have you ever taken a pet to work? Or worked somewhere that had an "office pet"? Mark your calendar for next year's date June 22, 2012 and see if you can detect a difference when you add an animal to your office.
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| Monica snuggling Betty |
Friday, July 1, 2011
Toledo Zoo Going APES
The Toledo Zoo recently unveiled a new program they will be offering this summer pairing autistic kids with zoo animals. The program is called APES which stands for "Animals Providing Emotional Support". You can read more about it here.
I'm excited that the Toledo Zoo has found a way to incorporate their animals into helping people. The reporter in the the video mentioned that the program is gaining a lot of interest. I think it's great that people are willing to try it out.
I'm interested in seeing what kind of tools and assessments they will use to measure success. They will need to be able to prove that they are legitimately offering a service for the zoo to continue to keep the program. That data will also be useful for the writing of potential grants. Hopefully this will become a model that other zoos can follow.
**Update** It seems that the program is still going on and the Autism Academy of Learning is the group to get in touch with.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
New Blog
Animals are amazing creatures and I've been fascinated with them since I was very young. I've been blessed to have had the opportunity to be the Zoomobile Coordinator at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans for the past three and a half years. While there, I have found what I've known to be true since I was little, animals have an incredible power to help heal.
The Zoomobile is an outreach program from the Audubon Zoo. As the coordinator, I brought animals from the zoo to schools, hospitals, nursing homes and libraries (to name a few places) all over southeastern Louisiana. The program is run through the education department of the zoo but, I witnessed that beyond educating people we were able to really make an impact on people's lives.
There have been countless times that I was told things like "that was the first time we've seen that person smile", "willingly touch something", "talk". I visited a school for children with special needs and the next year that I went the kids were telling me what I brought last year. The teachers informed me that the kids had been talking about it all year.
Currently I'm in LSU-New Orleans' Doctorate of Physical Therapy program. My goal is to graduate and become an Animal Assisted Physical Therapist. I want to use what I learned working at the Audubon Zoo and integrate animals into my practice so that people will regain their health in a fun, fast way.
I welcome you to join me on my journey as I explore the healing power of animals.
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