Animal Chatter Summerfall 20132012
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animal chatter SummerFall 20132012 @ th e Zoo OFFICERS AND BOARD MEMBERS LAKE AREA ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY Donna Schoenbeck President Dale Christensen Vice President Steve Hageman Secretary/Treasurer Jeanne Flaherty Board Member Dean Gackstetter Board Member Georgia Fishman Board Member Lorraine Rittmann Board Member Brian DeBoer Board Member Dave Todd Board Member Will Morlock Board Member Mike Vener Board Member Susan Munger Board Member PARK AND RECREATION DIRECTOR Terry Jorgenson PARK AND RECREATION BOARD Jean Doyen Heidi Stoick Jim Stoudt Mike Danforth Scott Johnston Dennis Murphy Kim Bellum BRAMBLE PARK ZOO STAFF Dan Miller Zoo Director Jim Lloyd General Curator John Gilman Zookeeper LeAnn Stavig Zookeeper Bill Gallagher Zookeeper Michelle Miller Zookeeper Joe Jipp Maintenance Kim Konrad Office/Visitor Services Manager zoo hours Jaime Stricker Educator We are now on our Summer Hours Memorial Day-Labor Day Barb Struwe Roots & Shoots 10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. Daily Coordinator admission fees 2 and under – Free ACCREDITED BY THE 3-12 years old – $5.00 + tax 13 and over – $7.00 + tax Children 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult. 2 Director’s Report Dear Zoo Members and Friends, Get ready for another season of family fun at YOUR Zoo…The Wildest Place in Watertown! Come for an hour or all-day, but be sure to “Come Closer” to wild animals, wild prairie gardens and wild adventures. There are many new wild animals to see including the forest dwelling fishers & pine martens. These amazing mammals have many adaptations allowing them to agilely move through the trees. Some notable wild animal births include black & white ruffed lemurs, ring-tail lemurs, a capuchin monkey, colobus monkey, American bison, Bactrian camel, reindeer, swift fox, kangaroos and goats. Some of Bramble Park Zoo’s wild adventures include Breakfast with the Bears at 10:30am daily; Penguin Feedings daily at 11:00am & 3:00pm; Animal Encounters on the weekends at 2:30pm and Primate Feedings on the weekends at 3:30pm. Wild native prairie plants at the zoo include the State Pasque flower, the amazing prairie smoke flower and the colorful wild iris. These wild plants make up part of the local tallgrass prairie ecosystem. The tallgrass prairie is one of the most complex and diverse ecosystems on our planet. Consisting of anywhere from 400 to 1500 different wild species, the associations and interactions between different wild species may never be fully understood. This is especially true when we consider that the tallgrass prairie once covered 250 million square acres of the United States and is now but a fraction of that amount. You have our commitment to continue to create the wildest place in town and wonderful zoo adventures for you to enjoy now and in years to come. Due to your continued support, guests will find affordable family fun and see how the Bramble Park Zoo provides the highest quality care for all species here. We hope you take time this summer ---at the zoo, throughout South Dakota, or wherever you may travel---to appreciate the wild faces and wild places around us and encourage all to act wisely on their behalf. We look forward to sharing the excitement of creating one of the region’s best zoos, right here in northeastern South Dakota. Thank you for all your support. Dan Miller Zoo Director p up with ee K Become a “fan” on facebook Lake Area Zoological Society & Bramble Park Zoo 3 sponsor a black & white ruffed lemur SUMMER SPECIAL You can sponsor one of the black and white ruffed lemur triplets (Timon, Tucker or Tate). Your sponsorship package is just $30 for one year, or $50 for two years! Sponsoring an animal is a animal sponsorships WILD and thoughtful gift for anyone, Zoo Parent(s) “Wild Child” and it’s a great way to support the Charles Malone. White Bengal Tiger Bramble Park Zoo. Your generous gift Jennifer Malone. .Sicilian Donkey directly supports the costs of caring for Jefferson 1st Grade. .African Hedgehog the more than 800 animals who call Jefferson 1st Grade. .African Hedgehog Bramble Park Zoo home, including the lemurs. To learn more about the ani- Jefferson 1st Grade. .African Hedgehog mal sponsorship program, Jefferson 1st Grade. .African Hedgehog please visit our website at Ashlyn Larson. White Bengal Tiger www.brambleparkzoo.com Mellette AM Kindergarten. White Bengal Tiger Cubs or call the Zoo at 605-882-6269. Mellette PM Kindergarten. White Bengal Tiger Cubs 4 GIRLS RULE RECAP Roots & Shoots Girls Rule Junior members (4-5th graders) attended 8 meetings this spring. They had an opportunity to do many things such as help with Roots & Shoots Free Day; volunteer at the Humane Society by giving baths and walking dogs, visit the Codington County Heritage Museum to learn about Frank Bramble and to complete a scavenger hunt; go behind the scenes at the zoo to learn about the inner workings of a zoological facility; learn animal handling skills and show animals during an outreach program at Jefferson Kidscope; be a part of the clean-up Making Watertown a Litter-Bit-Better; and celebrate the earth at Joy Ranch with buggy rides and a campfire. GOING GREEN: Animal Chatter, the quarterly Adrian Gilman (son of Shawn and John Lake Area Zoological Society Gilman, Watertown) plays in an egg in the Going Newsletter, is GREEN! If you Children’s Zoo. would like to help us save GREEN money on printing and postage . at the Zoo! costs and help the environment, please drop us an email at [email protected] with the words “It’s Easy Being Green” in the subject line and we will start sending your newsletter electronically. You’ll get the same information and pictures, without wasting paper and money. You’ll even get the news sooner if you choose to receive Animal Chatter via e-mail! Note: Some editions will still be mailed via the US Postal Service due to important inserts located in the newsletter. Pearl Janet Brage is 2 years old and daughter of Darin Brage and Jodi Borns of Aberdeen, SD. 5 Pine martens are members of the weasel family. Once keepers’ common in North American forests, these small mammals were hunted and trapped by colonists until their populations declined drastically. Pine martens are listed as threatened in some areas. korner Pine marten habitat includes lodgepole pine, Douglas fir, spruce, and mixed hardwood forests. Destruction of forest PINE MARTENS & FISHERS habitat greatly reduced their former populations. Pine martens are omnivorous and prefer mice, red squirrels, chipmunks, birds and eggs, and other small animals. They also eat berries, nuts and carrion. They are in the Mustelidae (or weasel-like mammal) family and are related to mink, otters, badgers, wolverines, weasels, and skunks. Pine martens nest on the ground, in hollow logs or brushy undergrowth. Although females may be pregnant for nine months, 2 to 4 kits develop only in the two months before birth due to delayed implantation. The fisher is an aggressive predator found in the northernmost forests of North America. It is at home on the land or in the trees, being so capable of moving about in the branches that it has gained a reputation as one of the fastest animals in that environment. Fishers are also known as pekans, tree foxes, black cats and as fisher cats. These last two names cause confusion about its family roots. The fisher is not a member of the cat family by any means, nor does it eat a large number of fish. The fisher also belongs to the Mustelidae family and is a large weasel. It may have garnered its name from the early French settlers in the regions where it was common, as the European polecat species was called a “fitch” and the hides of those animals were referred to as “fichet”, which probably morphed into fisher and fisher cat. FUN FACTS: • Martens in captivity may live 15 years • Martens are generally solitary except during breeding season • Fishers have few predators aside from man • There is evidence that ancestors of the fisher migrated to North America during the Pliocene era (2.5-5 million years ago) • Fishers have five toes on each foot with unsheathed, retractable claws • Fishers have extremely mobile ankle joints, which can rotate their hind paws almost 180 degrees, allowing them to agilely move through trees and climb down a tree head first. • Fishers are one of the few predators that seek out and kill porcupines • Fishers are most active during dawn and dusk hours of the day • Although fishers are great tree climbers, they spend most of their time on the forest floor 6 The Lake Area Zoological Society’s Endowment Fund What is an endowment fund for a non-profit? A fund that is made up of gifts and bequests that are subject to a requirement that the principal be maintained intact and invested to create a source of income for an organization. Why is it important to build an endowment fund? bramble park zoo There are several reasons to start an endowment. The campaign wins first is to have a source of funds to bridge the gap during cyclical variances in income. That way, an organization won’t have to cut programs and staff during difficult 10 addy awards! times. Sioux Falls, S.D. (March 26, 2013) – Bramble Park Zoo along with Caliber Creative received 10 ADDY Awards for their “Come And if you’ve identified new programs and services you’d Closer” Campaign at the South Dakota Advertising Federation’s like to launch, but don’t have the resources you need to (SDAF) ADDY Awards show on March 15th at the Orpheum start them, an endowment can provide you with the Theater in downtown Sioux Falls.