Great Bend Brit Spaugh Zoo Director Ashley Burdick and staff are looking forward to the big Earth Day Celebration on the last Saturday of the month, April 26, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“Rosewood E-cycle, DQ and the zoo are the sponsors of the event. We’ll have a lot of fun activities and groups participating,” Burdick said. “This may be our biggest event yet!”
• The Great Bend Zoological Society will be providing popcorn and face painting.
• Rosewood E-cycle will demonstrate their e-cycle services.
• Model trains will be set up.
• Other groups participating include the Kansas Wetlands Education Center, Heartland Farm, Smoky Hills PBS, Sunflower Diversified Services, Fuller Industries, Women for Kansas, Barton Community College, and Kansas Children’s Service League.
• Food trucks featuring Freaking Delicious Cheesecake and Avast Ye Java will be in front of the zoo selling tasty goodies.
Helen the Hermann’s Tortoise
Recently, the zoo added a Hermann’s Tortoise to its lineup of education animals. The species name is dedicated to the zoologist Jean Hermann of Strasbourg.
“Helen is a 3-year-old tortoise that will be utilized for our live animal programs for school groups, outreach and birthday parties,” Burdick said. “Hermann’s tortoises are native to Europe and only get to be about 8 pounds when fully grown. Since our Sulcata tortoises are now over 75 pounds each, they’re not quite as easy to move around for educational purposes outside of their enclosure.”
Celebrating Spud
Spud, the zoo’s Kunekune pig, turned 1 year old last week. Members of the Great Bend Zoological Society were invited to a birthday party.
Spud wasn’t quite sure how to open the pinata he was given, so he needed some help. But he did eventually find the snacks inside.
Enjoying the weather
Animals can stay inside but as the weather becomes warmer they are more likely to move to the outdoor exhibit areas.
The alligators stay in a heated building during the winter. They decided to go out a couple of weeks ago. “They don’t seem to mind that it’s getting a little chilly some nights,” Burdick said. “They bellowed once they got to the yard.”
There is a video (with audio) of an alligator on the zoo’s Facebook page, with this explanation: “The alligators have decided to come outside for the spring/summer. The first thing they did ... let the lady alligators know they are here. We didn’t have the heart to tell them there are no ladies. Alligators also bellow to establish territory, and signal their body size to other alligators. When they bellow in water, the ripples the movement makes causes water droplets to dance on their backs, which also indicates to other alligators their size.”
Another animal that has avoided the outdoors in the past is the sloth. According to her photo on the Facebook page, “Miss Lucia has decided she doesn’t dislike the outdoors as much anymore. We gave her the option last summer to venture outside, but she wasn’t a fan. (However, on March 27) she thought maybe it wasn’t so bad. We will continue working with her and you may catch her on exhibit near Poppy the binturong on warm days.”
Sloths move slowly to conserve energy and spend most of their time resting and eating in the trees.
