The Dugong song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXm1ICO8Nec
A song about Narwhals:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykwqXuMPsoc
It is a nice cloudy, chilly winter day. It's really nice to have a little winter, it just doesn't feel right unless we have a little winter. The only thing disturbing it was someone mowing their lawn. After having grown in Ohio where winter gets really cold, it's just plain weird to hear lawnmowers and edgers in January and February. In Ohio, we'd hear the occasional snow blower or snow plow but no lawnmowers.
Last night, we watched a show about raccoon on Nature on PBS called Raccoon Nation.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/raccoon-nation/introduction/7518/
It was really interesting, especially since we help care for Roscoe and Albus at the Heard. On the show, they talked about how raccoon in the city are evolving. The smart ones are living longer and reproducing more. The mothers teach the skills they have learned to the young, like how to get into a trash can secured with a bungee cord. Raccoon adapt well to city life and are getting smarter. A group of scientists attached GPS tracking devices to a group of raccoon in Toronto (they call it 'The Raccoon Capital Of The World'). They were able to track the activities of different raccoon groups in the city, where they went, what they did and found some real interesting things. One of the things they found is that raccoon have real small territories, different groups of raccoon have different territories throughout a neighborhood. The more obstacles raccoon are presented with, the smarter they get and this is pushing their brain development.
I know that the wild raccoon on the Heard sanctuary were reaching into the cages of the outdoor animal exhibit and taking dry food that was in hanging bowls on the sides of the cages. We now have to put the bowls inside the cage where raccoon can't get at them. We have to be sure to close and lock the animal care cottage so that the raccoon can't get in and have a big party on our animal food. When I used to work in the Heard's gift shop on Saturday mornings, the first thing I would have to do after getting to work and turning on the lights, was to go outside and pick up the messes the raccoon made with our garbage. They would have trash spread in a big circle around each trash can. We get a lot of kids and groups of kids coming to the museum and they bring lunches, don't eat everything in their lunch and toss it in the trash. This is a delicious feast for the local raccoon. Raccoon-proof trash cans are not in the budget, which is just as well because they'd probably learn to break into those as well. Raccoon also climb into the dumpsters in the back and people have had to place logs in the dumpster so that the raccoon can climb get back out. Maybe the raccoon will evolve to the point that they'll have little jet-packs to help them get out of dumpsters.
In Japan, there was a cute raccoon cartoon in the 70's. People imported raccoon by the dozen and tried to keep them as pets. This naturally did not work out and many, many raccoon were released into the wild. Raccoon are not native to Japan, they have no natural predator, they are an invasive species. They are tearing apart beautiful old temples that are hundreds of years old. Now they have a big problem on their hands and have to get rid of all of the raccoon.
People just don't understand, wild animals don't make good house pets. There's a video on You Tube of a pet raccoon tearing up someone's drywall in their kitchen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DfGf4M3QZo
Adopting cats or dogs from local shelters is so much better. If this guy had gone to the pound and adopted a dog or cat, his drywall would still be intact. Dogs and cats have been domesticated for many generations. Raccoon have never been domesticated. It's not rocket science!
Right next door to the Heard sanctuary, there's a housing development going up. Theses are like small mansions that run around $700,000. so we're talking about some seriously rich people. (Maybe they'd like to make a generous tax-deductible donation to the Heard?) Anyway, some of them have already moved in and I'm sure the some of the local raccoon have established territories and have discovered all of the good garbage a rich neighborhood can produce. I'm sure these people won't be really happy about having to pick up the trash where the raccoon have dined. I just hope they don't blame the museum for the big raccoon parties. They chose to live next door to a wildlife sanctuary.
At the city council meeting concerning the building of this neighborhood, someone representing the housing development said that they were going to put up fences to keep our wildlife out. Those of us from the Heard laughed so hard that those running the meeting had to tell us to settle down and be quiet. Some people just don't understand wildlife and have to learn the hard way.
Picture of a raccoon from the Heard's website
Picture of Albus from the Heard's website
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