Antler Retrieval
Antlers are collected on the National Elk Refuge by staff and a troop of boy scouts in the spring and sold at auction in May to benefit the scouts and the Refuge. Last year, however, one old bull died in a pond on the Refuge, its huge rack protruding from the water, barely out of reach. The urge to recover it overwhelmed me!
Serpent Surprise
“Snake!” Sue McDonald’s 7-year-old daughter, Sapphire, still sat in the car in their garage when she spotted the snake and cried out.
Antler Auction
Despite snow, cold, wind, and occasional glimpses of sun, the annual Antler Auction in Jackson, Wyoming, proceeded as usual today.
Does a Snake Make a Good Necklace?
“When my friend was at a reptile program, they hung a snake around his neck,” a second grader told us during one of our school programs recently. “When the snake started to curl around his neck, the owner said he’d take it off when my friend’s face started to turn purple.”
Becoming Museum Volunteers
A packrat den in a rock wall, stuffed with burro droppings, cactus pieces, and various vegetation, helps us explain to our winter visitors how we became involved volunteering with Denver’s Museum of Natural History.
Snake Encounter
Even though we always look for snakes when we hike, surprising one on the trail today reminded us that we need to be even more vigilant as they now emerge from hibernation.
Burrowing Owl Project
With a decrease in fossorial (burrowing) animals, burrowing owls are finding fewer places to nest. This week we joined a group that has been working with Wild at Heart, inc., (burrowing owl relocation) to create artificial nesting sites for burrowing owls at Cibola National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) a couple hours north of Imperial NWR in Arizona.