Growing up Porcupine at the Red River Zoo

Daisy is 4 months old!

2009-08-15T14:19:00.005-05:00

Daisy's appearance has changed a lot the past month. When porcupine babies are born, they are black. If you look at her photos you can see that is she is a blonde now. Daisy is a North Dakota porcupine whereas Lily is a Minnesota porcupine (see previous posts). Even though they are found not too far apart geographically, they have a difference in coat color. Since there are little trees and a lot of prairie grasses in North Dakota, porcupines from this area are blonde to help blend in. With all the trees in Minnesota, porcupines there are much darker which makes it hard for them to be seen at the tops of trees.

For our "Creature Creations" event Daisy got to paint! Here is a picture of her while she is painting and a picture of the final piece!

8 weeks old!

2009-06-11T13:33:00.004-05:00

Daisy is 8 weeks old today! Currently she weighs 4 lbs 5 oz. She has also upgraded to a new, larger, enclosure. It gives her a lot more room to spin and climb! She is still going to a lot of birthday parties at the zoo and she helps me out with keeper talks every Sunday at 3:30. Daisy has such a wonderful personality which puts a smile on my face every time I'm with her. Just as a reminder, the zoo is now open for the summer season. We are open every day from 10am-8pm. We do a wolf feeding every Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 and Wednesdays at 5:30 (check out their blog on the zoos website!). Plus, meet Daisy every Sunday at 3:30 in front of the porcupine exhibit where you can see her mom "Olivia" as well!

Enjoying a beautiful day and eating grass

Just woke up from a nap! She's a little sleepy!

Hanging out in her new enclosure!

Crazy Daisy!

2009-05-26T10:53:00.006-05:00

Daisy is no longer a baby, she is done with formula! She loves her rodent chow and enjoys eating her apples! She is the fourth porcupine I have hand raised, and she is by far the most curious, playful, and crazy little thing! She loves to show off her quills by spinning in circles then running over to people to be picked up and pet. She has been doing a great job meeting visitors at the zoo, too. We are outside of the porcupine exhibit every Sunday at 3:30. She weighs over 3 lbs now! Here are a couple pictures of her and a video of her playing in her pen.

She keeps growing and growing...

2009-04-29T21:35:00.007-05:00

At birth Daisy weighed 550 grams... now she is over 900 grams! Thats almost 2 lbs!! Hopefully many of you were able to come out to the zoo for our "Party for the Planet" event last Saturday. Daisy made her debut to the public that day. We had over 1600 visitors and she introduced herself to many. She has started showing quite the personality, too! She is starting to follow me around with a lot of enthusiasm and loves to chase after my cats at home. She doesn't seem to fear anything! Here are some pics of how she has grown this past week and video of her on the move.

Spring is in the air... along with a new baby!

2009-04-20T22:21:00.006-05:00

Move over Lily there's a new baby in town!

I would like to introduce you all to the newest addition to the Red River Zoo... DAISY!

Daisy was born Thursday, April 16th sometime before 10:30am. She was born to mom "Olivia" who is two years old, and dad "Mendy" who is three years old. She was 550 grams at birth.

I brought her home Saturday evening to begin the hand raising process. We hand raise our porcupines to get them comfortable around people for use in education programs at the zoo. It makes educating a lot easier if the porcupines aren't tail flicking at the slightest movement!

She will eat between 10-15mL of formula every two hours during the first week. I will weigh her daily and try to handle her as much as possible.

Here are some more pictures...

Size comparison to a deck of cards

Lily on exhibit

2009-02-28T15:47:00.003-06:00

Lily is now 10 months old! Due to the amount of snow we have received this winter and the small size of Lily, she has been chosen to be our exhibit porcupine. She is now 8 pounds and is excited that the weather is getting warmer. She loves to play and still loves to cuddle and get pet. Here are some pictures of her enjoying the yummy taste of an evergreen branch. The zoo is open during the winter. Come on out Saturdays or Sundays from 12-4 and see what Lily is up to!

Lily's been busy!!

2008-08-20T18:07:00.003-05:00

Lily has had a busy summer! Not only has she been busy with birthday parties at the zoo, but she has been busy growing!! She is around 6 pounds already!! She is the sweetest porcupine that I have seen at the Red River Zoo. She had outgrown the pens we had her in, so it was time to put her in a large holding area where the other porcupines were. Although she was in her own pen, she was still very close to the other porcupines. Being around people her whole life, I think she forgot what kind of animal she was. When I put her in her new pen, she didn't know what to think of her new neighbors. She climbed to the top of the pen and started screaming when her neighbor "Victor" came over to introduce himself. I took her down and held her telling her it would be OK. She soon calmed down. Now she has a roommate. "Olivia," the baby from last year, is staying with "Lily." They seem to be getting along very well. Here are some updated pictures of "Lily." She's not a baby anymore!!

"Lily" and her new roommate "Olivia"

Got milk? Not Lily!!

2008-05-07T18:53:00.003-05:00

Lily had her first bite of solid food last week. After that she said "no more milk for me!" She eats about 60 grams of food twice a day. Her favorite food is apples. Since she is eating big girl food, she now stays in a big girl enclosure. She upgraded from a cat carrier to a small dog kennel. She loves to climb around and spin in circles to show off. She is also quite the little partier! She has attended about 5 birthday parties and has many more planned at the zoo. She loves people and loves to have kids pet her! We couldn't have asked for a better porcupine baby! The staff at the Red River Zoo absolutely adores her!

Here is a photo of her hanging out in her new "crib"...

Lily on Live TV

2008-05-07T18:06:00.004-05:00

Lily sure is making a name for herself! One week after being on the radio, she was asked to be on live TV for Valley News Live. It was quite early - 5:30 am - but she didn't seem to mind saying good morning to the viewers. She did have to share the spotlight this time, however. Her "cousins," the Russian red tree squirrels were also on the news with her.

Here is the video... (by the way, thats me on TV as well at 5:30 am!)

Lily around town

2008-05-07T17:51:00.003-05:00

On April 24th, Lily made her media debut. She was welcomed on the SAD morning radio show with Scotch and DUI on Rock102. She had a blast running around on the equipment and trying to answer the phone by standing on top of it and pushing buttons. After the show she got to meet many of the workers at Radio Fargo-Moorhead. I'm pretty sure she didn't get tired of everyone saying how cute she was.

Here is a photo with Scotch and DUI after the show...

She has a name!

2008-05-07T17:40:00.001-05:00

After coming to the conclusion that the baby porcupine is a girl I had the difficult task of coming up with a name. As you may or may not know, adult porcupines are extremely smelly!! Therefore, I try to name the female porcupines after flowers to embrace irony. So, the baby's name is....LILY!

Here is an updated photo of her at 3 weeks old and ~ 500 grams

Pictures

2008-04-21T20:22:00.000-05:00

Here are some photos of the baby porcupine. I believe she is a girl. I won't know for sure until she is a little larger. Porcupines external anatomy are the same between genders. In order to tell what sex she is I have to feel for male/female parts and babies can be quite tricky since they are so little. She is eating well and very active. Her favorite activity is swinging on the kennel door - she shuts the door if she wants privacy :) She weighs ~ 450 grams and eats 30 mL of formula every 4 hours. She is up ~ 70 grams since I've taken her home.

New Baby!!

2008-04-17T20:55:00.000-05:00

It was a typical day at the Red River Zoo, well as typical as it can be as a zookeeper, when a phone call came in about a baby porcupine. There was a baby porcupine brought to a home in Detroit Lakes by someone's dog. The owner of the dog took the baby and followed the tracks back to where they thought the dog had found it and put it back. They went to check on it at a later time and it was still sitting there, cold and alone, so they brought it home. They had it for a week and did an absolute amazing job with it (I say "it" because it is too small for me to determine if it is a boy or a girl). When you get phone calls like this, typically the animal found is in very poor condition and often times there isn't much to do for it. This was not that type of case!! It had a great coat and amazing fecals! Unfortuantely, without the mother porcupine around, the baby needed to have a surrogate mother. Thats where I came in. I am now handraising this cutey to be apart of our outreach programs at the Red River Zoo. I will be feeding it every 3-4 hours for the next couple weeks until it is able to eat solid foods. I will be adding pics as I get them and information about porcupines as the baby grows, so stay tuned!!!