Temporary residents of the Naturalist Office

People sometimes bring us critters. One of the people who works at the hatchery frequently finds frogs and other small animals trapped in the intake pool. These are two of our temporary residents, both brought in during the first week of July.

A visitor brought us a tiny box turtle. The girl really liked looking at all our animals, and holding the snakes, and telling the other kids who came in about the snakes before I could – it could have been annoying, but I just kept reminding myself that I was exactly like that when I was her age… It’s just that now they pay me for it! Anyway, she came back to the Naturalist Office several times, and the last time it was to show us her turtle. She had found it, but was worried because it wasn’t eating, so she agreed to let us keep it. We kept her name for it, which was Blackberry.

Note the jumbo paper clip to show scale. Also note the pretty blue sparkles – Blackberry had been decorated with glitter glue. Oh, well, it’s harmless.

We kept Blackberry for a few days. She never got used to being in a cage – she kept trying to push through the wall. Occasionally I would take her out and let her explore the shelf.

In case the paper clip didn’t convey the size of this turtle, here she is next to a large frog.

The spotted frog is a pickerel frog, which we kept for most of the summer. We had some other temporary frogs, including one that Steve got very excited about when he saw it: a Wood Frog. This was a big deal because they were not thought to be in this area – he had reported seeing one once and was told it could not be true. Now he had proof! We are a long way out of the range that was known for this type of frog. Also, they are endangered, so we only kept it for a few days, then let it go.