They are very small but able to jump extremely high.  Okay, not really high enough to scale small buildings, but high enough to be impressive.  When admitted just a few days ago, these Meadow Jumping Mice still had their eyes closed.  They have developed very quickly and are showing their natural behavior of jumping when threatened or frightened.  Note the long tail and large rear feet that assist them in these maneuvers.

Jumping mice eat a varied diet of seeds, insects, beetles and vegetable matter.  The mice are doing very well and will be ready for release in no time.

After nearly two months, two of our baby hummingbirds were ready to be released back into the wild last Saturday. We’ve watched them learn how to hover, figure out how to drink nectar from flowers, and practice catching fruit flies out of the air. These skills seemed hard-wired into them and it took very little coaxing on our part to get them to stop gaping and learn how to feed themselves.

The last thing to do before releasing these birds was to show them how to ’stand their ground’ at the hummingbird feeder. Normally I made sure that they had a variety of food sources (such as classic hummingbird feeders, live flowers, and small syringes filled with nectar and fake flower tips on the ends) but a few days before release, I removed all but one feeder. The purpose of this was to let the birds practice ‘fighting’ over the feeder so that they would not become intimidated if another hummingbird were to come along. Being competitive and solitary birds who like to defend their territories, this is very important!

The release went beautifully, you can watch it here on our YouTube Channel. We watched both birds leave their cage and begin to explore their new surroundings. They drank from some flowers before darting off into the sky, and eventually…to Central America!

We admitted our 7,000th animal of the year this afternoon! It was an infant mouse! Last year we admitted #7,000 on August 24th. Are we looking to have a record-breaking year?? We will see!!

While every day at WRC is rewarding and filled with moments of deep satisfaction, yesterday was a very special day.

Two juvenile river otters, which we’ve raised for the past eight weeks, were released at the Rapids Lake area of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refugee near Carver.  Releases are usually intriguing, often unpredictable and sometimes exciting; yesterday’s release was that and more.  The otters were certainly ready to be free.  They were snarly and aggressive when we captured them for the trip to freedom.

In addition to US Fish and Wildlife officials, our staff and some of our summer interns, KARE11 joined us to film the release and aired it on last night’s news.  Here’s a full-page display of the news video.

River Otters are a difficult species to raise.  They get very stressed during handling, their diet is challenging and requires introducing a variety of foods, including live prey (such as the crayfish you’ve seen in an earlier post).  As they grow older they require significant space and high water quality.  Their aggressive nature makes it difficult to monitor their progress. They are also social and seldom do well alone.

We (and the otters) were fortunate in this case.  We rarely see otters, yet these two came to us just five days apart – on June 10 and June 15.  And the later arrival came from Belle Plain, near the release site.

We’re very grateful to the US Fish and Wildlife staff for finding an appropriate site at the National Wildlife Refugee and for giving us permission to do the release.  USFW staff have seen otters all along the Minnesota River Valley.  This release is a celebration of our success in raising these otters and is also symbolically important since the presence of otters is an indicator of improving river habitat on the Minnesota River.

Here’s more information on River Otters.

If cuteness factor went to 11, our young River Otters would easily achieve that rating.  Today, Nurseries Director Lynnette Scott, invited me to film the otters’ first experience with live crayfish.  It didn’t take them long to figure out these were tasty little morsels (even though one otter carried around a tenacious crayfish that latched onto its belly before the other otter discovered and promptly devoured it).

The wooden platform that you see in the photo and video is actually the otters’ favorite place to hang out.  They also have plenty of tree limbs and branches and a large pool in their room.  We’re planning on moving them to outdoor caging in the next couple days, then releasing them in approximately 2 weeks.

You’ll have to check out the video of them playing with, and finally eating, the crayfish.

What a perfect day for a duck release.  Today several volunteers and staff rounded up more than 40 ducks from our outdoor caging at Carpenter Nature Center for release.

Before transporting the ducks to their new home they were each checked for body and feather condition and fitted with federal ID bands.  Thanks to Jim Fitzpatrick, licensed bird bander, and his banding crew, all the mallards released today were banded.

Having birds banded before release is important because band reports provide vital information about wild populations.  We once had a band report on a Canada Goose that was raised in our nursery seven years after its release.

The mallards were released in Cottage Grove Ravine Regional Park.  It was apparent by the flapping, diving, and preening that these ducks approved of their new home.

Yesterday one of the hummingbirds ventured out of the nest! The other will soon follow.  Hummingbirds only lay two eggs and begin incubating right away, so one chick hatches first and is always a day ahead of the other. Today we will introduce miniature hummingbird feeders to the pair, however we will still hand feed them for a while as they get used to the idea of eating on their own. It is hard to believe that these little birds will make the long journey to Central America, non-stop over the Gulf of Mexico, when summer comes to a close!

The lump you can see on the neck in the top picture is the bird’s “crop” (a place in their esophagus where they store their food after they eat it and before they digest it.)

The hummingbirds at 16 days old…starting to get feathers!  Watch them feeding on our YouTube Channel.

Two days ago, just before we closed for the night, the WRC received two of our smallest admits of the year – infant Ruby-throated Hummingbirds! They had fallen from their nest and amazingly, someone spotted them on the ground. It is always best to replace baby birds into their nest, but the rescuer was unable to locate the nest so did the next best thing and brought the birds to us.

Baby hummingbirds need to be fed every 15 minutes for 14 hours a day. These two are about 10 days old, and have only just recently opened their eyes. We are currently feeding them a juvenile hummingbird formula with some insects added for extra protein, which is important for feather development in infants. We’ve also ordered some special hand-feeding formula to be shipped overnight from a rehabilitator in California who specializes in hummingbirds. It is the same food that the San Diego zoo uses for all their exotic hummingbirds and is due to arrive sometime today. (What a kind donation!) I’m happy to report that these little babies are doing very well.

We currently have 3 baby Green Herons in our Avian Nursery. They are all doing very well and love to eat their fish! The photo above is of the one that was admitted today!

You can watch part of its admit exam on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niNou4msY7g

We have two orphaned River Otters in our Mammal Nursery!  They were admitted a week apart but have already bonded, curling up with each other while sleeping.

We’re introducing them gradually to adult food by offering a mix of a fish slurry and dead fish in their pool.  We’ll add live fish, crawfish and other delectables as they mature.

As with any wild animal, their instinct is to hide from humans so filming them is challenging, but we did manage to get a few short video clips.

Check out our new YouTube channel:  http://www.youtube.com/user/WRCMN.  Subscribe to it and you’ll be automatically notified anytime we upload new video.  The 2 new videos of the River Otters in their room and pool are uploaded.