Zookeeper Gabe's Animal Thread V6.0

Zookeeper Gabe said:
Nothing I refuse to work with. But there's certainly animals I don't really have a desire to work with.
Cetaceans, great apes, elephants, giraffe and most hoof stock do nothing for me. I also really don't like large parrots
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How could you not love orangutans?!
Zookeeper Gabe said:
Things to consider when getting an animal like a sugar glider. They are nocturnal (make noises at night), most of them pee all over you during handling, can afford large enough cage, have a local vet who is knowledgable in treating them and have access to proper diets for them (not a huge deal with the internets now)

They can be rewarding pets if done right. Do tons of research before getting them and try and meet the animals before an actual purchase.
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I loved our sugar glider. We had it for a couple years before it's original owners took it back. It ended up choking itself on a toy with them. I was super bummed. It loved to bite though lol.

I think I met my future wife, today. An Australian zoologist. <3
 
Zookeeper Gabe said:
I fucking love this gif though. This is a spider-tailed horned viper Pseudocerastes urarachnoides.

Video the gif is from.
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Wow.. this is the first time I seen this species of viper. It's very neat. But why is the narrator talking like Jason Statham?
 
Hey Gabe ive got this bird, a red breast robin who keeps flying into my window. He's been doing it every day this week. Its a window door. This morning he was sitting in my door handle and pecking on the window. I don't want the guy to hurt himself. How can I stop him from doing this.

Also I took a job on on an organic farm this summer right down the road from the house my dad left me when he died. I kinda wanna make a thread like yours when I get off dubs (my first time). I'm just wondering how to title it. Farmer Moscato's farm thread maybe. Or some sgit like that. All recommendations are welcome. I think it'll be a good experience to document everyday. This thread inspired that btw
 
That snake is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time.
 
@Mooshy- sounds like the bird is fighting his reflection. Probably thinks it's a rival male and he's trying to scare it off. Pretty common this time of year.

Awesome about working on the organic farm. Hell, it could be Ask an Organic Farmer Anything type of a thread.

@Slick-an Australian zoologist sounds dreamy. And orangs are cool but really the only great apes I enjoy.
 
Zookeeper Gabe said:
Olive pythons get very large upwards of 20'. That one is probably in the 12'-15' range and freshies are actually pretty small. Only Around 5-6'.

And yes that snake isn't going to eat again for about 2-3 months.
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Then can these constrictors eat a rhino or a hippo too?

And I want to call into questions the constricting power of these snakes. The more power they have dont the thicker they have to be? And if they are a certain thickness, then they can only coil their bodies so tightly. Basically the thicker their bodies are, then the wider the inner hollow cylinder/space is inside the coil. If an animal is small enough or slender enough then it ought to be able to survive simply because the snake has a limit to how small it can squeeze its body.
 
MadSquabbles500 said:
Then can these constrictors eat a rhino or a hippo too?

And I want to call into questions the constricting power of these snakes. The more power they have dont the thicker they have to be? And if they are a certain thickness, then they can only coil their bodies so tightly. Basically the thicker their bodies are, then the wider the inner hollow cylinder/space is inside the coil. If an animal is small enough or slender enough then it ought to be able to survive simply because the snake has a limit to how small it can squeeze its body.
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If the prey item were that small it would constrict it. And no to rhino or hippo.

Also if you doubt the power of constrictors you should get your hands on a 5' ball python. Just let it squeeze around your wrist.
 
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So I found a very young tarantula, set him up a nice home.

K9OudCD.jpg

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It ended up building itself a great little bunker, it never comes up anymore lol.

sRSCRaN.jpg

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Here's a beautiful mantis I saw when getting the dirt.

istzqUZ.jpg
 
Russians have been sending geckos into to space and the most recent group demonstrated some interesting behaviours.

[YT]Nbg74yNojwY[/YT]

a space experiment has overturned the view that geckos are entirely serious creatures, showing that they are open to a spot of fun after all.

When given the opportunity, the Russian experiment found, geckos are happy to spend time batting an object around a tank at zero gravity.
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Slick_36
You are lucky that the burrow is at the side of the container so you can actually sees it. Many years ago, my Mexican red knee's burrow is in the middle of the container. Only sees her once every 3 days. LOL.

Any idea what species that is? Looks like Texas brown tarantula to me. You're lucky, the only wild Tarantula here in Singapore is like 2inch at adult size.
 
Is the gorilla mad here, showing dominance, or something else?
 
Zookeeper Gabe said:
I love it, I've watched it so many times. It took me a second hearing him say whale I kept thinking he was saying wheel.

@sam- there's some crazy videos of them killing and eating gophers.
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:eek:

Need to get a leash for my cat. Can't have some bird picking her up.
 
I was in West Africa recently and they have thing called the niki noki or something like that. It's s hairless little imp with wings that drinks blood and attacks people at night. I kept hoping to see one but I couldn't find one anywhere.
 
Don't think I ever posted this here. Got this guy from the petstore a month ago. He's a piebald ball python and had come into the store super skinny. He didn't eat at the store and they asked my opinion I said. He's so skinny he's not going to make it much longer. They adopted him out to me ($450 snake) and I had him eating in a week. He's still skinny but gaining weight every week.


Just for shits and giggles
 
@sea- love that video. All of them died though.

@jefferz- it's dominance. Our silverback did it to fuck with people.
 
Is that color natural? Seems like specially bred species for pet lovers. Also curious how you encouraged it to eat?
 
Just wanted to say thanks, Zookeeper Gabe for doing these threads for so long. I love coming in here and reading about all the animals.
 
@5crew- those are both considered morphs and occur randomly. But they are also bred specifically for their colorations. As for getting him to eat. A big factor was the environment, bigger cage, quiet room. I also rubbed a quail wing on the first mouse so that it had a novel smell. But turns out he just likes mice that have been thawed in really warm water and a quiet house.

@ed- that's an awesome little video. Been seeing it in my feed a lot.
 
A gorilla did that to me when I was baby for some reason, I mean I was tiny haha
 
hey gabe. I'm sure you've mentioned this before (or perhaps you haven't on purpose), but which zoo do you work at?
 
Cooz said:
hey gabe. I'm sure you've mentioned this before (or perhaps you haven't on purpose), but which zoo do you work at?
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I work at Roger Williams Park zoo in Providence. Been here over 5.5 years
 
Oceanic Institute captive bred Yellow Tangs! This is huge for the aquarium industry. It's probably the second most kept SW fish. Yellow tangs are usually collected in Hawaii but they've severely restricted collection recently and it wouldn't surprise me if they ban collection in the very near future.
There's roughly only 40 species, I haven't kept up on breeding news lately, saltwater fish that have been captive bred. Some have only been bred once. So odds are when you saltwater fish in a pet store, they've been harvested from the wild.
yellow-tang-captive-bred.jpg
 
Zookeeper Gabe said:
@Mooshy- sounds like the bird is fighting his reflection. Probably thinks it's a rival male and he's trying to scare it off. Pretty common this time of year.

Awesome about working on the organic farm. Hell, it could be Ask an Organic Farmer Anything type of a thread.

@Slick-an Australian zoologist sounds dreamy. And orangs are cool but really the only great apes I enjoy.
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Thanks Gabe. Man I wish I didn't have dubbs so I could start a thread about it. Ive had some very high highs (naval academy, marine OCS) but ive never had so much as I do now. Its an organic farm 2 minutes down my road and the people I work for are awesome. My dad left me this house and 19 acres of land. Maybe someone could start the thread for me cause I'd really like to share my experience right now with all the good people of the berry
 
I saw one of these guys today. He was perched on top of a dumpster, next to a free way on ramp lol. Not the most majestic of places, but cool to see.

These have been showing up more and more here in WA the past few years. I have seen them 2 other times in the past, including one in the city.

They say due to climate change, the winters up north have been so mild, that the Lemming population has spiked, and so have Snowy Owls. They have been driven south, trying to find new territory.

Xyli_Snowy_Owl.jpg
 
sverre054 said:
I saw one of these guys today. He was perched on top of a dumpster, next to a free way on ramp lol. Not the most majestic of places, but cool to see.

These have been showing up more and more here in WA the past few years. I have seen them 2 other times in the past, including one in the city.

They say due to climate change, the winters up north have been so mild, that the Lemming population has spiked, and so have Snowy Owls. They have been driven south, trying to find new territory.

Xyli_Snowy_Owl.jpg
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I'm in ND and have noticed the past couple of years migratory birds have been showing up later, almost a month later.
 
Thoughts on Ball Pythons? I currently have one. Been about two years and she's on the longest food strike since I bought her
 
I saw that awhile ago Jefferz, it's really good news.

As for the snowy owls they are moving due to climate change. Really cool birds.
 
They should re-classify the tapir with the elephant family.

 
DizzyDaze said:
Thoughts on Ball Pythons? I currently have one. Been about two years and she's on the longest food strike since I bought her
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They can be stubborn animals, but I've had them go for about6 months without feeding. How long has it been since she's fed? What's your husbandry like, temps, humidity etc?
 
They added some cool nature shows on Netflix called "Speed Kills" (by Smithsonian Channel I think).

I never really appreciated how cool gannets were. They go in detail on the show how they are built for such dives. Pretty neat.



Something I've never seen before is the antlion - freaky larva that sets up a death trap for insects to fall into their jaws.

Antlion2.jpg


 
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