Bald Eagle

Happy 4th of July! To celebrate our nation’s birthday we are talking about the North American bald eagle in this week’s post! The bald eagle is the only eagle that is exclusive to North America and lives near bodies of water in The Continental United States, Alaska and Canada.

This majestic animal stands about 3 feet tall and features a wingspan of 6-7 feet. Males are a little bit smaller than females, their wing spans spread around 6 feet. The Bald Eagle will weigh anywhere from 7-14 pounds. Just based on size alone the Bald Eagle is the size of a mid-sized dog. It’s obviously lighter due to hollow bones but that doesn’t make it any less respectable. I might have to go see if I can get a guard eagle LOL.

The bald eagle is monogamous choosing one mate at a time and will only seek a new mate if one of the pair dies. They have a lifespan of 20-30 years so they spend a long time together as a couple. They also build the nest jointly. A Bald Eagle’s nest can weigh up to a ton! It can also be as wide as 8 feet across. At around 4-5 years of age bald eagles will choose mating partners. A female will lay her eggs 5-10 days after mating and will usually lay 1-3 eggs in her clutch. The eggs are incubated for about 35 days and then boom, baby bald eagles!

Bald eagles are carnivores eating a diet of fish, ducks, snakes and turtles. The term “eagle eye” is an important one to consider as the eagle soars very high in the sky while pinpointing prey below it. We are talking 10,000 feet high with a cruising altitude of 40 miles per hour. When a bald eagle has spotted its prey, its attack speed can be up to 100 miles per hour. You aren’t getting out of the way of that if it’s after you LOL. Now everyone wants a guard eagle I am sure of it.

Welcome To The Interaction Area!

Greetings all! This week we’re going to shift gears from our typical post style which usually addresses a single animal and focus on a larger area of Timbavati Wildlife Park. The area that I am referring to is now called the “The Interaction Area." This part of our park is appropriately named The Interaction Area because it’s the part of the park with the largest hands on experience for our guests.

Our 2015 addition, the Parakeet Encounter is an immersive experience that allows our guests to actually hand feed parakeets in their enclosure. We have bird seed sticks available for purchase that you can hold out for the budgies to come and get a meal from. All you have to do is hold still and they will do the rest.

Adjacent to the parakeet encounter is our Parrot House. Kind of sounds like a pirate ship sometimes when you walk by it as you hear the large raptors chuckle and say hello to you. It is definitely a different experience hearing an animal talk to you. If you aren’t used to it, it will catch you off guard. Once you realize it’s the birds though, you get used to it and can chat with them for as long as you like.

The Interaction Area at Timbavati Wildlife Park also plays host to our Petting Areas. These areas allow guests to feed a variety of small animals ranging from sheep, goats, llamas, baby camels etc. There are always plenty of animals in the areas and the variety of these denizens will change with the seasons. Animals grow up and move on with the adults in their groups. When that happens we remove them from the petting areas to make room for the next group of cuddly critters which actually move to the petting areas from our Nursery.

Our Animal Nursery is a great experience for everyone. Since there is usually a staff member in the building, there is always an opportunity for our guests to ask questions. The nursery, is home to a variety of small mammals, reptiles and birds. It is one of the more raved about areas in the park.

Here are Mark and Alice Schoebel feeding some baby Gray Foxes in the nursery.

World Camel Day!

This week Wednesday is World Camel Day! Yep, the undisputed hump day is this Wednesday. That’s a fun fact you can spring on your buddies! There are two kinds of camels, basically 1 hump or two humps. Dromedary (Arabian) camels have 1 hump and Bactrian (Asian) Camels have 2. The largest myth about camels is that their humps are filled with water, which they aren’t. The hump is a fat reserve that a camel can metabolize for survival in times when food and water are scarce.

Camels have two rows of eyelashes to keep the sand out of their eyes in the desert. If you’ve ever been in the desert when the wind kicked up you would understand why. I actually had a friend get sand in her eye a couple of weeks ago in the same desert they shot "Star Wars" in. You know, Luke’s home planet! She was in bad shape for the rest of the day so that double row of lashes sounds like a great safety precaution from mother nature. Camels also possess the ability to close their nostrils to protect their airways from sand as well.

A thirsty camel can drink up to 135 liters of water in 1 sitting and rehydrate faster than any other animal. They drink to replace the water they’ve lost. Camels roam the deserts in herds of up to 30 members. Camels can also run at speeds of up to 25 miles an hour for extended periods.

A camel has a gestation period of 12 to 14 months and usually only give birth to one baby but can have twins. A newborn calf is able to walk within the first 30 minutes of birth. The mother will keep the baby from the herd for the first couple of weeks in the calf’s life and a camel is considered fully mature at the age of 7 years.

Timbavati Wildlife Park is unique in that not only can you feed the camels from our Giraffe and Camel Feeding Station but you can also ride the "ships of the desert." That’s right we offer camel rides at our park and it’s just one of the ways that you can turn your visit to the Wisconsin Dells from an event into a memory.

Here are our owners Mark and Alice Schoebel feeding some of our baby camels in Timbavati Wildlife Park.

Flag Day - USA!

Greeting friends and welcome to this week’s blog. Today we are changing things up a bit in our content. Normally we feature an animal but since flag day is tomorrow, I figured we could take a look at flags around the world that have animals on them. It’s a change of pace kind of thing so let’s get started.

Ok so for starters Flag Day is a celebration of the stars and stripes of the American flag. Old Glory as it is sometimes referred to was adopted officially on June 14, 1777. That was the day that the founding fathers removed the Grand Union Flag and used the 13 starred flag as the symbol of the new world.

Our flags in the 13 original colonies were interesting and diverse. Images of the snake and “Don’t Tread On Me” stroll through my mind when I think of flags from this era;. There were multiple designs that featured rattlesnakes on them in the american revolution period as the Pennsylvania Gazette owned by Benjamin Franklin suggested that we send a cargo of rattlesnakes to the British nobles gardens.

Now that was as close as the United States came to a national flag with an animal on it. The US navy also used an adaptation of this motif with a coiled rattlesnake on a yellow flag as well.

Of course there are many other seals and flags with animals on them used but on this flag day I am considering officially representative flags.

For instance the “Bear Flag” is the flag of California. This flag features a Californian Grizzly bear named Monarch who was captured and on display at the Golden Gate Park Zoo until 1911 when he passed. The bear was stuffed and now sits in the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.

The Delaware State Flag however features a not-so-prominent Ox. This and symbols of agriculture also are represented in the coat-of-arms on the Delaware Flag. Still the Ox got some love on this flag, the only flag in the union with one.

Moving along the states in alphabetical order, I would have expected Florida to have an alligator on their flag. Nope, palm trees, water, a lady and some apples or roses. (I guess that depends on your screen’s resolution.) The next state with an animal on its flag is actually Idaho. Yeah I know, you’re thinking it’s supposed to have a potato, stop thinking like that eh?

The Idaho State Flag features the Seal of the State of Idaho more specifically. It was adopted in 1863 when Idaho became a territory by Emma Edwards Green who was the only woman at the time to have designed a state seal. Right below the latin inscription “Esto Perpetua” (let it be perpetual) is the image of an elk which of course represents the bountiful animal life in the state.

The Illinois State Flag features a Bald Eagle pitched on a rock holding a shield that represents the 13 original colonies.

Continuing that Bald Eagle theme are Iowa, New York, North Dakota and Utah which also incorporates honey bees.

Ok the Bald Eagle is really really popular in state flags. What other animals can be found in the state flags though? The Kansas state flag which features the seal of Kansas also prominently features horse drawn carriages and a plow being pulled by horses.

Missouri shows up with a flag designed by Marie Elizabeth Oliver. This flag features two grizzly bears which are meant to symbolize the strength of the state. There is a third bear in the seal but I haven’t seen an explanation of that one. There is also a small bald eagle in the seal as well.  

The Louisiana State Flag gives us a different animal than all other 40 states. It shows a mother pelican feeding 3 young pelicans from herself and you can see that by the three drops of blood on her chest. Her wings are also up to shield her young.

Minnesota’s State Flag features a horseback rider.

The Michigan State Flag presents us with Elk and Moose as symbols of the state and a Bald Eagle as a symbol of the United States.

The State of Maine features a Moose just kind of hanging out under a tree.

New Jersey offers us a flag with a horse’s head on the top of a helmet which actually scares me slightly. They say it’s buff colored but I call it yellow. Good job New Jersey, btw I am just joking with you here so don’t take me too seriously.

The State of Oregon gives us a Bald Eagle and cattle pulling a covered wagon presumably on the Oregon trail that we all used to play on the green screen Apple IIE’s back in the ‘80s. Ok either you get that reference or we have ponies for you to look at in the park. Haaa either way I am just making sure that you’re still paying attention.

Pennsylvania has a busy bit of work here that features two draft horses and a bald eagle.

I am not entirely sure what South Dakota has going on here. I included this flag as a challenge, you find an animal in it let me know what you come up with would ya? It’s like "Where’s Waldo" or something. I am confident that you can complete this mission!

Vermont checks in with two animals on its flag. The deer’s head on the top is a symbol of the state’s wildlife and the cow represents the state’s agriculture.

The Wyoming State Flag is cool. It kind of has the Spiderman colors going for it with a buffalo in it. If I were a Wyoming superhero I would definitely be "Buffalo-Man." At first glance there is the obvious buffalo, but if you look closely into the seal, there is an eagle on a shield in it.

Last stop on our look at the flags of the United States with animals on them brings us back home to the State of Wisconsin. A native Wisconsinite would recognize the animal at the top of the seal as the often referenced badger.

And there you have it, all of the flags in the United States of America with animals on them and South Dakota LOL. Tune in next year when I go over every nation’s flags with animals on them!

Arctic Fox

Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s post about the Arctic Fox. This native of the Arctic Circle is found in Canada, Greenland, Russia, Norway, Scandinavia and Iceland. The arctic fox is known for its super thick fur which obviously keeps it warm in the frozen tundras that it inhabits. It even has fur under its paws to buffer the snow and ice that it regularly has to traverse.

The Arctic Fox has other adaptations that allow it to thrive in harsh icy environments. For instance, the Arctic Fox’s coat will change with the seasons. Turning white in the winter months and growing darker in the summer for camouflage.  The forward facing ears allow the Arctic Fox to pinpoint prey burrowed beneath the snow. When they find that meal, they pounce on the snow crashing a den with a head first dive.

From head to tail the Arctic Fox on average is 2 to 3 feet in length and can weigh up to 17 pounds. Arctic Foxes are monogamous and one couple will mate for life. The gestation period for the females is 50-60 days and females will give birth to 5-7 whelps. A litter can be as high as 25 whelps though.

An Arctic Fox’s territory can is about 9 square miles. What I find to be the most interesting thing about them is that they have underground burrows with up to 100 entrances. These burrows are used for multiple generations and can be hundreds of years old.

Next time you’re in Timbavati Wildlife Park check out our Arctic Foxes!

Swine Time Pig Races

Greetings friends! This week we are talking to you about the Swine Time Pig Races at Timbavati Wildlife Park. I have to admit to you, I had never heard of pig racing prior to my first trip to Timbavati so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got there. What i found was pleasantly surprising.

If you’re old enough to remember the Norm McDonald news sketches on SNL, then imagine that same type of dry humor but attached to pigs racing (If you’re not old enough to remember Norm or know what SNL is, don’t worry we have ponies). Ok I’m kidding but seriously, it’s a comedy show with pork-filled punchlines and the swiftest swine this side of the saharan sands and believe me there are more hogs than you can count in between here and there.

Keeping with our weekly theme of fun facts on animals, it is widely accepted that pigs have intelligence equivalent to a 3 year old child. They are very social creatures and communicate with each other through grunts and while forming very close bonds to each other and humans.

Pigs are omnivores and will eat both meat and plants. As you would expect, pigs have an excellent sense of smell. Their snouts are very strong and are used to turn dirt over when seeking a meal. In this respect they are excellent at turning dirt over and prepping the soil to receive plant seeds. They are an integral part of seed spreading as their migrations in the wild transport seeds from plants that they have eaten.

Pigs have very few sweat glands, for this reason they seek mud to remain cool in. A pig’s squeal is quite loud and has been measured as high as 115 decibels. For comparison, a rock concert at 110 decibels would probably send you home with ringing in your ears. Most concerts top out at 105 decibels. A pic can recognize its name being called when they’re 2 weeks old which means there really quick learners.

Our pig races are a great time at Timbavati Wildlife Park. We run them daily and you can check our website for showtimes. In the meantime, here is our good friend Matt with a quick overview of our pig races in this video.

Timbavati Has A New Website

This week Timbavati Wildlife Park is celebrating the launch of a brand new website! In the near future we will migrate all of our blog archives over to the new site as we press forward to streamline all of our digital assets. This week’s blog post on the bobcat looks pretty snazzy on it! Check it out and let us know what you think! http://www.timbavatiwildlifepark.com/2016/05/23/north-american-bobcat/