By Lisa Barrett This summer, one of my goals as a 1st year Ph.D. student was to determine if I wanted to do work with wild Asian elephants. My dissertation will look at personality and problem-solving in elephants, and it is an extension of my work with Think Elephants International in Thailand. After months of planning and discussing with my
Read moreRelating toys to what your pet does naturally is the best way to brainstorm new ideas for enrichment. Listening to a radio podcast on parrots, enrichment guru Robin Shewokis discussed the different categories toys and devices can fall into. Below I have included examples for all types of pets, in each of the categories. Enrichment is not just a buzzword;
Read moreExotic pets, especially in North America, are becoming very common. Hedgehogs which are small, spiny coated, energetic animals are gaining popularity because of their uniqueness and relatively easy care. Most hedgehogs that are kept as pets are the African pygmy hedgehogs (Atelerix albiventris), weighing between 300 and 600 grams. Autumn Syracuse, a full time aquarist at the Aquarium of Niagara,
Read moreby Lisa Barrett What kind of parental care did you or do you enjoy? Food, shelter, college tuition? How does this compare to parental care in non-human animals? First of all, most animals do not receive any parental care at all. In other words, most animal parents do not invest in feeding, incubating, or defending their young after they are
Read more
DANTA is delighted to announce a new course offering for winter 2016! Birds of Costa Rica will be held from January 1-15, 2016 at Osa Conservation‘s Piro Research Station in Costa Rica’s spectacular Osa peninsula. As the one of the largest tracts of rain forest north of the Amazon (roughly 400,000 acres in the Osa Conservation Area), it is renowned for high species
Read more
DANTA is delighted to announce a new course offering for winter 2016! Neotropical Bat Biology will be held from January 1-15, 2016 at Osa Conservation‘s Piro Research Station in Costa Rica’s spectacular Osa peninsula. As the one of the largest tracts of rain forest north of the Amazon (roughly 400,000 acres in the Osa Conservation Area), it is renowned for high species
Read more
The Masai Mara of Kenya is full of incredible wildlife. While I was working on the hyena project in the Mara, I took these photographs. Here is a glimpse of some of the species that hang out in this region. Lions Mating behavior Relaxing lions Elephants Cheetahs Giraffes This giraffe died from naturally occurring anthrax. The
Read more
This winter I went to Belize with 11 classmates and 5 veterinarians, where we spent a week providing care for the animals at The Belize Zoo (TBZ). A small, charming zoo integrated almost seamlessly into the tropical savanna, TBZ is probably better defined as a sanctuary- all of its animals are local species and are “rescues” in one way or
Read moreby Lisa Barrett No Breeding, No Buying At about this time last year, I, along with the rest of the Think Elephants International (TEI) research team, was anxiously awaiting the arrival of a new “family” member. Elephant births are cause for huge excitement at the camp for two reasons. First, female Asian elephants only have four to five calves in
Read more
I can write pages about practically any other topic, but when it comes to writing about myself, I struggle and how ironic is that: I should know myself so well I could literally write a book. I’m still on a magnificent journey toward self-discovery, but I can tell you about my life thus far: I was born and raised in
Read more
DANTAisms 