SmartPig: Truffle be tweeting!

Hi, Truffle here again! Two posts in a row, it must be my lucky month - then again, since my birthday month (July) is right around the corner, that must be why! As you may know, whee piggies here at the Cali Cavy Collective are active on Twitter (give us a wheek @CaliCollective). Most of the time, Coppy is tweeting on the slaves laptop, but I managed to steal one of their phones today for tweeting purposes. Oddly enough, they call it a "blackberry", but I think they are wrong, because it does not taste like a blackberry at all. I sampled a blackberry myself once before, so I should know. Especially because I did not like it very much. Anyways, here are some pigtures of me having fun!


SmartPig: A series highlighting the Cali Cavy Collective's forays into the world of technology. Who needs a smartphone when you can have a SmartPig?

Me and the alleged blackberry

"No, Belka, you may NOT have a turn!"

"whEEK!!! It beeped at me!"

I am a Truffle on Twitter.

"Is that a plastic bag rustling in the distance?!"

Egyptian Tortoise

 

True Wild Life | Egyptian Tortoise | The Egyptian Tortoise is the smallest land turtle in the Northern Hemisphere. The Egyptian Tortoise is a critically endangered neck-hiding tortoise. Once more widespread, its numbers are now dwindling. The species is extinct in Egypt, and global extinction is a looming threat unless more actions are taken to protect this species. They are on the brink of extinction due of habitat loss and because people capture them to make pets.

The Egyptian tortoises are herbivores, feeding on rough grasses, desert plants and fruit. They are most active during the warm periods of the year and least active during the months when it is very cold or very hot. During the cooler months, the tortoise is most active at midday. In the hot months, it is only active during the early morning or late afternoon and spends the rest of the day hiding in the cover of bushes or in rodent burrows.

Another unfortunate reality is the loss of habitat. Much of what used to be habitat for the Egyptian Tortoises has now become farmland or towns. Moreover, any remaining grassland has become a pasture for domestic livestock where many goats and sheep feed on the vegetation that used to be the tortoises' food. Many countries are cooperating to protect the Egyptian Tortoise, but many still believe their population will continue to drop further.

Ploughshare Tortoise (Angonoka)

True Wild Life | Ploughshare Tortoise (Angonoka) | The Angonoka or Ploughshare tortoise is one of the ten most endangered animals in the world. The Ploughshare Tortoise is a land tortoise that lives only on the island of Madagascar. They are considered the most threatened species of land tortoises because many of them have been captured to keep as pets, and because their habitat has been turned into farmland.

The Ploughshare Tortoise is characterized by a bump that looks like a shoehorn extending from its neck. This is actually part of the tortoises' shell on its stomach. Male tortoises will use this to flip over their opponent in a duel. The Ploughshare Tortoise is the most threatened species of land tortoises. One reason for this is their popularity as pets. Most tortoises retract into their shells to hide and protect themselves from their enemies. However, for hunters interested in selling them as pets, this instinct to hide and remain motionless in their shells at the sense of danger is a convenience because it makes them easier to catch. Many of the Ploughshare Tortoises have been captured to be sold as pets, thus reducing their population.

Environmental change also disturbs life for the Ploughshare Tortoise. Their habitats are disappearing due to frequent field burning in order to make pastures and fields. There has also been the emergence of a natural enemy that eats their eggs and hatchlings -- the bush pig. Originally, people brought the bush pig to the island from the African continent. Now, it has become a wild animal. Efforts to artificially breed and return the Ploughshare Tortoise to the wild are underway. However, this species grows at a very slow rate. it will take years for their numbers to increase because a Ploughshare Tortoise that has been released to the wild takes many years to bear children.

Southern Cassowary

True Wild Life | Southern Cassowary | The Southern Cassowary is a large bird that lives in New Guinea and Australia. They are flightless, but equipped with a strong kick. Their numbers continue to decline because of disappearing tropical rainforests and hunting. The Southern Cassowary also known as Double-wattled Cassowary, Australian Cassowary or Two-wattled Cassowary.

In appearance, the Cassowary looks like a short, heavily-built, black and blue Emu, Dromaius novaehollandiae. Both species are indeed closely related, belonging to the family Casuariidae, and both are flightless. The female Southern Cassowary selects a male to breed with and then lays a clutch of large green eggs in a scrape in the ground lined with plant material. Once the eggs are laid, the male is left in charge of the incubation and chick-rearing duties, while the female moves away, and may even breed again with another male. During the breeding season, the parental males are very aggressive, and attacks on humans have been recorded at this time.

The Southern Cassowary feeds mostly on fruit that has fallen to the ground. The Southern Cassowary will also eat anything from snails to small dead mammals. Southern Cassowaries normally feed alone. If two males should meet, they have a stand off where both birds stand tall, fluff up their feathers and rumble at each other until one retreats. If a male and female meet, the male will move away, as the female is dominant.

In parts of its range the Southern Cassowary is still relatively common, but numbers are decreasing because of habitat clearance and collisions with cars. Their fruit diet means they are commonly sighted in commercial orchards and gardens with fruit bearing trees. Interestingly, citrus fruit is not usually eaten. They can also be dangerous if cornered.

Box Turtle

True Wild Life | Box Turtle | The box turtle or box tortoise is a genus of turtle native to North America. Box turtles are land dwelling creatures with high, domed shells, hence the "box" moniker.  Box turtles are found all over the world, and are generally found living in mossy areas of the forest, or other damp habitats.  They are very territorial, and sometimes spend their entire lives near their place of birth.

North American box turtles are omnivores with a very varied diet as box turtles "basically eat anything it can catch". Invertebrates (amongst others insects, earth worms, millipedes) form the principal component, but the diet also consists for a large part (reports range from 30-90%) of vegetation. The diet is amended with fruits (amongst others from cacti, apples and several species of berry), gastropods. While reports exist that during their first five to six years, box turtles are primarily carnivorous, while adults are mostly herbivorous, there is no scientific basis for such a difference. They are strong, sturdy animals, and usually grow to be about 6 inches long.  Box turtles are usually dark in coloring with some yellowish markings, and the male of the species have bright red eyes, longer tails, and their plastrons are indented.

Box turtles are endemic to North America. The widest distributed species is the common box turtle which is found in the United States (subspecies carolina, major, bauri, triunguis; South-Central, Eastern and South Eastern parts) and Mexico (subspecies yukatana and mexicana; Yucatán peninsula and North Eastern parts). The Ornate box turtle is endemic to the south-central and South Western parts of the U.S.  while the spotted box turtle is endemic to North-Western Mexico only. The coahuilan box turtle is only found in Cuatro Ciénegas Basin.

Terris Treehouse Sends Thank You After a Wild Summer Day at the Zoo

We love hearing from our guests! Thank you to everyone from Terris Treehouse who signed their name to the following note; we look forward to seeing you next year:


We have really enjoyed our time spent at the zoo. Everything was beautiful, clean and informational. Some of the highlights were the peacocks, Birdhouse and the most popular, the Petting Zoo! We have so many memories and learned some great hands-on aspects. We will see you next year.


Enjoy your "Wild Summer."


(signed) Terris Treehouse

Thank You From Prentice Summer School

Duane & Judy,

It is amazing that every year I bring my summer school class there are  new things to see at your zoo. My students have never gone home disappointed, and neither have I.

You do an incredible job at Wildwood Wildlife, and your love and care for the animals shows.

It is especially inspiring to see you share and teach that to all who visit. 

Thank you for another wonderful experience!

Mary Dunbar

Prentice School

SmartPig: Forget smartphone... it's all about SmartPig!

SmartPig is busy shopping online

Hi everyone, its Truffle here! So our Editor-in-chief Coppy has decided to start a new series called SmartPig! The term "SmartPig" is a play on the word smartphone. The idea is that this series would be about us piggies exploring a variety of tech toys, like cell phones, computers, scanners, programs and more, sometimes with amusing results. For example, like the time Belka was playing with a scanner and decided to scan her underside. But that is a story for another day.

Our first entry features Coppy and her favorite toy, the humans laptop. This is the device that she uses to blog, tweet, browse piggy forums, look at pigtures, and shop online. She likes to hop on when the slaves leave and  monopolize it. Most of the time, it is Coppy who is doing the tweeting on Twitter (@CaliCollective), but sometimes she lets us use it too, such as when Peaches talks to her boyfriend Waffles, or when Belka leads discussions about pellets. Whee all just have to be careful not to leave any stray poops behind before the slaves return!

SmartPig: A series highlighting the Cali Cavy Collective's forays into the world of technology. Who needs a smartphone when you can have a SmartPig?

Editor-in-chief Coppy

Coppy sitting on the mousepad: "Who needs a mouse when you can have a guinea pig?"

"I am taller than I look!"

"Do I hear the fridge door opening??"

Piggy Pics of the Day: Perching at the food bowl

Me giving the humans big hopeful button eyes to get more treats

Hi again! I, Belka, am back! Here are some more pigtures featuring me perched at the food bowl eating one of my favorite foods (aside from grasses and hay) - pellets! I am particularly happy in these pigtures because our slaves order of Kleenmama's timothy pellets finally came in. They ran out and served us Oxbow instead for about a wheek. I like Oxbow pellets a lot too, but nothing can compare to my favorite from Kleenmama's Hayloft. They are the freshest and greenest, fortified with special attention to a piggy's nutritional needs. Healthy and yummy! Nothing at all like that unhealthy, high fat commercialized mush masquerading as pellets sold by Kaytee. Pumpkin seeds, bird feed, nuts, raisins, sunflower seeds, banana chips, and papaya?! Whee aren't birds or squirrels, and definitely shouldn't be fed like one! Not to mention, those are also choking hazards.

As a piggy pellet connoisseur, I could talk about the different subtleties and nuances for ages, but that  Abyssinian spike-butt Poof wants to look for more piggy videos on YouTube again, so I'll stop for today. Any fellow pellet connoisseurs are welcome to discuss pellets with me, just leave a comment or stop by on Twitter. Bye for now!

Nom nom nom

A pigture of me with a pellet half out of my mouth

"Is that a fridge door I hear opening?!"

Piggy Pics of the Day: Capybara and Piggy Puzzle starring Caplin ROUS & Neptune!

Our herd posing with the completed puzzle

Today whee want to show you some pigtures of the fun whee had putting our Caplin puzzle together! This puzzle starring Caplin and Neptune the guinea pig has a bit of a story behind it.

Caplin ROUS was a very well known and beloved capybara who lived with his owners and co-pets (including but not limited to piggies, rabbits, and horses). Although his home was in Texas, he had quite an international presence and was adored by many around the world. His legion of loyal fans delighted in hearing about him and his daily adventures.


Sadly and unexpectedly, Caplin passed away in January earlier this year. Since so little is known about capybaras, his owner Melanie set up the ROUS Foundation for Capybara Veterinary Medicine shortly thereafter with the goal of learning more about capybaras in captivity and their care. The proceeds from this series of puzzles featuring Caplin goes towards the foundation.

As you can see from our pigtures, this particular puzzle features Caplin and Neptune the guinea pig nuzzling (sniffing?) inquisitively at each other. Our humans liked it a lot, and thought it was very cute. Since whee are piggies and capybaras are our cousins, they gave it to us to put together. Out of all of us, Belka thinks she looks the most capybara-like so she was particularly interested.

Belka wants to put the puzzle together!

"So many pieces, I'm getting hungry"

Finally done!

Okay, so maybe Belka didn't really put the entire puzzle together. And maybe the rest of us didn't help her that much either. And fine, maybe our humans helped us somewhat. But only a little. And only when whee weren't busy eating. But really, whee did nearly all of the work!

After seeing Capycoppy, Peaches experiences identity confusion: "Is that what I look like too?"

Capycoppy leaves his bowl of blueberries to pose with the piggies
*Note: the dent on Truffle's head, also known as a crest, was present well prior to Capycoppy's ascension.  

Dwarf Bunnies

A couple photographs of our adorable Dwarf Bunnies.

What's New at the Zoo!

Everyone at the park is understandably over the moon about our new arrivals. We hope you'll plan a trip to Minocqua to visit. See you soon!

A recent photo of our black leopard Teeah. You can see how big she has gotten since she was first introduced a few short weeks ago. Teeah is very inquisitive and loves to explore her surroundings.

The goats are one of our park's more popular residents. Here is a photo of a mother goat with her babies. Children of all ages love to get up close and personal with the goats.

Aren't they adorable? These two Canadian Lynx kittens are just too cute for words. The Canada Lynx is found in northern forests across almost all of Canada and Alaska. It is a threatened species in the contiguous United States. The adult Canada Lynx has a dense fur that is silvery brown but in summer becomes a reddish brown color. It has a short tail with a black tip and has long furry tufts on its ears. Its long legs with broad furred feet help the lynx to travel through the deep snow.

These beautiful birds are Ring-Necked Doves, otherwise known as Cape Turtle Dove that can be found living in the Savannah's, farmlands and woodlands of southern and eastern Africa. Their name comes from a black patch of feathers on the back of their necks. The rest of their feathers are a beautiful pale brownish-grey, with darker colors on their backs. They also have white tips on the end of their tail feathers. Doves usually lay two eggs which incubate in about 15-days. The males sit on the eggs during the day, and the female at night. Ring-Necked Doves rest in the treetops during the night; they feed mainly on seeds but they will also eat insects.

Peaches first birthday!

Happig birthday Peaches!

Happy birthday Peaches! June is her birthday month - whee don't know her exact birth date, and neither does she, but our slaves estimate she was born in June. Hard to believe she's one already - time sure passes by quickly when you're in a herd. Must be all that competing for food. Anyways, our humans gave her a little silver birthday hat they made, as well as a cupcake and mini cake to pose with for her pigture shoot. Peaches says she didn't get to sample any of the cupcake, but she did get spoiled with her favorite foods afterwards! Sounds like a fair tradeoff to us. Again, happig birthday to you Peachy-Peach!

XO, the Un-Birthday Cavies from the Collective

One year old!

"For me?"

"This is an even better present!"

Nom nom nom nom nom

"so delicious, must lick my mouth clean before taking another bite!"