Bouncing Baby Bongo

Finally! The newest addition to the bongo herd has arrived.

Iguanas Ready for the Cold!

Even though south Florida doesn't get too cold, sometimes it gets a little too cold for our scaly friends, the iguanas. Today we decided to clean out their hibernation box and get it all prepped and ready to go for the winter. Here are some snap shots of the staff helping out Sammie and Yoshi for the future cold snaps.

New Employees at RSCF!!

RSCF wants to welcome our new staff employees Uziel and Danielle! We put together a little bio on each of them to get to know them better.

Uziel was born and raised in Maywood, Illinois. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago and recieved a Bachelor of Science in Biology. This was where his interest in the animal field began. From there he took internships at Cosley Zoo, Brookfield Zoo and volunteered at Willowbrook Wildlife Center. One of his favorite animals, that he's worked with thus far, are kangaroos. Uziel's animal dream would be to work with jaguars. At the moment he wants to continue working in the animal field and is open to where his future may lead him. Outside of working with a diverse group of animals he enjoys scuba diving, going to the beach and any other outdoor activities. At home he's got a sulcata tortoise, two sun conures, a peacock and miniture pincher.

Danielle was born in Japan but raised in Lake Worth, Florida. She is part of a navy family and was moved out of Japan when she was six months old. Danielle recieved her Bachelor of Science at the University of Florida in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. Her internships include sea turtle work in North Carolina and Juno Beach and has had the opportunity to work with manatees at Crystal River in Ocala. She would love to work with medium to large sized mammals and stay in the realm of conservation work. Danielle is interested in creating crafts out of recycled items, a regular wiz in transforming trash into treasure. Other interests include spending time with her dog, reading, and drawing. Her pets include two dogs and two lovebirds.

They both are looking forward to working with RSCF and seeing where their paths will go from here on out.

Dead Pine Removal

Here you see an old dead pine being taken down by Paul's ropes and tractor. We periodically take any dead pines down so we don't have a collapse on a fenceline, cages, or any expensive equipment. We first cleared the area with machetes so Paul had access to the tree which he then scaled with an extension ladder and tied a rope 3/4 of the way up to help pull it down and direct the fall. While the rest of us stood at a safe distance Paul used the chainsaw to carve out an angle out of the trunk and then made his way to the tractor where tension was put on the rope and, as you can see, the tree was retired. Hope the video is as enjoyable as it was for us to witness. Also, the tree made a nice heavy exhaling thud as it hit the earth.

How to Compost Rare Species style

Here we see Hollie teaching us how to reduse, reuse, and recycle through composting. Hopefully this video will inspire others to do the same. Also, here are some links with more info on composting:

How To Compost

Wiki How

Red Worm Composting

Compost Guide

2010 Pygmy Babies!!

Hey everyone! RSCF wanted to put together a little slide show and video presentation of our latest pygmy marmoset babies of 2010. Starting at the top of our list is a juvenile male, born at the end of January, who is very curious and loves checking out the camera. Following him is a little girl born in May. Then we have the juvenile male's sibling born in August. And capping it off with our latest twins, born late August. These guys are really hard to get a picture of. They flee when they see us. We have to wait until they get older and start to venture on their own. This is when they cling to the cages and we finally have the chance to sex them.

A Vinaceous Greeting!

Here's a little snip-it of our only pair of Vinaceous Amazon parrots. Unfortunately these guys are on the IUCN list of endangered animals. Their populations in South America are depleting. RSCF just wanted to share a little visual so everyone can see how pretty they are.