Showing posts with label taz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label taz. Show all posts

8/6/10

Friday Morning with the Fur Seals

At the Fur Seal Exhibit, the morning routine is fast paced for the training staff. Between 8:00 and 9:30 am we: Prepare 150 pounds of fish and squid for the seals, collect exhibit water samples for analysis, start the laundry, get dive gear ready, start hosing the seal poop from the exhibit deck, SCUBA dive to scrub the exhibit floor, and start the vacuum for yet more seal poop. Phew.

The fur seals have, shall we say, a more relaxed routine. Everyone starts waking up around 8:00 am. Some take until 10:30 to complete this task. Others jump up to greet the day and are ready for conversation. These pictures show Roxie relaxing in the sun and Taz looking like she wants at least another hour to snooze.


Taz


Roxie

This video below shows Ursula resting while making a rarely heard clicking sound.



Roxie is up and has a lot to say in this video. To me, her first vocalization sounds like a honk while the third and fifth sound like she is saying "Hey". I guess we'll never know.



Finally, Erin helps JD wake up with an invigorating neck scratch.



- Jenny
Posted by Jenny at 9:19 AM 0 comments
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7/7/10

What does hidden fish in an ice pile spell? FUN!

Well, if you're a Northern fur seal that is!

Roxie and Taz had a lot of fun behind the scenes before moving to the exhibit. (Learn more about their debut on exhibit from this earlier post, and there's video here!) Here is a clip from us doing a little ice pile play time. After half an hour, Taz decided that she needed to groom but Roxie was still plowing through the ice. To make it more interesting, a few pieces of smelt are hidden in the ice. Since both girls are visually impaired, it's very interesting to see how they react to different kinds of play time. This one was a big hit!




-Lindsay


Taz
Posted by lindsay at 12:32 PM 2 comments
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7/5/10

A Warm Welcome for the New Fur Seals

There's a lot to celebrate this holiday weekend at the Aquarium's New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center. Many of you learned on this earlier post that two new fur seals debuted on Friday! The gang showed Roxie and Taz a very warm welcome all around. Take a look!




As you can see, Ursula greeted her mom right away with the customary nose-to-nose hello. Baranov, Isaac and JD joined in with some swim-by greetings. And of course, Cordova, the noisiest of our fur seals, shouted her welcome.



Even local media was on hand for this exciting event! (See coverage from NECN, WHDH Channel 7, WCVB Channel 5 and the Boston Herald!)

Swing by the Aquarium during the July 4th weekend to see the newest additions to the fur seal exhibit. There are now seven sleek fur seals waiting to meet you...
Posted by NEAQ at 11:23 AM 3 comments
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7/2/10

Two new fur seals, two times the fun

There was a family reunion today at the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center when two new northern fur seals joined our exhibit. The two new females, Taz and Roxie, are both related to Ursula, one of the three females already in the exhibit. Roxie is Ursula’s mom and Taz is an aunt. Taz and Roxie came up from the New York Aquarium last month, but they had to be in quarantine for 30 days before they could join the rest of the fur seals. Today was the big day when the doors to the quarantine area were opened. Ursula seemed to know something was up because she jumped up on the deck and headed to the quarantine area as the doors were opened.


Taz and Roxie both have cataracts and don’t see that well, so they made their way tentatively up the ramp, while Ursula waited impatiently on the deck. The minute the two new girls came on deck Ursula was at Roxie’s side, making “pup calls," the vocalizations that a young seal makes so its mother can identify it. Then Ursula and Roxie went nose to nose.


Ursula continued to follow Roxie around, even after both seals got in the water. In fact, there was a lot of sniffing and touching as all the seals checked out the newcomers.


Taz and Roxie’s introduction went really smoothly, and after about 20 minutes, everyone was ready to eat breakfast.
Posted by NEAQ at 11:46 AM 0 comments
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