02/13 FW Nature Center: Day 1



Yesterday was our first day volunteering at the Fort Worth Nature Center! Highlights included: seeing their herd of 12 bison, feeding the prairie dogs, and learning about the important work they do for habitat restoration. 

Bison Feeding the bison was my favorite part of our visit. There were 12 beautiful giants in the herd at the refuge. I was born and raised in Oklahoma where the bison is our state animal, and there are bison statues all around the state. Naturally, I found them to be interesting and spent some time talking with Jarod about their herd. I first asked if there was a reason they only had 1 bull in the herd? Jarod explained that this is their attempt to control the size of the herd. Their group of bison got up to 35 before they had to limit them to just 12 in order to prevent overgrazing. He said that tourists don't seem to care how many as long as there are bison to see when they come to visit. The bulls are also destructive; he told a story of how their bulls in the past had dented and flipped their trucks. It was an educational and insightful conversation!

Prairie Dogs Next, we ventured to the home of the prairie dogs. One of the topics I found most fascinating was the evolution of how prairie dogs are translocated. The most current technique that seems to work quite well involves creating pre-dug burrows about 4 feet deep before releasing the animals from the cage down through the tunnels. The cage is a place they can return to in order to get food; however, it is designed for them to dig the tunnels deeper and back to the surface. This allows them to claim ownership over what they have created, so they can consider the habitat their new home. 

Habitat Restoration Before going out onto the reserve, we learned about the habitat restoration that was needing to be done to maintain the best land for the plants and animals. Jarod specifically focused on 2 areas: clearing the vines along the fence in the prairie dog habitat and removing privet on the front mesa.  We worked on the first objective to enable the prairie dogs to spot any predators and the visitors to admire the prairie dogs. This was hard work but something that I hope to get better at the more we do it. 

Overall, it was a successful (but cold) first day! I am looking forward to our second adventure back at the nature center, next week. 

Comments

  1. williams.dan76February 19, 2025 at 8:45 AM

    Thanks, Kate. I enjoyed your blog. Great photos--I was impressed. You got great shots both of the bison and the prairie dog. Both wonderful creatures. Sorry it was cold, but still a great starft.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

04/27 Zoo Adventure

Image
Today, Caroline, Ashlyn, and I went to the Fort Worth Zoo! I go each year as a Frog Camp leader, but this time felt extra special after my experience in this class. I had a better appreciation for the beauty of nature and in this case, lots of animals! We saw elephants, giraffes, alligators, gorillas, lions, flamingos, kangaroos, tortoises, and hippos.  One of the coolest parts of the day to me was being close up to a lizard. As we were standing on the elephant observation deck, I looked down, and there was a lizard on the rail right in front of me. It was bright green and kept puffing out a little pink part below its chin—I have never seen anything like it. It was a rather beautiful intersection of impressive, large animals in the habitats with simple, small animals in the natural world.  Another cool experience was seeing the alligator that lives at the zoo. I thought no alligator could top the one we caught and measured at the nature center, but I was wrong. This one was ma...
Read more

03/27 Canoeing Excursion!

Image
Yesterday, I went canoeing for the first time, and I woke up this morning surprised by how sore my shoulders were! We started around 10AM when it was still slightly chilly. We put on life jackets and successfully made it into the canoe without tipping. I took the front and Caroline brought up the rear; she was great at steering—I was impressed! Anytime I began to get nervous that we were drifting one way or the other, Caroline always seemed to be on it, ready to steer us in the right direction.  It was hard work to begin with as we headed into the wind. It was extra difficult right before we turned back when the wind was extremely strong on the open water. I could tell a significant difference as we returned with the wind at our backs. Once the sun came out about halfway through, it was the perfect Saturday activity to be outside and enjoy some nature.  Speaking of nature, there were many animal sightings! Most notably, we saw two alligators. One was just barely poking its hea...
Read more

03/14 FW Nature Center: Day 4

Image
This past Thursday we embarked on an incredible experience: Alligator Catching! This was my favorite experience at the nature center so far, and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on it. One of the most shocking aspects of this excursion was what a process it was to catch the alligator, reel it in, bring it to shore, secure its jaws, take all the measurements, and release it back exactly where they found it. It was quite the day! There are still some questions I was left with—the biggest one being: what is the purpose of collecting all the measurements? It seemed like an overly extensive process just to figure out the weight of one of many gators. Additionally, I would like to know how many they catch and measure each year? What is their food source and what other species reside in the pond? How do they count exactly how many are in that murky pond? Overall, it was fascinating watching the rangers of the Fort Worth Nature Center manage these animals. They were up to the challenge of ...
Read more