This month at Walden Circle, we extended a warm welcome to their furry friends from Hands on Exotics! Take a look below for some captured moments with our residents. Be sure to scroll and learn some fun facts about the exotic animals that came to visit!
Jean having a laugh as our furry friends enjoys a treat
The parrot that had just enjoyed a treat with Jean, flew onto Pat for a quick hello!
Madeline couldn’t believe how heavy the tortoise really was!
Some Fun Facts about Exotic Animals!:
- Contrary to popular belief, a turtle cannot come out of its shell. The turtle’s shell grows with them, so it’s impossible for them to grow too big for it!
- These cold-blooded creatures have an incredibly long life span. The oldest ever recorded, named Tu”i Malila, of Tonga Island, passed away at the grand old age of 188!
- One of the reasons that parrots make good pets is because they can imitate sounds. In the wild, they imitate the calls of other members of their flock, which allows them to communicate about important things such as food and the presence of danger. Indeed, unlike other birds which know their calls without being taught, parrots know by learning and learn by imitation. They also imitate the calls of other animals which serves as a defense against predators. For example, if a snake is approaching, they can imitate the call of a hawk, scaring the snake away.
In homes, parrots can copy the sounds of a phone ringing, a vacuum cleaner humming, water running, the doorbell chiming and other sounds. Of course, they can imitate human speech, too. They do this because they think these sounds are made by their flock and, therefore, they have to learn them.
- Snakes can’t bite food so have to swallow it whole, and they have flexible jaws which allow them to eat prey bigger than their head!
- It is unclear exactly when ferrets were first domesticated, but the critters have a long and storied history. Greek scholars—Aristophanes in 450 BCE and Aristotle in 350 BCE—wrote about a ferret-like animal. Some lore asserts that ancient Egyptians even kept them as pets, but the absence of ferret bones in explored tombs casts doubt on that claim. Remains have been found in a medieval castle in Belgium, but there is no mention of the pets in any contemporary writings. It’s also possible that the ferret was exclusively a lower-class pet, which would explain the lack of documentation.In the late 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci painted Cecilia Gallerani holding a weasel-like creature. Although the animal has been dubbed an ermine, many scholars believe the animal is actually a ferret.
