Animals

Just as humans get excited for a full plate of food- so do animals. Some of Northwest Trek’s woodlands and wetland animals were recently given their own Thanksgiving feast. Their dinner plate: a cornucopia. Skunk Skunks are omnivores and eat a variety of foods seasonally, including vegetable material and up to their weight in insects every week. For Milton the skunk’s feast, keeper Wendi Mello gave him a mixture of blueberries, pears, yams, omnivore and insectivore chow and a handful of mealworms. Mealworms are his favorite food, said Mello. She added that Milton also likes cranberries (how festive!) and eats …

The black bears at Northwest Trek are slowing down and getting ready for their winter naps, also known as torpor. During torpor, a bear’s body temperature, respiratory rate and metabolic rates all decrease to conserve energy. The bears can maintain this low-energy sleeping state for days, weeks or even months without having much activity outside of their den, including eating and going to the bathroom. Northwest Trek’s black bears, Benton and Fern, typically go into torpor from November until February or March. They do have periods of activity during the winter months, where they will eat, defecate/urinate and remake their …

There’s a new cat in town! Northwest Trek is now home to Tahoma, a 4-year-old male bobcat. Tahoma was raised as a pet until recently. Bobcats are illegal to own as pets in Washington State, and his owner was forced to surrender him. Tahoma joins the wildlife park’s resident male bobcat, 8-year-old Tanner, who was also raised by humans before coming to Northwest Trek. Because of the cats’ comfortability around people, they both are not able to be released back into the wild. “Bobcats are wild animals, and wild animals don’t make good pets. It takes generations of careful breeding …