Muskox Art

We tried to create muskox art this week. It turned out being a pretty good lesson on what is not really going to work.

So in October I attended the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums conference in Edmonton and I paid, umm, enough money at a charity auction to buy Emma a pink and purple painting done by a red panda for Christmas. Ironically, Emma had been at the Toronto zoo that same weekend and saw her own red panda, which "is not a panda mommy, pandas are black and white."

We've had some substantial cost increases and have been brainstorming about fun ways to raise a little extra money, and we began to think about art done by the animals. In zoos, painting is used as a stimulus to keep the animals' mentally active. At the preserve, we don't have those same behavioral issues, we just think it's fun.

So, we bought the water soluable, non-toxic paints and we tested it out on Jesse, knowing how popular she is. (my staff also joke that the fastest way for us to raise money is to sell Mike Jesse-related items. Not helpful!)

We trudged out into the snow (perfect for washing away any paint), paper on plywood, camera in hand and some red and green paint. We brought Jesse into her own enclosure and tried to encourage her to "draw." We did get her to walk across the paint a couple of times, but only in an effort to get to more food. Turns out, we can't compete with all the grass in the enclosure! To move from one area that has been mowed down into grass heaven - and to have it all to herself - we had no chance (you can see the difference in the photos). If anything was painted at all, it was mainly Jesse's nose running across the page en route to more food.

Sigh. No art yet, but I think we have a pretty good idea now of what not to do, and some ideas for next time.