Quality+producers

Science Fair Project: Brain Stimulation in African Crowned Cranes: 1st Place in Animal Science: Non-Mammals division Abstract: Lately at the Henry Doorly Zoo, the keepers working with the African Crowned Cranes have noticed that these birds are injuring themselves on the steel cages during the winter season. The quick solution they came up with was to put the injured tip of the wing in a cast “bumpering” it from the harsh cage and to put up a type of black tarp to cover the sharp edges. This project study is about finding a type of enrichment to keep the cranes busy and not bump into the steel cage and injure them further. The procedure of this project is to find a material safe for the birds to play with while offering a safe sort of snack for them hopefully enriching them while in holding for winter. A type of medium wooden encasing holding different types of grain and seed or insect will be used along with other types of objects to help with a successful outcome. As a result, some were timid to approach it but soon became curious and inspected it. Therefore, concluding that with enough brain stimulation and enrichment, the African Crowned Cranes at the Henry Doorly Zoo can refrain from injuring themselves. This enrichment will hopefully be adopted by the zoo keepers and insure that no other crane will injure themselves during the winter season. Research Plan: At the Henry Doorly Zoo, the African Crowned Cranes have been injuring themselves on their steel wire holding cages in the winter season. Therefore, enrichment has been the one solution that was thought of. My hypothesis is that”I think the African Crowned Cranes will be less likely to bang their wings against the cage if they had more enrichment.” The experiment variables consist of a bamboo, ply wood, or another type of material shaped into a tube with different sized holes. In the tubes, I will have put different types of nutritious treats for them including: seed, grain, fruit, vegetation, meal worms, and/or crickets. In the experiment, the tube will be placed inside one of the cranes cages. Hopefully, the curiosity of the bird will inspect the tubes and learn that by playing with it the bird gets a small treat. I will watch and take notes on the bird’s behavior towards the treat toy. The results of this project will be of great use towards insuring a more safe environment in the back holding cages during the winter season and will also create a more happy and stimulated crane for the keepers. Some references that inspired my idea for this project: Henry Doorly Zoo, Philidelphiazoo.org, animalenrichment.org, cougarmountainzoo.org, and mnzoo.org.

Band is a very big part of my life other than animals. Thanks to band, I have learned to strive for better quality in both intonation and embouchure so I can play my best in the Wind Ensemble, the elite band that we have at Papillion Lavista Highschool.media type="youtube" key="6pBskufkfoU?hl=en" height="344" width="425"media type="file" key="Abracadabra (09-10).mp3" width="263" height="21"