Zoe Johnson-Ulrich

Zoe Johnson-Ulrich

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Published on Feb 02, 2016

Meet the Skunks

The skunks I'm testing are Seymour, Sebastian, and Raspberry. All three skunks were born as pets and were descented (so they can't spray); now they live at the Organization for Bat Conservation, he...

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Published on Sep 06, 2015

First Data Collection at the CMZ!

Data collection began about a month ago at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo with one of their tigers! I've attached a few videos below; the first is a clip from his first session, a familiarization trial ...

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Published on Jul 03, 2015

MAB Delivery to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

The box has been delivered, thanks to everyone who contributed to this campaign! We brought it up to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo on Tuesday afternoon (June 30) to be inspected by the keepers and vete...

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Published on Jun 18, 2015

100% Funded!! (So now we have a new stretch goal!)

Wow, I'm amazed! All of you (backers to this project) are amazing and thank you all so much for your support! I didn't know some many people were out there that find the same questions as interesti...

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Published on Jun 18, 2015

The Bear/Cat Multi-Access Box!

Hello everyone, exciting news! I went out to the Oakland University Engineering department yesterday, and was able to pick up the multi-access-box (MAB) that we designed for large carnivores! This ...

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Published on Jun 21, 2015

The Coolest Things About Bears

Bears have always been my favorite animal for no good reason (the main influence was probably the stuffed polar bear I was given as a 2 year old). Regardless of its source, the more I learn about b...

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Published on Jun 16, 2015

The Hyena MAB

My sister, Lily Johnson-Ulrich, and I, collaborated in designing the Multi-Access-Box for large carnivores. She is using it in her dissertation research at Michigan State University, and using it a...

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Hi Colette, Yes I do actually, but I'm waiting on permission to post some videos from another zoo! Hopefully I'll be able to put up a new lab note within the next week or two.
Feb 04, 2016
Lions, and tigers, and bears! How innovative are large carnivores?
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I completely agree! The hyenas seemed to have fun with their MAB, I think the cats and bears will like playing with this one too.
Jun 22, 2015
Lions, and tigers, and bears! How innovative are large carnivores?
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We'll build a stronger box; we don't have an immediate back up, but we're giving it to the big cats first, which are less likely to destroy it.
Jun 21, 2015
Lions, and tigers, and bears! How innovative are large carnivores?
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Ahahaha that would be awesome!
Jun 19, 2015
Lions, and tigers, and bears! How innovative are large carnivores?
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No, unless you count water-bears (tardigrades)!
Jun 19, 2015
Lions, and tigers, and bears! How innovative are large carnivores?
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Thanks! I think so too based on the stories about them being good at breaking into human stuff all the time, but the cool thing is that it's never really been tested experimentally! So this project will be one of the first to see if bears really are as innovative as they appear (and if some bear species are more innovative than other bear species).
Jun 18, 2015
Lions, and tigers, and bears! How innovative are large carnivores?
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Thanks! We aren't planning on selling the design, but it will be included as part of the Methods section when we get the research published (and it could probably be copied from the photos and videos I've posted here), so anyone wanting to use it for enrichment or replicating our work will be able to!
Jun 18, 2015
Lions, and tigers, and bears! How innovative are large carnivores?
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Bears' destructive foraging behaviors are one of the reasons I'm particularly interested in them! I just got the box itself and am posting photos in a few minutes... and hoping they won't be able to actually destroy the box itself! Thanks!
Jun 18, 2015
Lions, and tigers, and bears! How innovative are large carnivores?
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Thanks! I'm excited too- it'll be my first time giving puzzle boxes to bears and other big carnivores! I'm working with one American black bear right now on a touch-screen computer, but I think it's a different kind of fun to watch animals manipulate things, "hands-on".
Jun 16, 2015
Lions, and tigers, and bears! How innovative are large carnivores?
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Thanks, me too! I love trying to figure out what and how animals are thinking, and there's always cool research being done in many areas of animal behavior and cognition. Have you seen the first Multi-Access-Box studies? Here's links to the journal articles: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0020231 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347212004861 The second one isn't open-access, but the abstract is there.
Jun 16, 2015
Lions, and tigers, and bears! How innovative are large carnivores?
View comment
Thanks, me too! I love trying to figure out what and how animals are thinking, and there's always cool research being done in many areas of animal behavior and cognition. Have you seen the first Multi-Access-Box studies? Here's links to the journal articles: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0020231 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347212004861The second one isn't open-access, but the abstract is there.
Jun 16, 2015
Lions, and tigers, and bears! How innovative are large carnivores?
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I'm posting some photos of the hyena box tonight, and I will have photos of the bear/cat box tomorrow after I pick it up from the engineering department!
Jun 16, 2015
Lions, and tigers, and bears! How innovative are large carnivores?
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