This past month, something very exciting took place in our animal habitats. Our North American Porcupine, Peanut, and our Channel Island Fox, Diego, were introduced!

Why, you might wonder, did these two seemingly dissimilar mammals meet? Because they’re going to share a habitat!

Our animals keepers knew that Peanut needed a roomier space in which to roam, climb trees and munch on her tasty browse (leaves, twigs, and shoots of trees or shrubs), but there were no large, vacant habitats available. The keepers believed a few of our animals might be good candidates to share a habitat with Peanut, but they finally settled on Diego. Diego made an ideal Diego in his habitatcandidate because he has historically been very unaggressive and even a bit reserved. The two were also a good match because Diego is diurnal (active during the day), and Peanut is nocturnal (active at night). This means that they’re awake at different times, so their paths won’t cross much.

The animal introduction process itself has been gradual and careful. It began with keepers placing a crated Peanut inside Diego’s habitat. Keepers left the crate door closed, so neither animal had contact with one another. Keepers did this on separate occasions, for 30 minutes at a time, before they felt it was safe to open the door on Peanut’s crate. When they did finally open the crate door, Peanut was free to roam around the habitat to explore. As a precaution, a veterinarian was on-site, just in case the animals reacted poorly to the experience.
Diego

So far, all of the meetings have gone very well for Peanut and Diego. They’re spending time together in the same habitat everyday, and if they continue to acclimate well, they’ll be sharing the same habitat, unsupervised, sometime in late February.

Come by the museum any day between 10:30am and 2pm to watch the introduction process yourself. It’s truly a one-of-a-kind experience. Just ask a friendly animal keeper if you have any questions about Peanut and Diego!