Animal Architects: Building Habitat

Naturalist Eric from the Squam Lakes Science Center came to the Gordon-Nash to tell us all about the building that animals do to make their homes. He brought with him three live animals - a woodchuck, a kestrel, and a porcupine.

Eric showed how woodchucks make a burrow with two openings and several small "rooms" for different purposes. He told us about kestrels, how they sometimes live in holes made by woodpeckers, and how non-native starlings now compete for those same nesting cavities in trees. He demonstrated with a giant model of a porcupine quill how the quill can get lodged in skin or animal fur. He told us that porcupines don't shoot their quills just like we could never shoot our hair out of our heads! He said that most animals are afraid of porcupines - except dogs and fishers! Eric told us so much more about these three animal architects and how they create places to live!

When the presentation was all over, Eric let the audience see and touch fisher and woodchuck pelts, kestrel wings and talons, and see porcupine quills up close but in a protective box.

Eric also reminded us that animals and people both need the same things in order to survive...

Thank you to Eric and the Squam Lakes Science Center for this fun and informative program. Also, sincere thanks to The Cohen Family for generously funding this wonderful program!