Trees and dirt are being moved as the construction of Bear Meadows gets underway.

by Traci Jacobs

ZooMontana has a new friend, Jake the American Belgian Draft horse. Jake was born in the Spring of 1989 and was raised as a work horse in an Amish community of Iowa. He came to Montana as part of a team of six Belgians and was used to pull wagons and sleighs. The zoo received him from Stacy Dietz. Jake worked hard for many years and is now fully retired because of asthma. His tail has been docked so it wouldn’t get caught in the machinery during his working days. The Rexfords wanted to share their wonderful giant with as many as they can. Jake is a true gentleman and very in tune to human emotions. He can tell when you’re having a bad day just by the tone of your voice. His favorite things in life are treats and to have his belly and butt scratched.

The Belgian draft horse outnumbers all other draft horses combined in the United States. Belgians are native to Belgium, as the name suggests. Belgium is a little country in the center of Western Europe that has the fertile soil and abundant rainfall needed to produce excellent pastures of hay and grains necessary to develop a heavy, powerful breed of horse. The Belgians were mainly working animals, but have become popular as show horses, gaming horses and trail riding horses. And although the overall percentage of draft breeds among American horses has declined, the number of Belgians has increased, possibly in part due to their amiable disposition and willingness to work.

Jake stands at 17.2 hands high (5’8” at the withers) and weighs 2100 lbs. The world’s largest Belgian horse, Brooklyn Supreme, was 19.2 hands high and weighed 3200 lbs. The tallest living horse is a Belgian Draft named Radar, a gelding born in 1998 in Iowa. He stands at 19.35 hands (6’7” at the withers) and weighs 2400 lbs.

11 am - Wolverine
12 pm - Tiger
1:30 pm - Snapping Turtle

The flea market that was noted on the calendar for Saturday, June 9th is cancelled.

Both of our female pygmy goats are expecting kids!

Progress is being made on the bear exhibit. Ground has been broken. Watch here for pictures of the construction!

The wild killdeer in the parking lot have started nesting. We found a nest of 4 new eggs today, expect a hatch in a month. Killdeer are interesting birds, if you get too close to a nest the adults will pretend to be injured to lure you away.
Baby Ground Squirrels are up and about, they are very cute to watch.

Kaylee Grote wins May Web Vote Photo Contest!
Congratulations, Kaylee!

One more month to enter photos...

-- Julie

Here's a picture from this Saturday's sika deer enrichment. Rocket was waiting patiently for Debra, the keeper, to put branches covered in grapes down in his exhibit. Once she left, he came out and delicately picked off all the grapes. He didn't scratch his antlers against the branches while I was watching, but Debra thought that he might do so since he has his new antlers.

-- Julie - webmaster

Welcome to ZooMontana's new blog! We will use this blog to post messages to let you know what's happening at the zoo. All of the staff can use this blog so check back often.

-- Julie - webmaster