This week's class on mammals in Master Naturalist class was very interesting! Gene and I have really been enjoying all the classes! The instructor handed out animal skins to all of us at the beginning of class to identify. Some of them were very easy (skunk - duh) and some not so much.
Classmates had a lot of fun putting the fur skins around their necks or a few even decided the skins made good puppets! Luckily the skins were prepared for heavy handling by students!
Classmates had a lot of fun putting the fur skins around their necks or a few even decided the skins made good puppets! Luckily the skins were prepared for heavy handling by students!
The entire lecture was very informative.I was surprised to learn of some of the animals that are in our county that I would never have guessed were here; the mink for example.
Towards the end of the class we were given different sized skulls and a descriptive key to use, and between observing the animal skulls and comparing to the key, we were to figure out what kind of animal skull we had. We had the skull of a ringtail cat (which though called that is actually in the raccoon family).
One thing I can say over all about the Texas Master Naturalist class is that when I go outdoors now I have a keener sense of observation and also a greater sense of wonder and appreciation for everything I see!
It's truly amazing how much wildlife there is around us, which we don't even see. We've seen deer and we've seen foxes, but I am sure there's a lot of other mammals living right beneath our noses. Your class sounds wonderful.
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