Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 16, 2004|Volume 32, Number 26

Jim Search, an educator at the Peabody Museum, sits in an eight-foot theropod dinosaur nest holding an emu egg that is due to hatch the week of April 19.

Hatching emu eggs and a friendly
condor among Peabody attractions

Birds -- past, present and still-in-the-shell -- will be the focus of several upcoming activities being held in conjunction with the exhibition "Hatching the Past: Dinosaur Eggs, Nests & Young" at the Peabody Museum of Natural History.

Veedor the condor

The museum will sponsor a day-long program on Saturday, April 17, featuring Veedor, the only tame, free-flying condor in the world.

The indoor portion of the two-part program will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Peabody Museum with a slide and video presentation by naturalist, ornithologist and filmmaker John McNeely, who acquired Veedor from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's endangered species program when the condor was 14 months old. McNeely will first trace his work with various species, including a red-tailed hawk that soared along with his hang glider and a golden eagle. He will then discuss the behavior of imperiled condors in both Peru and the United States and show a short video about the historic capture of the last wild condor in America. This will be followed by an interactive session in which audience members, using huge feathers, learn to recreate the flight adaptations of the condor, the largest and one of the rarest of all soaring birds.

The outside portion of the program will take place at approximately 2:30 p.m. in New Haven's Edgerton Park, corner of Whitney and Cliff streets. McNeely will introduce Veedor to the audience and talk about his features and behavior. If the surroundings are favorable, Veedor may spread his wings and fly. Other birds will also be on hand for flight demonstrations.

Standing three feet tall and boasting a wingspan of 9.5 feet, Veedor -- whose name is Spanish for "overseer" -- is an Andean condor. He was born in captivity, and at age six became a main symbol in support of the federal Endangered Species Act at an informational hearing held before the Congressional Environment and Natural Resources subcommittee in Washington, D.C. Based in Connecticut, McNeely and Veedor travel throughout the United States educating the public about condors and raising consciousness about all endangered species.

The indoor program is free with museum admission; no admission is charged at Edgerton Park. For further information or directions to the park, call the Peabody events office at (203) 432-3776 or send e-mail to peabody.events@yale.edu.

Emu eggs and more

Eggs of all sorts -- from a 35-pound dinosaur fossil egg to the eggs of modern-day ancestors of the dinosaurs -- highlight a week of activities at the Peabody Museum coinciding with the April school vacation week, Monday-Friday, April 19-23.

A batch of the eggs of emus, large flightless birds from Australia that are related to ostriches, are now incubating at the museum, and will reach the end of their seven- to eight-week gestation period during the vacation week. Visitors will be able to watch the baby emus poke their beaks through the blue-green eggs and, over the course of the next day or so, break out of their shells. The incubators are installed in the exhibition "Hatching the Past: Dinosaur Eggs, Nests & Young," on view through June 1.

Special activities include:

April 19, 1-4 p.m.: Identification Day. Museum experts invite children and adults alike to bring in their specimens for identification, including insects, rocks, worms, flowers, feathers, fossils, leaves and teeth.

April 20, 11 a.m.: Puppeteer Betty Baisden will present "Roxi Fox and the Baby Dinosaurs."

April 21, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.: Radio Disney visits with a program of music, dance, games and prizes.

April 22, 1-4 p.m.: Earth Day celebration. Activities will include planting a tree and learning ways to protect the planet.

April 23, 1-4 p.m. Dinosaur Egg Hunt and Egg Decorating.

The Peabody Museum of Natural History, located at 170 Whitney Ave., is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $7 for adults; $6 for seniors age 65 and older; $5 for children ages 3-18 and older students with I.D. There is free admission for all 2-5 p.m. on Thursdays. Museum members, Yale community members with a valid I.D. and children under age 3 are always admitted for free. The museum is wheelchair accessible. Parking is available in the Peabody visitor parking lot, entrance off Whitney Ave., one block north of the museum; follow signs inside the entrance. For directions, events or other information call (203) 432-5050 or visit the website at www.peabody.yale.edu.

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