HMNS Beyond Bones Podcast · Houston Museum of Natural Science

Fennec Foxes & How We Care for Our Animals

·59 min·4 clips

If a fennec fox shows stress, Stephanie says she would pull it immediately and move it behind the scenes.

1. HMNS Beyond Bones Podcast focuses on the Houston Museum of Natural Science’s new exhibit, Extreme Animals Alive, and the fennec fox section. 2. Johnny Hemberger, who calls himself the museum’s “mental curator,” hosts Stephanie Bradbury, the head animal-care staffer responsible for the live animals. 3. The episode asks how the museum acquires animals, how it keeps them healthy, and why the foxes are treated as permanent residents. 4. Ember and Blaze are identified as seven-week-old fennec foxes with an April 8 birthday. 5. Stephanie describes their routine as eating, sleeping, and occasional play while the staff tries to move them toward a diurnal schedule. 6. Their enclosure includes footprints in the sand and toys, and the foxes were still receiving midnight feedings when they stayed overnight at Stephanie’s home. 7. Stephanie says the museum does not take healthy animals from the wild. 8. She explains that rehabilitated animals come only when they cannot be released, and other animals arrive through breeders and institutions that work with museums, zoos, and aquariums. 9. She says she had to provide museum background information, schematics, and blueprints of the tanks before the animals arrived. 10. Stephanie describes a day of checking temperatures, feeding breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner, cleaning poop and pee, and adding enrichment. 11. She says the museum keeps animals for life after an exhibit ends, including for programs like Wildlife on Wheels and some lab activities. 12. If an animal shows stress, she says she would pull it immediately and move it to the behind-the-scenes animal room. 13. In that room, the animals would stay until a vet checks them or until another arrangement is made for their welfare. 14. Stephanie says the touch tank animals rotate for health, sanity, and stress levels, and the exhibit has scheduled maintenance days with no hands in the tanks. 15. The museum uses three vets, including emergency coverage, and Stephanie says the foxes had their first vet appointment last week. 16. She says the foxes’ big ears help radiate heat and hear prey, their large eyes support nocturnal vision, and they hydrate through food in the wild. 17. The tone mixes animal-care instruction with personal anecdotes about midnight feedings, missed sleep, and the foxes chewing socks and climbing on her head. 18. Johnny keeps the format conversational and transparent, frequently stopping to ask practical questions about health, stress, and captivity. 19. Listeners who like zoo ethics, animal care, and museum backstage work. 20. People looking for a short, purely wildlife-survival orc? no, not that, but a fast-moving story with little care detail.

As heard by us

A direct look at the care behind a live-animal exhibit.

This episode follows Johnny Hemberger through the Houston Museum of Natural Science's new Extreme Animals Alive exhibit, with Stephanie Bradbury in the fennec fox area explaining how live animals come into the museum's care and what that work looks like day to day.

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Why you'd press play

You want the real work behind a live-animal exhibit.

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