The tale of the disappearing/reappearing skink magic act!
So the first thing Melissa says to me when I get in today is "We have a situation. Digit's gone MIA."
Apparently sometime late afternoon/early evening yesterday Digit just ... vanished. She was put back in her cage after presentation. Two people verified that they saw her in the cage at 4:30. But at 7pm, the Education people still in the building were calling Husbandry staff to say, "Uh, Digit's gone." "What do you mean, gone? Did someone take her out for presentation?" "No." Cue two Education staff searching high and low in TH (terrestrial holding) yesterday without finding any sign of the skink.
Melissa came in at 6:45am today so she could spend extra time searching for Digit. No luck. She lets me know, I finish my chores before the aquarium opens and spend 30-45 minutes on my hands and knees to check and re-check anywhere the skink might be: behind cages, beneath cages, beneath shelving, on low shelves, in boxes on low shelves... Melissa even checked the drain JUST IN CASE. I cannot find anything! I can't even find poop!
Eventually I decide to just get on with the rest of my chores. So I'm changing out snake water with my back to Digit's cage, and suddenly I hear a FWUMP.
I turn around and she has literally APPEARED OUT OF THIN AIR and is calmly crawling over to the water dish for a drink.
It's a good thing I was alone in TH because my reaction was basically to go "WHAT THE FUCK" and stare incredulously before racing up to Husbandry to let them know HEY DIGIT'S BACK. SOMEHOW. SHE'S MAGIC.
BASICALLY what looks like the "ceiling" in her cage is a false ceiling; there's an attic-like space above it. That space is accessible through an opening that allows lightbulbs and heat lamps to attach to the "real" ceiling. Usually that space is covered by a grate, but the ceramic heat lamps are too long so we don't put them there.
So from what we can guess, Digit somehow crawled up into the "attic" through the opening in the "false ceiling" where the lightbulbs are. She didn't burn herself because the lights are off in the evening. How, exactly, she managed to get up there is still up in the air. I mean, if she crawled onto the half-log in her cage, and then leaned against the back wall of the cage she miiiiight be able to get her front legs up into the attic. BUT HER LEGS ARE TINY. Her body is long! I. What. How?! I spent most of the day staring at her and wondering how a skink does a pull-up.
She seemed totally okay even after falling back down, not a scratch on her. But she was more agitated than usual, and her entire belly was pink. Possibly it was too warm up there? We are not sure, but Husbandry will keep an eye on her for the next few days.
Houdini skink.
Apparently sometime late afternoon/early evening yesterday Digit just ... vanished. She was put back in her cage after presentation. Two people verified that they saw her in the cage at 4:30. But at 7pm, the Education people still in the building were calling Husbandry staff to say, "Uh, Digit's gone." "What do you mean, gone? Did someone take her out for presentation?" "No." Cue two Education staff searching high and low in TH (terrestrial holding) yesterday without finding any sign of the skink.
Melissa came in at 6:45am today so she could spend extra time searching for Digit. No luck. She lets me know, I finish my chores before the aquarium opens and spend 30-45 minutes on my hands and knees to check and re-check anywhere the skink might be: behind cages, beneath cages, beneath shelving, on low shelves, in boxes on low shelves... Melissa even checked the drain JUST IN CASE. I cannot find anything! I can't even find poop!
Eventually I decide to just get on with the rest of my chores. So I'm changing out snake water with my back to Digit's cage, and suddenly I hear a FWUMP.
I turn around and she has literally APPEARED OUT OF THIN AIR and is calmly crawling over to the water dish for a drink.
It's a good thing I was alone in TH because my reaction was basically to go "WHAT THE FUCK" and stare incredulously before racing up to Husbandry to let them know HEY DIGIT'S BACK. SOMEHOW. SHE'S MAGIC.
BASICALLY what looks like the "ceiling" in her cage is a false ceiling; there's an attic-like space above it. That space is accessible through an opening that allows lightbulbs and heat lamps to attach to the "real" ceiling. Usually that space is covered by a grate, but the ceramic heat lamps are too long so we don't put them there.
So from what we can guess, Digit somehow crawled up into the "attic" through the opening in the "false ceiling" where the lightbulbs are. She didn't burn herself because the lights are off in the evening. How, exactly, she managed to get up there is still up in the air. I mean, if she crawled onto the half-log in her cage, and then leaned against the back wall of the cage she miiiiight be able to get her front legs up into the attic. BUT HER LEGS ARE TINY. Her body is long! I. What. How?! I spent most of the day staring at her and wondering how a skink does a pull-up.
She seemed totally okay even after falling back down, not a scratch on her. But she was more agitated than usual, and her entire belly was pink. Possibly it was too warm up there? We are not sure, but Husbandry will keep an eye on her for the next few days.
Houdini skink.