News & Announcements
The Iowa world is white in winter, so it makes sense that animals would want to blend in with their seasonal surroundings. Some animals have natural coloring that allows them to hide well in winter, whereas some animals change their colors to keep hidden from predators. Jackrabbit Jackrabbits used to be common in the tallgrass…
Many people ask if the hedgehog animal ambassador at the Dickinson County Nature Center is related to a porcupine. However, hedgehogs and porcupines aren’t actually related at all. There are 17 different species of hedgehogs, and their closest relations are actually shrews and moles. There are more than two dozen species of porcupines in the…
Babies lose baby teeth, and so do baby animals — including baby hedgehogs, like the nature center’s animal ambassador Luna. However, hedgehogs also lose something else as they grow — their quills! Baby hedgehogs are born with spines, but at that time their skin is swollen and covers their spines so that they do not…
The world outside is white, and some animals have also changed color for the season. The first Family Nature Night of 2020 will discuss these changes with its Winter Camouflage theme for the program 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 24, at the Dickinson County Nature Center in Okoboji. Environmental education coordinator Bryanna Kuhlman said the program…