Dr. Lamar Hunter has just joined the Carolina Tiger Rescue team as a wildlife veterinarian. After he graduated from NC State’s vet school, Dr. Hunter studied under Dr. Angela Lassiter at Carolina Tiger Rescue. He helps with physicals, medical procedures, and loves seeing the animals improve under the care of the awesome vets at the rescue. Dr. Hunter enjoys working with all the animals at Carolina Tiger Rescue, but his favorite is the lions.
Dr. Hunter’s Blog 4/22/20
Happy Earth Day! Today is a day to celebrate our beautiful planet! Earth Day is also a day to recognize the things we can do to help protect it and those that call it home. One thing you can do is limit your use of palm oil. About 300 football fields of tiger and orangutan habitat are destroyed every hour to make palm oil plantations. Tigers are endangered and orangutans are critically endangered meaning they are both at risk of going extinct, but we can make changes in our daily lives to help prevent that! Palm oil is in about 50% of household products. By limiting our use of products that contain palm oil or using products containing sustainable palm oil, we can reduce the destruction of their habitat. If you would like to do this with your friends and family, encourage your grown ups to check out the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo palm oil app for smartphones or simply read the ingredients lists on the products your family buys. To learn more about non-sustainable palm oil vs sustainable palm oil, visit their website here.
To celebrate Earth Day, our live stream featured Caprichio, Carolina (pictured here), and India Tiger, as they received special Earth Day enrichment! You can find the video titled “Facebook LIVE: Happy Earth Day!” here. While you watch the trio find their treats and destroy their boxes, our Education Director, Katie Cannon, touches on some other ways you can help the planet. Remember that Earth Day happens only once a year, but you can help the tigers here and those in the wild everyday by spreading our message, avoiding unsustainable palm oil, and avoiding places where they are exploited. Now I’m going to head outside to enjoy my lunch in nature! Have a great Earth Day!