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MEDICINE PARK, Okla. (KSWO) – The Medicine Park Aquarium and Natural Sciences Center is welcoming its newest animal and hoping the community will help contribute to her new habitat.
A local rehabber contacted the Medicine Park Aquarium and Natural Sciences Center about a small, one-year-old female gray fox who wasn’t rehabable.
“She doesn’t have the instinct to kill her prey and eat meat and survive on her own, so therefore, she cannot be released because if she was released, she would ultimately die,” said Executive Director Rainette Rowland. “She would starve to death.”
Staff at the aquarium has been able to slowly introduce meat into Ky’s diet, but she needs a habitat that’s about 16 by 30 feet.
“It has to be completely fenced, like wire underneath, top, sides, everything because a lot of people do not know that fox can climb and they’re very, very good climbers, so you have to have a completely enclosed exhibit for their safety,” Rowland said.
To build her a permanent home, the aquarium is trying to fundraise about $25,000 or looking for someone to sponsor Ky.
“The cost has gone up so much of materials and it’s difficult to build out here because we’re on solid granite, so all of our exhibits, the poles and everything are sunk like four feet in the granite, so it takes a little while to build and it is expensive,” Rowland said.
Already, Ky is warming up to her new caretakers at the aquarium and they want Ky to live a happy and enriched life.
“She would cower down and be in the corner and be very shy and then once we got her and she got used to us,” Rowland said. “She’s not aggressive, which we’re really thankful for, but now she’s kind of turning into a little bit of a diva.”
The aquarium’s goal is education through conservation.
“We want to show everybody, especially our young people in Oklahoma, that this is what’s in your backyard,” Rowland said. “It’s natural, it’s beautiful and why we need to preserve it for future generations.”
If you’d like to contribute, you can call the facility at 580-529-3601 or email Rowland at r.rowland@mpmns.org.
You can also simply stop by the gift shop to drop off your donation or mail it to 1 Aquarium Dr. at Medicine Park, OK 73557.
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