Tues- Tuesday was pretty uneventful. I was on top road with John and Joe. Normally I wouldn't have been with Joe at all but he's pretty much done with his training, so I was helping out. I started cleaning up Bongo which included cleaning the yard, giving them hay and fresh water, and then letting them out so that I could do their stalls.
After that I helped out in Grant's and some of the other animals. That mostly included cleaning the stalls, the yard, fresh water and hay, and then scrubbing and disinfecting all the food/water/hay tubs.
After lunch we had our class for the day. Today it was on AZA accreditation, which is the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. We are an accredited facility so we have to abid by their rules and regulations on keeping the zoo in proper order. They come every once in a while to do inspections, so our class was on what they are looking for, what the jobs of AZA members are, what the jobs mean, and what happens if we don't follow the rules.
Class was over early and we had a little bit of time before we were expected to be back so we decided to take a trip and go see the butterfly garden and the budgies. The butterfly garden was pretty boring, many of the butterflies had not hatched yet and those that had were up near the top of the building trying to get out, so there really wasn't much to see. The budgies were a bit more interesting. Budgies are our Australian parakeets which you can feed for two dollars. We skipped the money and decided to just watch. It was just as much fun to watch them zoom around and zip past our faces.
After class and field trips it was delivery and getting things ready for the afternoon cleanup. I was able to work on my intern project a little bit by clearing out an area from weeds and bamboo.
Wednesday- This day was the beginning of some very long hot days. It was easily the hottest of the week. To begin I was on top road again with Joe and Andrea. This was Joe's last day of being trained so I helped out as much as I could. I once again started out in Bongo and by 8:45 I was already drenched in sweat. A sure sign of a long day.
After all of the normal morning chores, and a huge water bottle, and soaking my hair under the water of a fire hydrant, it was finally time for lunch. Thankfully we put an air conditioner in the trailer so that we could enjoy our break time in a nice cold area. Unfortunately the break time didn't last very long and we were off to our next big job: a knotweed delivery!
There was a conservation society that was getting rid of a lot of knotweeds in an area of Newburyport to replace it with native plants. They decided to donate it to us so that we could feed it out to all of the animals and that it wouldn't go to waste. It took quite some time because it was a whole truck load full and needed to be taken out and then wrapped in bundles to be frozen for later use. By the end of it we were soaked in sweat again and extremely thirsty, and we still had to still bring it all to the freezer. Thankfully that was a nice and cool place.
After that we finished up with the afternoon chores and called it a day until tomorrow....
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Peacock Parade
Tuesday- This day was a pretty uneventful. I was on bottom road with John again. Things went as planned. Ciara (our female camel) seemed to be having a good day. I'm not sure if I told all you folks before or not, but she has some joint problems (or at least what we speculate to be joint problems...we're not really sure) so sometimes she's stiff and doesn't want to stand for long periods of time.
The Kori Bustards are doing well also. We've been doing introductions of our male and female in order to eventually (hopefully) have them on exhibit together. They've been doing well with the introductions with only minor aggression towards each other. Mostly him towards her, but it's to be expected since they only just met each other about a week ago.
When the class was over we needed to go move the peacocks to their new temporary home! They've been inside for the winter because there were rumors of a coyote loose and we didn't want to loose any of them. They've been staying with us, but today they were going off to Childrens Zoo for some temporary holding until they could be released on zoo grounds! It's all very exciting since we believe that they would really love to be out and about eating bugs.
Wednesday- I was on bottom again but this time with Nicole. It was a very wet and rainy day, so not much fun. I was soaked within about 30 minutes. That's the down side to having an outside job, you need to be prepared for all sorts of weather.
The Kori Bustards are doing well also. We've been doing introductions of our male and female in order to eventually (hopefully) have them on exhibit together. They've been doing well with the introductions with only minor aggression towards each other. Mostly him towards her, but it's to be expected since they only just met each other about a week ago.
Jazzy, the male Kori
After lunch we (being the interns) went off to our class for the day, which was pest control/management. We learned what animals/insects are considered pests and how the zoo manages them. Often times they are caught in some sort of trap, whether it be a mouse/rat trap, have-a-heart traps, or some sort of insect catcher. We also learned how to actually set the mouse/rat traps by setting one right then and there. They're much easier to set than the ones we have to set in Wildlife Techniques class for larger animals.
When the class was over we needed to go move the peacocks to their new temporary home! They've been inside for the winter because there were rumors of a coyote loose and we didn't want to loose any of them. They've been staying with us, but today they were going off to Childrens Zoo for some temporary holding until they could be released on zoo grounds! It's all very exciting since we believe that they would really love to be out and about eating bugs.
Wednesday- I was on bottom again but this time with Nicole. It was a very wet and rainy day, so not much fun. I was soaked within about 30 minutes. That's the down side to having an outside job, you need to be prepared for all sorts of weather.
Right after lunch we were able to watch the hornbills do some training. Right now we are working on getting them to do target, which is where you say target and they press their face (or bill in this case) to a certain area, and getting them to recognize colors. That is proving to be the hardest thing it seems.
Matata with a grass clump
Later on during the day the interns and I went off to work on the tiger exhibit. The day before facilities layed down some cement to cover some rat holes and it was still drying so the tigers couldn't go onto the exhibit anyways. We decided to take advantage of this and clean the pool and do some minor weeding. The cleaning of the pool was the biggest part of the project. Courtney and I were sent to do the weeding portion, while Joe was sent to clean the pool. Which I would have almost rathered because I feel like he got a tiny bit less wet, but by the time that we all were done we were all soaked for the most part.
Thursday- I was on bottom again with John today. Yesterday when I had been on bottom with Nicole I set some rat traps in the wildebeest barn. Today I found that I caught a rat! I was very impressed, the class paid off!
After that excitement we went off to work on the cat exhibits. I cleaned the windows to the lions pen and made them all nice and squeaky clean. When that was all done I helped some of the people on top road to clean bongo. This was mostly the same as cleaning the zebra stalls. A little less cleaning but mostly the same.
Then we went off to get the delivery and then on the way back they dropped off Katie and I to clean the peacock barn. We stripped everything and scrubbed everything down. It was very gratifying to just get everything super clean. Or at least as super clean as it could possibly get.
Friday- Bottom again today, this time with both John and Courtney. We got everything done rather quickly now that the peacocks are gone and their were three of us. We did a deep cleaning of the cat enclosure since we had the man power and the time, and then we did some quick weeding outside near the tiger pen.
Anala
Chris taking a nap
After lunch we had a class about PRIDE, which was all about customer service. A lot of it was information that I had heard before from working in the customer service field for so many years, but it was still a good refresher to hear it again.
So that was my week. Nothing too exciting, but it definitely kept me busy. Next week I'll hopefully be starting to work on my project, which I can inform you all about when it starts!
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Boston for Some Group Bonding
I decided to give Friday it's own post since we did so much. Friday was a field trip day so I didn't actually do any work at all! It was very nice.
I didn't actually have to be to work until 9am, but since traffic would be so bad if I tried to leave my house later than I normally do, I decided to get there at 7 like normal. Unfortunately this means two hours of nothing to do, so what does any college kid do?? I slept in my car. I felt so weird doing it, but it was almost worth it.
So we started off our day by going to the Aquarium. We were able to catch the last bit of the sea lion show, which was cool. I learned that in one square inch of a sea lions body they can have about 300,000 hairs. That's a lot!!! After the show we were able to get a behind the scenes tour and see a new baby seal that they have. The woman giving us the tour told us a lot about him, but it was hard to hear because I was in the back and there were lots of children yelling outside. From what I could hear though I learned that he was found in Monteray, CA and he was very underweight. When they found him he was 8 months old but weighed the same as a one month old pup. I also believe I heard he is blind in one eye and has some flipper problems. He's super cute though!
Once our behind the scene's tour was done, Courtney, Joe and I went off to explore the rest of the aquarium. We went straight to the touch tank to feel some rays and sharks. It was like we were kids again. Then we decided to look at the big tank in the middle because in September it's going to be redone and will no longer exist. So if you want to go see it, hurry up!! We saw some very interesting creatures there, and actually avoided a lot of the school groups.
After that we headed to Quincy Market for lunch. I got a steak and cheese sub and then a coffee milkshake for dessert. We walked around and did a little sight seeing since we had a lot of time to kill. Courtney was actually pulled into a street show!! I almost wish that we had a little bit more time to spend there.
Once we were done with lunch we hopped back on the subway and headed over to the Museum of Science. We got to see behind the scenes with their live animal department and had a self tour to look at the animals. I wish that this tour had been a little more informative, but they seemed really busy. The do have lots of cool animals there though. Many birds and reptiles, and then quite a few mammals too. My favorite was the groundhog (which I didn't take a picture of for some reason....) and their owl.
When we were done there the three of us headed off to explore the rest of the museum in a whirlwind amount of time. We were kids again, pressing all the buttons, and playing all the games. We had lots of laughs and I wish that we were there longer so that it wasn't so rushed. We found out that Joe has the lung capacity of a marathon runner, and we saw some pretty cool exhibits.
I didn't actually have to be to work until 9am, but since traffic would be so bad if I tried to leave my house later than I normally do, I decided to get there at 7 like normal. Unfortunately this means two hours of nothing to do, so what does any college kid do?? I slept in my car. I felt so weird doing it, but it was almost worth it.
So we started off our day by going to the Aquarium. We were able to catch the last bit of the sea lion show, which was cool. I learned that in one square inch of a sea lions body they can have about 300,000 hairs. That's a lot!!! After the show we were able to get a behind the scenes tour and see a new baby seal that they have. The woman giving us the tour told us a lot about him, but it was hard to hear because I was in the back and there were lots of children yelling outside. From what I could hear though I learned that he was found in Monteray, CA and he was very underweight. When they found him he was 8 months old but weighed the same as a one month old pup. I also believe I heard he is blind in one eye and has some flipper problems. He's super cute though!
Once our behind the scene's tour was done, Courtney, Joe and I went off to explore the rest of the aquarium. We went straight to the touch tank to feel some rays and sharks. It was like we were kids again. Then we decided to look at the big tank in the middle because in September it's going to be redone and will no longer exist. So if you want to go see it, hurry up!! We saw some very interesting creatures there, and actually avoided a lot of the school groups.
Sea Turtle
Underside of a flounder
After that we headed to Quincy Market for lunch. I got a steak and cheese sub and then a coffee milkshake for dessert. We walked around and did a little sight seeing since we had a lot of time to kill. Courtney was actually pulled into a street show!! I almost wish that we had a little bit more time to spend there.
Giant Mac & Cheese Noodle
Once we were done with lunch we hopped back on the subway and headed over to the Museum of Science. We got to see behind the scenes with their live animal department and had a self tour to look at the animals. I wish that this tour had been a little more informative, but they seemed really busy. The do have lots of cool animals there though. Many birds and reptiles, and then quite a few mammals too. My favorite was the groundhog (which I didn't take a picture of for some reason....) and their owl.
Owl
Red tailed Hawk
When we were done there the three of us headed off to explore the rest of the museum in a whirlwind amount of time. We were kids again, pressing all the buttons, and playing all the games. We had lots of laughs and I wish that we were there longer so that it wasn't so rushed. We found out that Joe has the lung capacity of a marathon runner, and we saw some pretty cool exhibits.
A Knitted Brain......
Giraffes and Grevys
Tuesday-
I'll admit I didn't write down exactly what I did on Tuesday, which is going to make it hard to write about....Shame on me! It started out slow, I was with John down at the Compound working with the Grevy's and giraffes. This is where I was going to be all week! I was very excited since I had only dabbled in the giraffe barn a little bit. I was also working with a volunteer that I hadn't met yet named Britney. I didn't really get to know her that well since we were very busy cleaning the Grevy stalls, but from what I can tell she's very nice.
In the morning after I helped Britney clean all the stalls we helped John with the giraffes by giving them their supplements and preparing their diets. I'm getting pretty confident with it now and can almost recite all of the ingredients off the top of my head. I still always check the diet sheets though just to be sure.
This week was so rainy that the giraffes were not going out on to exhibit. It has to be at least 65 degrees for them to be out, and with the combination of the rain and the not so warm weather they stayed inside. This allowed us to get things done fairly quickly and I got to spend lots of time getting to know Beau better. Working with them and the Grevy's also lets me get to know my favorite zebra, Kayen, better. He's such a sweetie and although he's going to be a stallion later on in life (which means he will be a bit "meaner"), he's extremely friendly right now.
After lunch we went to a trainers forum with the keepers. The trainers forum allows the trainers from all the departments to get together and troubleshoot on any problems they're having, and they all get to hear what each other are doing. During the forums one keeper does a presentation on their animals and what they are training them today. This one was about Chessie the leopard from Stone Zoo. They're teaching her to do many different things, but right now they are focusing on getting her habituated to the feel of a needle so that they can do blood draws and injections on her without stressing her out too much. They've attempted one blood draw already but she wasn't too thrilled with it and it was unsuccessful. Perhaps the next time they try it will be better.
Wednesday-
Wednesday was a lot of the same routine. I worked with the Grevy's in the morning and then after that the giraffes. Before we got a chance to put the animals out onto exhibit though, we had to go work on weeding the exhibit's moat. The moat is really just a dip in the landscape, and it's put there to prevent the animals from walking right up to the visitors. The weeds had gotten very tall though and it was partially preventing the visitors from seeing the animals, and there were some plants in there that the animals shouldn't eat and they needed to be taken out. We only had a little bit done though before we had to put them out for the zoo opening.
After lunch we went to a meeting about the new Green Team that they've initiated at the zoo. The Green Team is basically just a committee dedicated to making the zoo more environmentally friendly. It seems like they have a lot of good ideas, and now they just need to be put into place.
Once that was over Courtney (another intern) and I went off to work on weeding next to the giraffe chute. The weeds there are literally over our heads and are super thick, so it took quite some time to get it down. We only got about half way down the chute before we had to stop.
After that I went back to giraffe to help finish things up.
Thursday-
Thursday was crazy. It was mostly crazy though because we were going to be extremely short people in the afternoon. Originally it was going to be myself, Katie (an intern), Joe (the extern), John, Amanda, Andrea, and Erin. What we ended up with was everyone but Erin in the morning but then in the after noon it was just me, Katie, Joe and John. Amanda had to go pick up cranes from the airport at two and Andrea was only there for a half day. So that left the rest of us to finish up everything in the afternoons by ourselves.
Since this was the case, we got absolutely as much as we could done in the morning so there would be less to do in the afternoon. Myself and Ellie (a volunteer who works half days) went off to Grevy to clean the barn really quick so we could help out in giraffe. Once we finished that we went over to the Giraffe barn and all we could hear was clapping from the inside. This wasn't a good sign since usually we use clapping as a way to get the animals to move when they're being stubborn. We walked in and I asked Andrea what was up. She informed us that just as she was about to move the giraffes the heater near the chute (where they need to go) started making "scary grinding noises" and put the giraffes into a fit. They wouldn't budge, and you really can't force a 2,000 pound animal to do anything. So we tried relentlessly for about an hour to get the giraffes to move and finally with much coaxing they did. Once that was done we cleaned out everything, made diets, and headed up for lunch.
After lunch Katie and I headed over to the Grevy shoot to clear out some weeds that were making it hard to get to the giraffe feeding platform. It went quickly since there wasn't much weeding to do, and many of the weeds were easy to pull out. Of course in the middle it started to POUR and we had to retreat to the zebra building. After that Joe came to help us finish up, which made it go even faster. We powered through the rest of it and then headed up to collect some knotweed for the giraffes to eat later.
While we did this we were able to visit the old antelope house from the 1940s. The building is condemned now so it's not in use anymore, but it hasn't been torn down because it's such a historical building. It was really interesting to see what the animal's pens looked like back then and to see how far we've come in the zoo world. It's also really amazing that even though the building is technically condemned, it seems like the only parts of the building that show it's age are the roof and the metal pipes/cage walls. The brick and cement walls look as though they were put up yesterday! I wish that I had photos to share with you all because it is such an interesting place. I was told that there were some photos on the Boston Public Library website, but I can't seem to find any. Perhaps if we go again I'll be sure to take some quick snapshots. Currently the building is filled with junk that people have dumped there as a holding place over the years and the pigeons have taken over, but you can tell that at one point it was a fancy building. Or at least fancy for those times....
Also in other news, one of the corpse flowers has bloomed!! We were able to see it, and I have to say that it doesn't smell as horrible as I thought it would, but considering I work with poop all day, I bet I'm not the best judge for that....
I'll admit I didn't write down exactly what I did on Tuesday, which is going to make it hard to write about....Shame on me! It started out slow, I was with John down at the Compound working with the Grevy's and giraffes. This is where I was going to be all week! I was very excited since I had only dabbled in the giraffe barn a little bit. I was also working with a volunteer that I hadn't met yet named Britney. I didn't really get to know her that well since we were very busy cleaning the Grevy stalls, but from what I can tell she's very nice.
In the morning after I helped Britney clean all the stalls we helped John with the giraffes by giving them their supplements and preparing their diets. I'm getting pretty confident with it now and can almost recite all of the ingredients off the top of my head. I still always check the diet sheets though just to be sure.
This week was so rainy that the giraffes were not going out on to exhibit. It has to be at least 65 degrees for them to be out, and with the combination of the rain and the not so warm weather they stayed inside. This allowed us to get things done fairly quickly and I got to spend lots of time getting to know Beau better. Working with them and the Grevy's also lets me get to know my favorite zebra, Kayen, better. He's such a sweetie and although he's going to be a stallion later on in life (which means he will be a bit "meaner"), he's extremely friendly right now.
Wednesday-
Wednesday was a lot of the same routine. I worked with the Grevy's in the morning and then after that the giraffes. Before we got a chance to put the animals out onto exhibit though, we had to go work on weeding the exhibit's moat. The moat is really just a dip in the landscape, and it's put there to prevent the animals from walking right up to the visitors. The weeds had gotten very tall though and it was partially preventing the visitors from seeing the animals, and there were some plants in there that the animals shouldn't eat and they needed to be taken out. We only had a little bit done though before we had to put them out for the zoo opening.
After lunch we went to a meeting about the new Green Team that they've initiated at the zoo. The Green Team is basically just a committee dedicated to making the zoo more environmentally friendly. It seems like they have a lot of good ideas, and now they just need to be put into place.
Once that was over Courtney (another intern) and I went off to work on weeding next to the giraffe chute. The weeds there are literally over our heads and are super thick, so it took quite some time to get it down. We only got about half way down the chute before we had to stop.
After that I went back to giraffe to help finish things up.
Thursday-
Thursday was crazy. It was mostly crazy though because we were going to be extremely short people in the afternoon. Originally it was going to be myself, Katie (an intern), Joe (the extern), John, Amanda, Andrea, and Erin. What we ended up with was everyone but Erin in the morning but then in the after noon it was just me, Katie, Joe and John. Amanda had to go pick up cranes from the airport at two and Andrea was only there for a half day. So that left the rest of us to finish up everything in the afternoons by ourselves.
Since this was the case, we got absolutely as much as we could done in the morning so there would be less to do in the afternoon. Myself and Ellie (a volunteer who works half days) went off to Grevy to clean the barn really quick so we could help out in giraffe. Once we finished that we went over to the Giraffe barn and all we could hear was clapping from the inside. This wasn't a good sign since usually we use clapping as a way to get the animals to move when they're being stubborn. We walked in and I asked Andrea what was up. She informed us that just as she was about to move the giraffes the heater near the chute (where they need to go) started making "scary grinding noises" and put the giraffes into a fit. They wouldn't budge, and you really can't force a 2,000 pound animal to do anything. So we tried relentlessly for about an hour to get the giraffes to move and finally with much coaxing they did. Once that was done we cleaned out everything, made diets, and headed up for lunch.
After lunch Katie and I headed over to the Grevy shoot to clear out some weeds that were making it hard to get to the giraffe feeding platform. It went quickly since there wasn't much weeding to do, and many of the weeds were easy to pull out. Of course in the middle it started to POUR and we had to retreat to the zebra building. After that Joe came to help us finish up, which made it go even faster. We powered through the rest of it and then headed up to collect some knotweed for the giraffes to eat later.
While we did this we were able to visit the old antelope house from the 1940s. The building is condemned now so it's not in use anymore, but it hasn't been torn down because it's such a historical building. It was really interesting to see what the animal's pens looked like back then and to see how far we've come in the zoo world. It's also really amazing that even though the building is technically condemned, it seems like the only parts of the building that show it's age are the roof and the metal pipes/cage walls. The brick and cement walls look as though they were put up yesterday! I wish that I had photos to share with you all because it is such an interesting place. I was told that there were some photos on the Boston Public Library website, but I can't seem to find any. Perhaps if we go again I'll be sure to take some quick snapshots. Currently the building is filled with junk that people have dumped there as a holding place over the years and the pigeons have taken over, but you can tell that at one point it was a fancy building. Or at least fancy for those times....
Also in other news, one of the corpse flowers has bloomed!! We were able to see it, and I have to say that it doesn't smell as horrible as I thought it would, but considering I work with poop all day, I bet I'm not the best judge for that....
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Vet procedures, Mash, and Some Weeds
Wednesday-
Today was a fairly normal day. Things were a little hectic this week because our department's new extern started and they needed to train him so that he can do things on his own. They wanted to start him off on top road for some reason, so I was on bottom road again. Everything went well. We got our new Kori Bustard named Jazzy (although we've been affectionately calling him DJ Jazzy Jeff) Things are going well with the introductions of him and our other Kori Bustard, Magoo.
At the end of the day I was about to watch some veterinary procedures on our cats though. That was pretty exciting to watch. The vets needed to get blood pressure reading from Chris and Luther. In order to do this they have been trained to lay down next to the metal mesh wall and swing their tail underneath the door. Unlike humans where we read blood pressure through the arm, we read it through their tail.
Thursday-
Today I got to work with the giraffes!!!! I was super excited because although I have met them, I haven't gotten to work with them yet. Working with them is very different from working with any other animal, mostly because they are HUGE. Almost everything that we do with them is up on what we call the catwalk, which is exactly what it sounds like, and it puts us at eye level with them. This is where we hang all of their food from and have our interactions.
To begin the day there we have to check the Savannah exhibit to make sure that the electric fence is working and that there is no dangers to the animals or trash in the exhibit. We also take this time to put out hay for the zebras and beet pulp and hay for the giraffes. The exhibit is a couple acres and provides lots of space for all of the animals in it. The zebra's hay goes on the ground and the giraffe's hay goes into a special hay rack that is at their height. We as keepers have a little platform that we can stand on to reach it.
When that was done we had two tours to give. A lot of the tours are for people that have donated large amounts of money to the zoo, as a kind of thank you. Sometimes they are for other people as well though. Today I believe both tours were for generous donors. Both tours went very well and everyone loved Beau. He's really the only one that you get to feed on the tour because Jana's a little shy. He's such a sweetheart and he sure loves his squash pieces!! In the second group there was a very young boy (like 3 maybe...) and I thought for sure he was going to be scared of how big Beau is and how he can sometimes get impatient when it comes to food. The little boy was so brave!! He had no fear at all and was absolutely loving the experience. We even showed him how long their tongues are (about two feet!) and he was rather impressed. Beau got me a couple times with his tongue when I was trying to feed him treats and take his photo at the same time.
Friday-
Today was another weird day. I didn't really have a specific placement so I kind of dabbled in all of the areas. First I went to help on bottom road with the camels. We needed to strip their stalls which takes some time. Stripping means that you take EVERYTHING out of the stalls (in this case shavings, straw, mats, and food dishes) and then spray it down, disinfect/scrub, and then spray it down again. It took quite some time even with three of us doing it.
Today was a fairly normal day. Things were a little hectic this week because our department's new extern started and they needed to train him so that he can do things on his own. They wanted to start him off on top road for some reason, so I was on bottom road again. Everything went well. We got our new Kori Bustard named Jazzy (although we've been affectionately calling him DJ Jazzy Jeff) Things are going well with the introductions of him and our other Kori Bustard, Magoo.
At the end of the day I was about to watch some veterinary procedures on our cats though. That was pretty exciting to watch. The vets needed to get blood pressure reading from Chris and Luther. In order to do this they have been trained to lay down next to the metal mesh wall and swing their tail underneath the door. Unlike humans where we read blood pressure through the arm, we read it through their tail.
Thursday-
Today I got to work with the giraffes!!!! I was super excited because although I have met them, I haven't gotten to work with them yet. Working with them is very different from working with any other animal, mostly because they are HUGE. Almost everything that we do with them is up on what we call the catwalk, which is exactly what it sounds like, and it puts us at eye level with them. This is where we hang all of their food from and have our interactions.
Half of the exhibit
Hay Rack
Once that was checked we let out the zebras and then continued to shift out the giraffes. Shifting them takes a while because there's really no way that you can forces them to do anything. They're just way too big!! They're also a little stubborn and like to take their time doing whatever it is they're doing. Once both the giraffes were shifted out we continued to clean their inside area by sweeping, and then spraying it down with a high pressure hose. We scrubbed disinfected and then sprayed again until it was super clean. When that was done we had two tours to give. A lot of the tours are for people that have donated large amounts of money to the zoo, as a kind of thank you. Sometimes they are for other people as well though. Today I believe both tours were for generous donors. Both tours went very well and everyone loved Beau. He's really the only one that you get to feed on the tour because Jana's a little shy. He's such a sweetheart and he sure loves his squash pieces!! In the second group there was a very young boy (like 3 maybe...) and I thought for sure he was going to be scared of how big Beau is and how he can sometimes get impatient when it comes to food. The little boy was so brave!! He had no fear at all and was absolutely loving the experience. We even showed him how long their tongues are (about two feet!) and he was rather impressed. Beau got me a couple times with his tongue when I was trying to feed him treats and take his photo at the same time.
Once the tours were over we headed to lunch and then helped out with some other small projects. When it was time to do our closing I was able to help prepare the diets for the giraffes. Beau has a disease called giraffe wasting disease and he is the oldest living giraffe with it. Normally once diagnosed they only live for about a year, but he's lived for almost nine! The wasting disease means that they cannot properly metabolize their food because they have too much stomach acid which eats away at the cilia in their stomach. Because of this we have to keep him on a very specialized diet. In the morning he gets 15 Tums (Tums fruity brand only...he won't eat any other) which we put into hollowed out banana peels. He also gets two banana peels worth of Karo syrup to keep his blood sugar levels up, and then another half a banana peel with another liquid supplement. At night he gets his normal beet pulp mixed with 20 lbs of cut up raw butternut squash and high fiber diet, and then he gets his "mash". Beau's mash consists of many things. All together it's about 30 lbs. He gets 18lbs of beet pulp, 8 bananas, cooked squash, 1lb of baking soda, 1 cup of molasses, 1.5 cups of megalax (a supplement), half a cup of min-a-vits (another supplement), and then that gets all mixed together with some water to help mix it. It's quite the process, but it's keeping him alive!!
After all of that excitement it was finally time to go home until......
Friday-
Today was another weird day. I didn't really have a specific placement so I kind of dabbled in all of the areas. First I went to help on bottom road with the camels. We needed to strip their stalls which takes some time. Stripping means that you take EVERYTHING out of the stalls (in this case shavings, straw, mats, and food dishes) and then spray it down, disinfect/scrub, and then spray it down again. It took quite some time even with three of us doing it.
Once that was done I went to go help them down at the compound (what we call the giraffe/Grevy zebra area). They were weeding around the building and the fence lines because the weeds were becoming taller than us. It took quite some time and continued after lunch.
After lunch we also went to a class about enrichment. They talked about how enrichment is used at the zoo, why we do enrichment, the types of enrichment there are and what it can be made out of. Pretty much all of it was review for me since I had just taken a class on enrichment at school, but it was a good refresher.
After class we went back to weeding. It felt good to chop down all of the plants that have been scratching and stinging me all week. Then something exciting happened! I was weeding near the fence line and all of a sudden I heard a thud near me. Since we are trained to always be alert around the animals in the even that something were to happen, I immediately looked. Next to me, not even five feet away, was a redtailed hawk that had just come down and swooped up a large rat (or small rabbit...I couldn't really tell which it was...) I was shocked!! I couldn't believe that the hawk was that brave to do that. We watched it for a little while enjoy it's afternoon snack up in a tree.
After the weeding was done we headed up to top road, but not before I grabbed some knotweed for the animals up there. Knotweed is one of many plants that grow naturally on the property that we can feed out to the animals. Some other plants are Russian Olive, and Bayberry. The animals love getting fresh plants (browse is what we call it) in the summer and as much as they can in the winter. Today I gave the knotweed to the bongos who quickly ate it up in about three minutes flat. I guess they liked it!!
After lunch we also went to a class about enrichment. They talked about how enrichment is used at the zoo, why we do enrichment, the types of enrichment there are and what it can be made out of. Pretty much all of it was review for me since I had just taken a class on enrichment at school, but it was a good refresher.
After class we went back to weeding. It felt good to chop down all of the plants that have been scratching and stinging me all week. Then something exciting happened! I was weeding near the fence line and all of a sudden I heard a thud near me. Since we are trained to always be alert around the animals in the even that something were to happen, I immediately looked. Next to me, not even five feet away, was a redtailed hawk that had just come down and swooped up a large rat (or small rabbit...I couldn't really tell which it was...) I was shocked!! I couldn't believe that the hawk was that brave to do that. We watched it for a little while enjoy it's afternoon snack up in a tree.
After the weeding was done we headed up to top road, but not before I grabbed some knotweed for the animals up there. Knotweed is one of many plants that grow naturally on the property that we can feed out to the animals. Some other plants are Russian Olive, and Bayberry. The animals love getting fresh plants (browse is what we call it) in the summer and as much as they can in the winter. Today I gave the knotweed to the bongos who quickly ate it up in about three minutes flat. I guess they liked it!!
Knotweed
Izzy, Lady Stanley, and Anna
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Happy Birthday Bertha!!
Well nothing too exciting to report for today, but it was Bertha's (one of our ostrich's) birthday! We didn't celebrate...although I bet they would have enjoyed pecking at some cake.
In other ostrich news I was able to watch a medical procedure today where they used an x-ray to look at an ostrich. It was very interesting to watch, although I wasn't able to be involved. It's for the best, ostrich's are very strong.
I was able to work on top road today so that means that I now work with all of our cranes, hornbills, ostrich, Grants zebras, and bongos. I like the bongos the best since they're the friendliest.
Like I said, nothing really exciting to report for today. Also, on a side note for all you readers: I'm going to start only posting once or twice a week instead of every night. That way I can save some time at night and get to sleep earlier. So just keep a look out!!
In other ostrich news I was able to watch a medical procedure today where they used an x-ray to look at an ostrich. It was very interesting to watch, although I wasn't able to be involved. It's for the best, ostrich's are very strong.
I was able to work on top road today so that means that I now work with all of our cranes, hornbills, ostrich, Grants zebras, and bongos. I like the bongos the best since they're the friendliest.
Like I said, nothing really exciting to report for today. Also, on a side note for all you readers: I'm going to start only posting once or twice a week instead of every night. That way I can save some time at night and get to sleep earlier. So just keep a look out!!
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