.jpg)
I've literally just been getting passed around at the zoo like I'm some kind of weird disease, but it's been good to get experience everywhere.
A couple weeks ago, it was elephant, where I got to see everything instead of just how they put them out on exhibit. This week, Health Center. So really, just a whole bunch of birds, some itty bitty tortoises, the tamanduas, and preparing the medication. Preparing the medication was actually the best part I think. It was pretty interesting to see all the different stuff that they have to give the animals.
Also, today was Valentine's Day at the zoo, so we went out and watched Baheem the tiger attack a pinata that we put up in the tree, which was pretty funny. He ripped the unicorn's head off to get to the chicken that was put inside, so that might have traumatized some children. It was awesome to see him hunt it down out of the tree though.
BASEBALL STARTS TODAY!!!!
The last two nights I've seen Snoop Dogg in concert, and Just Go With It. Snoop Dogg was actually pretty awesome, even though that's not really my type of music..... Just go with it was hilarious. But that's probably because I love Adam Sandler and Dan Patrick and Brooklyn Decker.
Drive until you lose the road, or break with the ones you've followed
Showing posts with label tiger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tiger. Show all posts
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Kings and Queens
Another week, another completely different zoo experience...I'm really starting to like this semester
Today, I helped with the other half of South America plus Tiger. So we started off with tiger, it was nice to see Baheem again. Then went over and did the flight connection, gibbons, caiman, otters, and jaguars. Pretty sweet to see the Jags up close in the night house. And the birds in the flight connection are way better than the other aviary and the bird run. The otters were as funny as you would imagine, so spastic, but so eager to get their food and be able to go out into the yard when we were done cleaning it. The best part was that none of the animals seem to poop that much, so there wasn't too much rake and shovel action today.
We also got to witness some random guy hop the construction fence of the new elephant exhibit just so he could use the bathroom because "there are no other ones in the park"....except that there's another one like 50 yards away, and not behind a giant fence. That was pretty entertaining to watch one of the other keepers go out there and start yelling at him for hopping the fence. Definitely one of the weirder things that's happened while I've been there.
Into your eyes, hopeless and taken, we stole our new lives, through blood and pain in defense of our dreams
Today, I helped with the other half of South America plus Tiger. So we started off with tiger, it was nice to see Baheem again. Then went over and did the flight connection, gibbons, caiman, otters, and jaguars. Pretty sweet to see the Jags up close in the night house. And the birds in the flight connection are way better than the other aviary and the bird run. The otters were as funny as you would imagine, so spastic, but so eager to get their food and be able to go out into the yard when we were done cleaning it. The best part was that none of the animals seem to poop that much, so there wasn't too much rake and shovel action today.
We also got to witness some random guy hop the construction fence of the new elephant exhibit just so he could use the bathroom because "there are no other ones in the park"....except that there's another one like 50 yards away, and not behind a giant fence. That was pretty entertaining to watch one of the other keepers go out there and start yelling at him for hopping the fence. Definitely one of the weirder things that's happened while I've been there.
Into your eyes, hopeless and taken, we stole our new lives, through blood and pain in defense of our dreams
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Life After You
It's been a while, so here's a recap of the last few weeks.
Kitchen is still mainly tortoise diets and some bird diet stuff. This week I went out and caught birds in the aviary, and the week before I went and cleaned the macaw night house, fed the otters and cleaned their pool, and cleaned the giraffe barn. That was a nice change of pace, especially feeding the otters.
I've missed a couple hoofstock days, but the one day I was there, the male rhino was being fussy about taking his meds, and he rammed into the female rhino pretty hard. That was crazy to see, since usually they're both really quiet and gentle. The other stuff going on in the area was fairly normal, just cleaning and feeding and all that good stuff.
Went on the carnivore side one day since I have been missing all these Saturdays. The muntjac is still my favorite animal on that side, even though we only go see her once, she's still the best. Really funny and comes right up to you. The tiger is still cool to be around, and I really need to figure out a project to do for him. The pigs are neat, and so is the sun bear. The sun bear is fun because she likes to get fed grapes. I still really like the Muntjac though.
In other life news, baseball is back! After Sunday I will have been to 7 games in two weeks. I love you baseball. And school's crazy busy and crazy hard. That's why I haven't really done this in a long time. And I'm now 21. That's pretty much the gist of the last month....
All that I'm after is a life full of laughter, as long as I'm laughing with you
Kitchen is still mainly tortoise diets and some bird diet stuff. This week I went out and caught birds in the aviary, and the week before I went and cleaned the macaw night house, fed the otters and cleaned their pool, and cleaned the giraffe barn. That was a nice change of pace, especially feeding the otters.
I've missed a couple hoofstock days, but the one day I was there, the male rhino was being fussy about taking his meds, and he rammed into the female rhino pretty hard. That was crazy to see, since usually they're both really quiet and gentle. The other stuff going on in the area was fairly normal, just cleaning and feeding and all that good stuff.
Went on the carnivore side one day since I have been missing all these Saturdays. The muntjac is still my favorite animal on that side, even though we only go see her once, she's still the best. Really funny and comes right up to you. The tiger is still cool to be around, and I really need to figure out a project to do for him. The pigs are neat, and so is the sun bear. The sun bear is fun because she likes to get fed grapes. I still really like the Muntjac though.
In other life news, baseball is back! After Sunday I will have been to 7 games in two weeks. I love you baseball. And school's crazy busy and crazy hard. That's why I haven't really done this in a long time. And I'm now 21. That's pretty much the gist of the last month....
All that I'm after is a life full of laughter, as long as I'm laughing with you
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Shattered
So, this week at the zoo was totally different than ever before, so that's a nice change of pace. Especially since I have to miss next Saturday because of section leader tryouts, so luckily I'll have a good taste in my mouth for a while.
TUESDAY
There was some kind of giraffe keeper conference thing in Arizona, so a bunch of giraffe people were coming to Tucson that afternoon. So everything had to get done fast because all the keepers had to join them on the tour at 2. So I did tortoise, bird and dry feed stuff. And three school groups came in during the morning, so it was a very busy morning.
SATURDAY
No hoofstock, but carnivore area this time. I was a little bit surprised, but hey, I'm down for seeing new stuff. Getting all the food prepped is kind of ridiculous because there's way more to do, and there's a lot of birds, so there's a lot more bowls and stuff, so it's slightly out of control, and I would definitely have a hard time remembering all the different things that we had to take out there.
The first stop was the bird run, where we fed everything but the parrots. The bird run is a little short, so I have to kind of hunch over just to walk in it at all, which is sort of annoying. And there's a lot of birds, which isn't really that great. The cockatoos can talk, so I had a really long conversation with them by just saying "Hi" and "How are you?". So bird run, not very exciting.
Next we went over to the muntjac. It's kind of like a deer the size of Kingston, just to give you an idea about how small this thing is. It was really funny though, it likes it when people scratch its neck for it because it can't reach it with its short little legs. There's some turtles in there too, but we just have to count them. Then we went over to tiger, which was really cool. Got right up next to it and I got some whisker and nose from it through the chain link fence. He was funny though, he has a cool noise when he's happy, and he's happy when he's eating his big plate of meat. While he was eating, we went in and cleaned, I cleaned the windows, and then sprayed cologne and some other scent everywhere, and rearranged his toys so he would have some new and exciting stuff to do.
Next up was Warty pigs and Sun Bear. The sun bear is really funny. She comes up to the fence and hangs on while you feed her. She doesn't like to go outside because she's old and is blind in her right eye, so that's kind of sad. The warty pigs are kind of weird. They have this huge complex social system, and there's only three of them haha. We fed all these guys and cleaned up their exhibit. There was a dead bird in the warty pig pool, so that was kind of interesting. After letting everyone out, we went over to elephants.
Elephants was just as cool this time as it was the first time, except I didn't touch its foot this time because it wasn't Cassie in charge of elephants. They're so big! It's really ridiculous to stand there next to them. After the two elephants were out we went back to the bird run to change out the water and feed the rest and hose down the floors. Once again, bird run is not my favorite part.
When we were done with the bird run for the day, we went back to warty pig/sun bear to clean up the back area, feed the sun bear its lunch, and do some warty pig training. But before training we went back to elephant where we put palm and bamboo on the fence for them and then watched them go around and pluck it all of after we were done putting it up.
The last thing of the day was to give the tiger a bone and clean out its back area, so we brought him inside, put the bone out on exhibit, and let him back out. That was interesting because it was in a giant trash can, so he tackled the trash can, go the bone, ran across his little stream and went to town on his bone. Then we cleaned out the back area, which took like 30 seconds because it was already pretty clean, and that was it for the day.
Only kitchen next week, but then the week after I go four times in a week, so that should be fun.
How many times can I break til I shatter?
TUESDAY
There was some kind of giraffe keeper conference thing in Arizona, so a bunch of giraffe people were coming to Tucson that afternoon. So everything had to get done fast because all the keepers had to join them on the tour at 2. So I did tortoise, bird and dry feed stuff. And three school groups came in during the morning, so it was a very busy morning.
SATURDAY
No hoofstock, but carnivore area this time. I was a little bit surprised, but hey, I'm down for seeing new stuff. Getting all the food prepped is kind of ridiculous because there's way more to do, and there's a lot of birds, so there's a lot more bowls and stuff, so it's slightly out of control, and I would definitely have a hard time remembering all the different things that we had to take out there.
The first stop was the bird run, where we fed everything but the parrots. The bird run is a little short, so I have to kind of hunch over just to walk in it at all, which is sort of annoying. And there's a lot of birds, which isn't really that great. The cockatoos can talk, so I had a really long conversation with them by just saying "Hi" and "How are you?". So bird run, not very exciting.
Next we went over to the muntjac. It's kind of like a deer the size of Kingston, just to give you an idea about how small this thing is. It was really funny though, it likes it when people scratch its neck for it because it can't reach it with its short little legs. There's some turtles in there too, but we just have to count them. Then we went over to tiger, which was really cool. Got right up next to it and I got some whisker and nose from it through the chain link fence. He was funny though, he has a cool noise when he's happy, and he's happy when he's eating his big plate of meat. While he was eating, we went in and cleaned, I cleaned the windows, and then sprayed cologne and some other scent everywhere, and rearranged his toys so he would have some new and exciting stuff to do.
Next up was Warty pigs and Sun Bear. The sun bear is really funny. She comes up to the fence and hangs on while you feed her. She doesn't like to go outside because she's old and is blind in her right eye, so that's kind of sad. The warty pigs are kind of weird. They have this huge complex social system, and there's only three of them haha. We fed all these guys and cleaned up their exhibit. There was a dead bird in the warty pig pool, so that was kind of interesting. After letting everyone out, we went over to elephants.
Elephants was just as cool this time as it was the first time, except I didn't touch its foot this time because it wasn't Cassie in charge of elephants. They're so big! It's really ridiculous to stand there next to them. After the two elephants were out we went back to the bird run to change out the water and feed the rest and hose down the floors. Once again, bird run is not my favorite part.
When we were done with the bird run for the day, we went back to warty pig/sun bear to clean up the back area, feed the sun bear its lunch, and do some warty pig training. But before training we went back to elephant where we put palm and bamboo on the fence for them and then watched them go around and pluck it all of after we were done putting it up.
The last thing of the day was to give the tiger a bone and clean out its back area, so we brought him inside, put the bone out on exhibit, and let him back out. That was interesting because it was in a giant trash can, so he tackled the trash can, go the bone, ran across his little stream and went to town on his bone. Then we cleaned out the back area, which took like 30 seconds because it was already pretty clean, and that was it for the day.
Only kitchen next week, but then the week after I go four times in a week, so that should be fun.
How many times can I break til I shatter?
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Mysterious Ways
So, originally I decided I wasn't going to do Tuesdays on here by themselves, but this Tuesday was so much fun I thought I would go ahead and post it, all be it two days late (physio and ochem raped me this week)
When I showed up in the morning, no one was in the keeper's quarters, so I just signed in and went straight to the kitchen, where there was tons of action and lots of stuff going on, but nothing for me to do. So we went back to the other room for the meeting, where I learned the baby zebra almost died over the weekend :( but he was starting to pull through Tuesday so hopefully there is still a baby there when I show up Saturday morning.
So once morning rush was over, I got to help do monthly inventory instead of make diets. It was interesting to see how little of each different food the zoo uses, and it was freezing cold having to stand in the freezer for like ten minutes counting mice and rats and all kinds of weird stuff.
When we finished inventory we did worms and crickets, which is always exciting. But after that, we got to go work giraffe feed. Climbed over the fence into the zoo and stood there in the giraffe feeding area, fed some giraffes, and gave biscuits to little kids that threw their's so they could actually feed the giraffe two biscuits. About halfway through feeding time, the male zebra started following close behind one of the females, and then we realized what was happening. Let's just say he was up and at em. He never actually jumped up to mount her (which I think would have been awesome to see), but he did do enough to disgust me, and I'll just leave it at that haha.
On our way back, Cassie, the keeper that I see the most that I don't actually work with, needed help moving the giant ball that I saw in the elephant yard on Saturday across the zoo from tiger to lion. So we rode over to tiger with her, picked up the ball, and drove over to lion. I didn't see lions, but that's ok. Then she drove us back to the kitchen, where I helped do capybara and tapir diets before I had to leave. Overall, much better than normal, especially because I got to feed some giraffes :)
It's alright, it's alright, alright. She moves, in mysterious ways
When I showed up in the morning, no one was in the keeper's quarters, so I just signed in and went straight to the kitchen, where there was tons of action and lots of stuff going on, but nothing for me to do. So we went back to the other room for the meeting, where I learned the baby zebra almost died over the weekend :( but he was starting to pull through Tuesday so hopefully there is still a baby there when I show up Saturday morning.
So once morning rush was over, I got to help do monthly inventory instead of make diets. It was interesting to see how little of each different food the zoo uses, and it was freezing cold having to stand in the freezer for like ten minutes counting mice and rats and all kinds of weird stuff.
When we finished inventory we did worms and crickets, which is always exciting. But after that, we got to go work giraffe feed. Climbed over the fence into the zoo and stood there in the giraffe feeding area, fed some giraffes, and gave biscuits to little kids that threw their's so they could actually feed the giraffe two biscuits. About halfway through feeding time, the male zebra started following close behind one of the females, and then we realized what was happening. Let's just say he was up and at em. He never actually jumped up to mount her (which I think would have been awesome to see), but he did do enough to disgust me, and I'll just leave it at that haha.
On our way back, Cassie, the keeper that I see the most that I don't actually work with, needed help moving the giant ball that I saw in the elephant yard on Saturday across the zoo from tiger to lion. So we rode over to tiger with her, picked up the ball, and drove over to lion. I didn't see lions, but that's ok. Then she drove us back to the kitchen, where I helped do capybara and tapir diets before I had to leave. Overall, much better than normal, especially because I got to feed some giraffes :)
It's alright, it's alright, alright. She moves, in mysterious ways
Monday, January 11, 2010
Orientation Day
On January 10, 2010, I officially became a zoo intern here in Tucson. The first day was not very exciting in itself, but I am the most excited I have ever been for a semester.
When I got there, two other girls were there, Sarah and Jessica. They were just standing there, and looking kind of confused. Later on I found out that the zookeepers had been walking by laughing at them because we weren't allowed to go inside until all 5 of us were there. So we stood there for about another 15 minutes waiting for the other two, Catherine and Adrienne. Apparently Adrienne's been working at the zoo for a while in the education department, so she already knows all the keepers and where everything is, so that's sort of an unfair advantage.
When we did finally go in, we went over policies and safety and those kinds of things, and then got a quick tour of the back area, like the keeper's lounge, kitchen, vet area and other things like that. Then we were assigned our first team activity. A scavenger hunt around the zoo. It was fun because I ended up with Sarah (who I had ecology with this past semester) and Catherine, and they're both really nice. The other two are already kind of friends and they seem like they're going to exclude us 3, but that's alright.
So the hunt took as all around the zoo, and showed us the special gates to get to the perimeter road that we'll have to use a lot probably. The zoo's not very big, and it's separated by geographical regions, so getting lost will probably not be too big of an issue the first couple of days there.
After we finished up the scavenger hunt, we were done for the day, but while we were walking on the perimeter road we got to see a tiger up close, along with a vulture, heron and a zebra. We got our sweet volunteer shirts, and were officially done. Those last encounters definitely got me even more excited than I already was. After this semester is over, hopefully I know exactly what I want to be doing, and that being working in a zoo full time.
I will follow you into the dark
When I got there, two other girls were there, Sarah and Jessica. They were just standing there, and looking kind of confused. Later on I found out that the zookeepers had been walking by laughing at them because we weren't allowed to go inside until all 5 of us were there. So we stood there for about another 15 minutes waiting for the other two, Catherine and Adrienne. Apparently Adrienne's been working at the zoo for a while in the education department, so she already knows all the keepers and where everything is, so that's sort of an unfair advantage.
When we did finally go in, we went over policies and safety and those kinds of things, and then got a quick tour of the back area, like the keeper's lounge, kitchen, vet area and other things like that. Then we were assigned our first team activity. A scavenger hunt around the zoo. It was fun because I ended up with Sarah (who I had ecology with this past semester) and Catherine, and they're both really nice. The other two are already kind of friends and they seem like they're going to exclude us 3, but that's alright.
So the hunt took as all around the zoo, and showed us the special gates to get to the perimeter road that we'll have to use a lot probably. The zoo's not very big, and it's separated by geographical regions, so getting lost will probably not be too big of an issue the first couple of days there.
After we finished up the scavenger hunt, we were done for the day, but while we were walking on the perimeter road we got to see a tiger up close, along with a vulture, heron and a zebra. We got our sweet volunteer shirts, and were officially done. Those last encounters definitely got me even more excited than I already was. After this semester is over, hopefully I know exactly what I want to be doing, and that being working in a zoo full time.
I will follow you into the dark
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
