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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 tortoises. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tortoises. Show all posts
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Wonderful
Did a totally new area on Sunday, which of course means a new one of these blog post thingys.
Got shifted to anteater this week, which actually means capybara, llama, tortoises, rheas, flamingos, andean bears, and anteaters. It was cool to see all of these new animals and all the different night houses that they have. Everything is more or less the same, cleaning and hosing out the houses, feeding the animals either in the back or out on exhibit, cleaning the yard, trying to do some training if there's time. The one new thing that I did was clean the anteater pool, which was kind of gross because they only poop in the pool. But those kinds of animals and night houses are what I imagined the entire zoo was like, not just that area. So I hope I get to be on that area more this semester to get some more experience with those kinds of things. Pretty sure I've done everything except polar bear/lion and macaques/mandrills at this point, and with lots of things changing at the zoo maybe I'll get to, maybe not.
Also found out that two apprenticeship spots open in September, so I'll have to find something to do this summer, although there is a thing in Boston that I'm going to apply for I think. It seems like the perfect thing that I would need, and it's only from the end of May through September, so it works out perfectly.
Since my last post, the whole world now knows where Tucson is on a map, and I've seen every president I've ever voted for in person (one), and both for bad reasons. But Rep. Giffords is making huge progress, and the whole tone of this community has changed, and I'm kind of glad to say that I've lived here for 3 and a half years now. Just sitting here watching the news on January 8th was one of the most surreal things I've ever experienced. Things kept happening and changing (CNN had Giffords dead for half an hour), and the nation was focused on this town that most of the country probably doesn't even know exists. Then President Obama showed up, and I waited in line outside McKale all afternoon to see him speak, and to see all of that political power, all sitting together on the floor that the basketball team made famous. It was crazy.
Four months til graduation! :)
How can you smile with all those tears in your eyes, and tell me everything is wonderful now?
Got shifted to anteater this week, which actually means capybara, llama, tortoises, rheas, flamingos, andean bears, and anteaters. It was cool to see all of these new animals and all the different night houses that they have. Everything is more or less the same, cleaning and hosing out the houses, feeding the animals either in the back or out on exhibit, cleaning the yard, trying to do some training if there's time. The one new thing that I did was clean the anteater pool, which was kind of gross because they only poop in the pool. But those kinds of animals and night houses are what I imagined the entire zoo was like, not just that area. So I hope I get to be on that area more this semester to get some more experience with those kinds of things. Pretty sure I've done everything except polar bear/lion and macaques/mandrills at this point, and with lots of things changing at the zoo maybe I'll get to, maybe not.
Also found out that two apprenticeship spots open in September, so I'll have to find something to do this summer, although there is a thing in Boston that I'm going to apply for I think. It seems like the perfect thing that I would need, and it's only from the end of May through September, so it works out perfectly.
Since my last post, the whole world now knows where Tucson is on a map, and I've seen every president I've ever voted for in person (one), and both for bad reasons. But Rep. Giffords is making huge progress, and the whole tone of this community has changed, and I'm kind of glad to say that I've lived here for 3 and a half years now. Just sitting here watching the news on January 8th was one of the most surreal things I've ever experienced. Things kept happening and changing (CNN had Giffords dead for half an hour), and the nation was focused on this town that most of the country probably doesn't even know exists. Then President Obama showed up, and I waited in line outside McKale all afternoon to see him speak, and to see all of that political power, all sitting together on the floor that the basketball team made famous. It was crazy.
Four months til graduation! :)
How can you smile with all those tears in your eyes, and tell me everything is wonderful now?
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Swing Life Away
Happy Easter everyone. I still don't fully understand what Easter is, or what exactly happened and why Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday all exist, but I digress. To me, the real holiday today is OPENING DAY FOR MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL!!! Finally, it's here, and couldn't come at a better time for me.
Anyways, zoo's still going good. Normal hoofstocky things the last two weeks for the most part. I did get to do the tortoises all by myself last week, so I felt kind of legit when I was doing that. I'm sad that it's almost over, but hopefully there will be a way to stay there for the summer at least. I really do need the zoo in my life right now. It keeps me going when school and personal stuff gets in the way.
In the kitchen I made tortoise and bird diets and did inventory and helped make a couple popsicles for the Easter festivities at the zoo.
In two Saturdays I'm going to be on a completely new area, so that's something exciting! :) But that's about it for now. I still enjoy petting rhinos, and picking up tortoises and watching zebras run around.
If love is a labor I'll slave til the end, I won't cross these streets until you hold my hand
Anyways, zoo's still going good. Normal hoofstocky things the last two weeks for the most part. I did get to do the tortoises all by myself last week, so I felt kind of legit when I was doing that. I'm sad that it's almost over, but hopefully there will be a way to stay there for the summer at least. I really do need the zoo in my life right now. It keeps me going when school and personal stuff gets in the way.
In the kitchen I made tortoise and bird diets and did inventory and helped make a couple popsicles for the Easter festivities at the zoo.
In two Saturdays I'm going to be on a completely new area, so that's something exciting! :) But that's about it for now. I still enjoy petting rhinos, and picking up tortoises and watching zebras run around.
If love is a labor I'll slave til the end, I won't cross these streets until you hold my hand
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?
Sunday, February 21, 2010
If You Could Only See
So, this week was pretty straight forward, so here's a list of things that are different than normal
TUESDAY
Did dry food prep for the next day. Other than that, just bird and tortoise diets.
SATURDAY
Got all the animals out on time!
Picked up a tortoise to move him to his food. That was kind of fun.
Went on an extension cord hunt for the zebra heater while Susie went to elephant. Yeah, I missed out on elephants, but she promised me next time I would go, so there's always that.
If you could only see how blue her eyes can be when she says, when she says she loves me
TUESDAY
Did dry food prep for the next day. Other than that, just bird and tortoise diets.
SATURDAY
Got all the animals out on time!
Picked up a tortoise to move him to his food. That was kind of fun.
Went on an extension cord hunt for the zebra heater while Susie went to elephant. Yeah, I missed out on elephants, but she promised me next time I would go, so there's always that.
If you could only see how blue her eyes can be when she says, when she says she loves me
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Smile Like You Mean It
Crazy week, mostly full of studying, and some more studying, but there was zoo time, so I did have some fun this week
Tuesday was a kitchen day, however, I made bird diets instead of tortoise diets, and we did giraffe feed again, when I saw the baby zebra on exhibit for the first time. But giraffe feed was different this week because Stacey decided that we should clean up the ledge of the exhibit and fill the hay feeders, so we went to the giraffe barn and she gave me the quick tour (it's really really cool), and then when into the exhibit with the giraffes and filled up the feeders. I wish they liked being petted, because it would be the greatest thing ever to stand there and pet them, but you can only get a quick little tap on the lower jaw before they pull away. But that was way cool, and one almost knocked me into the exhibit with his neck.
That was pretty much everything on Tuesday, so exciting. So today, Susie was late because her dog broke into her kitchen while she was in Flagstaff this week (yes, she went to Flagstaff), and so I was on my own to start getting the food and cart ready, but I didn't know if the rhinos were still getting special meds, so I didn't know how to make their food, so I got stuck early. But luckily she wasn't too late, and we were still relatively fine timewise.
We went and pulled the male zebra off exhibit since he was on overnight and fed him in the back. Then she dropped me off to clean up the exhibit while she went to go feed everyone else. I took a wheelbarrow instead of a bucket, but the wheelbarrow broke, so that was interesting. I couldn't get it back together for a while, so we didn't really make up much time since I didn't get much done while she was feeding.
After that we cleaned out the rhino exhibit, and then let the rhinos and gazelle out. I love petting the rhinos every time we do this. Then we went over to let the zebras and ostriches out, but we didn't know until after we put them out that the ostriches weren't supposed to be out with the baby, so we had to chase the ostriches back into the barn and rearrange everything in back so we could clean their area up a little bit. And poor Konan was back there by himself in this little area all day. I feel bad for that guy. So we cleaned a little bit of ostrich and then went to clean out gazelle and rhino. When we finished cleaning gazelle Susie let me hand feed one of the corey busters some fish, so that was kind of neat.
Then we put out the tortoises, fed them and took a short break before going to clean out the zebra barns. In the middle of cleaning the zebra barns, we had a birthday party for Sue the supervisor, so I got to eat cupcakes and hang out with the keepers. That was fun, they seem really fun and really cool, and most of them are probably in their early to mid 20s, so I feel like I can actually be friends with them, which makes this internship even more fun.
When the party was over we finished off the zebra barns and then it was time to go back to the real world. The zoo is definitely the best part of my week every week, and I really need to find somewhere to apprentice and then become full time, because getting paid to do this would be a dream come true.
Dreams aren't what they used to be, some things sat by so carelessly
Tuesday was a kitchen day, however, I made bird diets instead of tortoise diets, and we did giraffe feed again, when I saw the baby zebra on exhibit for the first time. But giraffe feed was different this week because Stacey decided that we should clean up the ledge of the exhibit and fill the hay feeders, so we went to the giraffe barn and she gave me the quick tour (it's really really cool), and then when into the exhibit with the giraffes and filled up the feeders. I wish they liked being petted, because it would be the greatest thing ever to stand there and pet them, but you can only get a quick little tap on the lower jaw before they pull away. But that was way cool, and one almost knocked me into the exhibit with his neck.
That was pretty much everything on Tuesday, so exciting. So today, Susie was late because her dog broke into her kitchen while she was in Flagstaff this week (yes, she went to Flagstaff), and so I was on my own to start getting the food and cart ready, but I didn't know if the rhinos were still getting special meds, so I didn't know how to make their food, so I got stuck early. But luckily she wasn't too late, and we were still relatively fine timewise.
We went and pulled the male zebra off exhibit since he was on overnight and fed him in the back. Then she dropped me off to clean up the exhibit while she went to go feed everyone else. I took a wheelbarrow instead of a bucket, but the wheelbarrow broke, so that was interesting. I couldn't get it back together for a while, so we didn't really make up much time since I didn't get much done while she was feeding.
After that we cleaned out the rhino exhibit, and then let the rhinos and gazelle out. I love petting the rhinos every time we do this. Then we went over to let the zebras and ostriches out, but we didn't know until after we put them out that the ostriches weren't supposed to be out with the baby, so we had to chase the ostriches back into the barn and rearrange everything in back so we could clean their area up a little bit. And poor Konan was back there by himself in this little area all day. I feel bad for that guy. So we cleaned a little bit of ostrich and then went to clean out gazelle and rhino. When we finished cleaning gazelle Susie let me hand feed one of the corey busters some fish, so that was kind of neat.
Then we put out the tortoises, fed them and took a short break before going to clean out the zebra barns. In the middle of cleaning the zebra barns, we had a birthday party for Sue the supervisor, so I got to eat cupcakes and hang out with the keepers. That was fun, they seem really fun and really cool, and most of them are probably in their early to mid 20s, so I feel like I can actually be friends with them, which makes this internship even more fun.
When the party was over we finished off the zebra barns and then it was time to go back to the real world. The zoo is definitely the best part of my week every week, and I really need to find somewhere to apprentice and then become full time, because getting paid to do this would be a dream come true.
Dreams aren't what they used to be, some things sat by so carelessly
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Collide
It's weird how songs on the radio on my way home match up with what happens that day
Today was somewhat different than normal. Starting out with getting all the feed, but the rhinos needed more than normal because they have more medicine now. We went and fed them first and then fed ostrich and zebra. After feeding them and watching the foal for a little bit, I went out in the zebra exhibit and started cleaning while Susie went and fed gazelle and corey busters.
After cleaning zebra, I started cleaning rhino while she went and put Konan (the male zebra) and the ostriches out on exhibit. After we were done cleaning rhino, we put them out with gazelle and the corey busters. We actually had all the animals out around 9 today, pretty sure that was a first.
Once everyone was out on exhibit, we cleaned up all the barn areas, just like normal, except when we were done cleaning up the rhino back area, we went and got the giant ball that's been being passed around the zoo since today was the rhino's turn. So we walked through the zoo, fed the giant crane in the rhino yard, and went over to lion to get the ball. Once we had the ball, I rolled it through the zoo, trying not to run over any little kids with it, which was kind of difficult. That ball is huge and heavy.
We dropped the ball off by the rhino barn, put food out for the tortoises, and went to clean up the zebra barns. This took a little longer than normal because of moving around the baby and mom, so we didn't finish before it was time to put the giant ball in the rhino yard.
This was a big snooze. The rhinos didn't even care, and I got to fill out an entire page of info that said pretty much that. But I didn't have to spend that time sweeping up zebra poop, so I guess it's ok. Plus while I was watching the rhino, the polar bear was pacing in his area that's right next to there, so I really watched the polar bear for most of the time. And I got to hang out with the other keepers for a couple minutes, so that's always fun. After I finished the evaluation of the ball usage, I went to the rhino barn to help finish up cleaning in there. This didn't take very long, so I still had some time before the big intern meeting, so I got baby zebra watching duty for about half an hour. This is just sitting in a chair and staring at the baby zebra to see if he poops, pees, runs or nurses, so luckily it wasn't for too much longer than half an hour even though I love that little guy.
And then came the intern meeting. It was nice to see Sarah since I hadn't seen her since orientation and she's like the only one I really talk to, so I had a friend again :) The one girl that wasn't at orientation was there, and she looked and sounded like she knew way more about animals than I could even imagine at this point. We all talked about different ideas, and this is when I realized I got hosed with my placement. I never really leave the little corner of the zoo I'm in, and I'm really only out on grounds once a week while everyone else is out twice. So I now like this opportunity, but now I know it could be so much more than what it is. So that's slightly disappointing. And I need some help coming up with an idea for hoofstock enrichment, so if you have any ideas shoot them my way....PLEASE!
After our meeting we went to the back area of polar bear, so I got to see one of the polar bears up close and personal, and he did a couple of commands for us, so that was pretty neat.
I somehow find that you and I collide
Today was somewhat different than normal. Starting out with getting all the feed, but the rhinos needed more than normal because they have more medicine now. We went and fed them first and then fed ostrich and zebra. After feeding them and watching the foal for a little bit, I went out in the zebra exhibit and started cleaning while Susie went and fed gazelle and corey busters.
After cleaning zebra, I started cleaning rhino while she went and put Konan (the male zebra) and the ostriches out on exhibit. After we were done cleaning rhino, we put them out with gazelle and the corey busters. We actually had all the animals out around 9 today, pretty sure that was a first.
Once everyone was out on exhibit, we cleaned up all the barn areas, just like normal, except when we were done cleaning up the rhino back area, we went and got the giant ball that's been being passed around the zoo since today was the rhino's turn. So we walked through the zoo, fed the giant crane in the rhino yard, and went over to lion to get the ball. Once we had the ball, I rolled it through the zoo, trying not to run over any little kids with it, which was kind of difficult. That ball is huge and heavy.
We dropped the ball off by the rhino barn, put food out for the tortoises, and went to clean up the zebra barns. This took a little longer than normal because of moving around the baby and mom, so we didn't finish before it was time to put the giant ball in the rhino yard.
This was a big snooze. The rhinos didn't even care, and I got to fill out an entire page of info that said pretty much that. But I didn't have to spend that time sweeping up zebra poop, so I guess it's ok. Plus while I was watching the rhino, the polar bear was pacing in his area that's right next to there, so I really watched the polar bear for most of the time. And I got to hang out with the other keepers for a couple minutes, so that's always fun. After I finished the evaluation of the ball usage, I went to the rhino barn to help finish up cleaning in there. This didn't take very long, so I still had some time before the big intern meeting, so I got baby zebra watching duty for about half an hour. This is just sitting in a chair and staring at the baby zebra to see if he poops, pees, runs or nurses, so luckily it wasn't for too much longer than half an hour even though I love that little guy.
And then came the intern meeting. It was nice to see Sarah since I hadn't seen her since orientation and she's like the only one I really talk to, so I had a friend again :) The one girl that wasn't at orientation was there, and she looked and sounded like she knew way more about animals than I could even imagine at this point. We all talked about different ideas, and this is when I realized I got hosed with my placement. I never really leave the little corner of the zoo I'm in, and I'm really only out on grounds once a week while everyone else is out twice. So I now like this opportunity, but now I know it could be so much more than what it is. So that's slightly disappointing. And I need some help coming up with an idea for hoofstock enrichment, so if you have any ideas shoot them my way....PLEASE!
After our meeting we went to the back area of polar bear, so I got to see one of the polar bears up close and personal, and he did a couple of commands for us, so that was pretty neat.
I somehow find that you and I collide
Saturday, January 30, 2010
(S)he will be loved
It's a boy!
Last night, a baby zebra was birthed at the zoo! So this morning, I was surprised when I wasn't there before Susie, and she left the keeper's quarters just as I got there, and then a minute later she was on the radio screaming there's a baby, there's a baby. So a few of us went out there, but I didn't get to look then. I went back and put together the rhino and zebra food dishes while Susie did a bunch of stuff. When I was done with this we went out there, and she dropped me off in the zebra yard to clean up while she started feeding everyone so we would have more time to move zebras around since there was a baby now. While I was cleaning the exhibit I caught my first glimpse at the new little boy. He was soo cute. When I was done cleaning we let the ostriches out so it would be easier to start moving zebras around and cleaned out their barn so we could move the mother and newborn into that area.
After we did that, we cleaned out the rhino yard really fast and got the rhinos and gazelle out before we started messing with zebras. Then we cleaned out their back areas and went back to the zebras. We put the male one out like normal, but kept the older female separate from the mom and baby. When we got everything sorted out Susie started calling everyone that was off that needed to know there was a baby, and slowly all of them started showing up in the next half hour or so. We just sort of watched the baby for a little while to make sure he started functioning properly and then we left to go do some tortoise and rhino stuff before more zebra time.
Cleaned out the tortoise areas and put out the new food, and then brought them out of their houses. While we were up in that area, Susie tried feeding the crane again because he didn't eat very much early in the morning, but he didn't eat much again this time either. It was kind of fun talking to the zoo visitors and being able to actually answer their questions. I felt kind of important.
So we went back to the zebra area to start cleaning that out, one little pen at a time. But right when we started there was a call over the radio saying something about the elephants, and Susie wanted to make sure that they told us when they started what they were going to do. So we cleaned for about ten minutes and then went out into the zoo and went to the elephant exhibit. The zoo had just bought a giant ball, and some of the keepers put it in the exhibit this morning, so we all gathered around to see if the elephants would play with it. The Asian wanted no part of it, but the African played with it for a little bit before going to find food. It was kind of cool to see them see a new toy for the first time.
When we went back to the zebras to finish cleaning there were a couple other keepers sitting and making observations minute by minute of the baby while I finished cleaning out the different zebra areas. I got to see the placenta up close and personal, that was really cool but kind of gross at the same time. That was pretty much it for the day. Very zebra heavy, but totally worth while. The baby was having problems nursing and stiff rear legs, so hopefully he's feeling better before I go back Tuesday.
Tap on my window, knock on my door I, want to make you feel beautiful.
Last night, a baby zebra was birthed at the zoo! So this morning, I was surprised when I wasn't there before Susie, and she left the keeper's quarters just as I got there, and then a minute later she was on the radio screaming there's a baby, there's a baby. So a few of us went out there, but I didn't get to look then. I went back and put together the rhino and zebra food dishes while Susie did a bunch of stuff. When I was done with this we went out there, and she dropped me off in the zebra yard to clean up while she started feeding everyone so we would have more time to move zebras around since there was a baby now. While I was cleaning the exhibit I caught my first glimpse at the new little boy. He was soo cute. When I was done cleaning we let the ostriches out so it would be easier to start moving zebras around and cleaned out their barn so we could move the mother and newborn into that area.
After we did that, we cleaned out the rhino yard really fast and got the rhinos and gazelle out before we started messing with zebras. Then we cleaned out their back areas and went back to the zebras. We put the male one out like normal, but kept the older female separate from the mom and baby. When we got everything sorted out Susie started calling everyone that was off that needed to know there was a baby, and slowly all of them started showing up in the next half hour or so. We just sort of watched the baby for a little while to make sure he started functioning properly and then we left to go do some tortoise and rhino stuff before more zebra time.
Cleaned out the tortoise areas and put out the new food, and then brought them out of their houses. While we were up in that area, Susie tried feeding the crane again because he didn't eat very much early in the morning, but he didn't eat much again this time either. It was kind of fun talking to the zoo visitors and being able to actually answer their questions. I felt kind of important.
So we went back to the zebra area to start cleaning that out, one little pen at a time. But right when we started there was a call over the radio saying something about the elephants, and Susie wanted to make sure that they told us when they started what they were going to do. So we cleaned for about ten minutes and then went out into the zoo and went to the elephant exhibit. The zoo had just bought a giant ball, and some of the keepers put it in the exhibit this morning, so we all gathered around to see if the elephants would play with it. The Asian wanted no part of it, but the African played with it for a little bit before going to find food. It was kind of cool to see them see a new toy for the first time.
When we went back to the zebras to finish cleaning there were a couple other keepers sitting and making observations minute by minute of the baby while I finished cleaning out the different zebra areas. I got to see the placenta up close and personal, that was really cool but kind of gross at the same time. That was pretty much it for the day. Very zebra heavy, but totally worth while. The baby was having problems nursing and stiff rear legs, so hopefully he's feeling better before I go back Tuesday.
Tap on my window, knock on my door I, want to make you feel beautiful.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Her Diamonds
Alrighty, another Tuesday done, another couple things learned. Tuesday's still not too interesting, but whatever, it's still the zoo.
Started off with a keeper meeting where they talked about when and where certain trees are getting cut down over the next week. Sounds like quite the project. Then me and Stacey sat there while we waited for everything in the kitchen to settle down.
After a few minutes we went to the kitchen and I started on the tortoise diets while she was ordering stuff and on the phone and all kinds of weird stuff. When I finished up the tortoise diets I put sunflower seeds and peanuts into little bags, I don't know why, and then filled up the containers of food.
Then we took the delivery of worms and crickets out of the boxes and put them in their places. Playing with worms is interesting to say the least. Then she had me help her a little bit with putting the bear diets together, and then I made the bucket of elephant treats for the training, which I saw Saturday so that was kind of neat to make the stuff that I saw being used earlier this week. Once we finished that up we went to the city storage area which is right across the street behind the right field wall of Hi Corbett. There's a store and maintenance yard and all kinds of weird stuff that she showed me, and it's all behind right field which is even weirder. And that was the end of the day. Exciting, right? At least Saturdays are awesome....
And I don't know what I'm supposed to do so I sit down and cry too. But don't let her see
Started off with a keeper meeting where they talked about when and where certain trees are getting cut down over the next week. Sounds like quite the project. Then me and Stacey sat there while we waited for everything in the kitchen to settle down.
After a few minutes we went to the kitchen and I started on the tortoise diets while she was ordering stuff and on the phone and all kinds of weird stuff. When I finished up the tortoise diets I put sunflower seeds and peanuts into little bags, I don't know why, and then filled up the containers of food.
Then we took the delivery of worms and crickets out of the boxes and put them in their places. Playing with worms is interesting to say the least. Then she had me help her a little bit with putting the bear diets together, and then I made the bucket of elephant treats for the training, which I saw Saturday so that was kind of neat to make the stuff that I saw being used earlier this week. Once we finished that up we went to the city storage area which is right across the street behind the right field wall of Hi Corbett. There's a store and maintenance yard and all kinds of weird stuff that she showed me, and it's all behind right field which is even weirder. And that was the end of the day. Exciting, right? At least Saturdays are awesome....
And I don't know what I'm supposed to do so I sit down and cry too. But don't let her see
Saturday, January 23, 2010
I Gotta Feelin
Yep, back to song names as titles for these ;)
Sooooo, Saturdays at the zoo are way cooler than Tuesdays. Today started off exactly like last week, except way less intimidating. I kind of had an idea of what I was doing, and I knew where I was going. Started off with my keeper telling me to find some extra rubber boots that were big enough for me because the entire zoo was a swamp after all the rain that we had this week. So I found some, luckily, and then we were off to start the day. She had to go check on the tortoises to make sure they weren't too wet, so I mixed the vitamins and medicine into the rhino and zebra food while she did that, and then we loaded up the cart with all the other food and we were off.
First up is the rhinos. I took their two food containers in and she brought the grain and pellets. I fed the male one first since he was already in the barn and Susie started cleaning out his eye while the female came in and then I fed her. Feeding them this week was way faster than last week, and of course, got some petting in while I could.
The next animals that get food are the ostriches and the zebras. Ostriches are weird. They just look and act dumb. The entire back area was puddles from all the rain, so the animals weren't really moving around too much. After the ostriches got their food the zebras got theirs, all in their separate areas, and the really old female getting a different diet from the other two. The pregnant zebra looked fatter this week compared to last week, so that baby is coming and it's coming quick! So excited for when that actually happens.
Next thing on the to do list is to clean out the zebra/ostrich exhibit. I started this while Susie went and fed the gazelle and carnivore birds (I always forget what they're actually called). Cleaning exhibits is interesting when there are lakes in the middle of them. Everything looks so much more disgusting. Some of the wooden border decorations had fallen off too, so there was a couple gaps in the fence today. After this we cleaned out the rhino exhibit. That was even more disgusting. The only place they poop in the exhibit was covered by water, so all their poop was underwater and we had to kind of muck it out. But it turned out to be alright cuz we didn't have to get all of it.
This next part was the highlight of the day. We left the big cart over between the rhinos and zebras, got in a fresh cart and went over to the elephant area! I didn't know I was allowed to even go anywhere near that area, but my keeper and the other one that was on elephants today let me in, so of course I went in. To get to the place where they clean the elephants' feet, you have to go through the night barn and out to the kind of quarantine area, where they more the elephants into this little barred off cage where the gates are automatic and open and close to move the elephant through and keep them still while the keepers are doing stuff. Kind of like an airlock I guess. The two keepers told me exactly where they wanted me to stand as they brought the first of the two out, the Asian elephant. This one is shorter but thicker than the African elephant, and apparently meaner because they wanted me to stand as still as possible, and my keeper Susie can't touch him because he doesn't like her very much, but she could use this whistle that they use to tell the elephant when it can put its feet back down when they're done cleaning it. When he was done, they let him out into the exhibit and brought the taller African elephant out. She's apparently nicer, so they were both doing stuff and then when they started doing her back feet they brought me around and let me touch her feet and scrape off some of the sand. That was awesome. I touched an elephant's foot! And then, if that wasn't enough, they did some kind of tail training and wanted me to be an extra person to touch it for the elephant's training. So I touched its tail too! Its tail hairs are really hard, kind of like a wire brush thing. It was incredible to do that though.
When we went back to the main hoofstock area, we took the tortoises their food and then cleaned out the rhino, gazelle and that bird yards. Then Susie had to go back and do other stuff with the elephants, so I started cleaning the zebra area while she was doing that, and then when she came back she bleached the girl zebra barn (girl zebras poop in their barn but the guy zebra doesn't, guys are obviously cleaner). When we were done cleaning out the zebra area, she put the females out on exhibit and brought the male back in and that was the end of my day.
So, obviously, the most exciting part was the elephant part. Hopefully that happens more often than not haha. I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it and hopefully next week we'll get everything done even faster.
I know that we'll have a ball if we get down go out and just lose it all
Sooooo, Saturdays at the zoo are way cooler than Tuesdays. Today started off exactly like last week, except way less intimidating. I kind of had an idea of what I was doing, and I knew where I was going. Started off with my keeper telling me to find some extra rubber boots that were big enough for me because the entire zoo was a swamp after all the rain that we had this week. So I found some, luckily, and then we were off to start the day. She had to go check on the tortoises to make sure they weren't too wet, so I mixed the vitamins and medicine into the rhino and zebra food while she did that, and then we loaded up the cart with all the other food and we were off.
First up is the rhinos. I took their two food containers in and she brought the grain and pellets. I fed the male one first since he was already in the barn and Susie started cleaning out his eye while the female came in and then I fed her. Feeding them this week was way faster than last week, and of course, got some petting in while I could.
The next animals that get food are the ostriches and the zebras. Ostriches are weird. They just look and act dumb. The entire back area was puddles from all the rain, so the animals weren't really moving around too much. After the ostriches got their food the zebras got theirs, all in their separate areas, and the really old female getting a different diet from the other two. The pregnant zebra looked fatter this week compared to last week, so that baby is coming and it's coming quick! So excited for when that actually happens.
Next thing on the to do list is to clean out the zebra/ostrich exhibit. I started this while Susie went and fed the gazelle and carnivore birds (I always forget what they're actually called). Cleaning exhibits is interesting when there are lakes in the middle of them. Everything looks so much more disgusting. Some of the wooden border decorations had fallen off too, so there was a couple gaps in the fence today. After this we cleaned out the rhino exhibit. That was even more disgusting. The only place they poop in the exhibit was covered by water, so all their poop was underwater and we had to kind of muck it out. But it turned out to be alright cuz we didn't have to get all of it.
This next part was the highlight of the day. We left the big cart over between the rhinos and zebras, got in a fresh cart and went over to the elephant area! I didn't know I was allowed to even go anywhere near that area, but my keeper and the other one that was on elephants today let me in, so of course I went in. To get to the place where they clean the elephants' feet, you have to go through the night barn and out to the kind of quarantine area, where they more the elephants into this little barred off cage where the gates are automatic and open and close to move the elephant through and keep them still while the keepers are doing stuff. Kind of like an airlock I guess. The two keepers told me exactly where they wanted me to stand as they brought the first of the two out, the Asian elephant. This one is shorter but thicker than the African elephant, and apparently meaner because they wanted me to stand as still as possible, and my keeper Susie can't touch him because he doesn't like her very much, but she could use this whistle that they use to tell the elephant when it can put its feet back down when they're done cleaning it. When he was done, they let him out into the exhibit and brought the taller African elephant out. She's apparently nicer, so they were both doing stuff and then when they started doing her back feet they brought me around and let me touch her feet and scrape off some of the sand. That was awesome. I touched an elephant's foot! And then, if that wasn't enough, they did some kind of tail training and wanted me to be an extra person to touch it for the elephant's training. So I touched its tail too! Its tail hairs are really hard, kind of like a wire brush thing. It was incredible to do that though.
When we went back to the main hoofstock area, we took the tortoises their food and then cleaned out the rhino, gazelle and that bird yards. Then Susie had to go back and do other stuff with the elephants, so I started cleaning the zebra area while she was doing that, and then when she came back she bleached the girl zebra barn (girl zebras poop in their barn but the guy zebra doesn't, guys are obviously cleaner). When we were done cleaning out the zebra area, she put the females out on exhibit and brought the male back in and that was the end of my day.
So, obviously, the most exciting part was the elephant part. Hopefully that happens more often than not haha. I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it and hopefully next week we'll get everything done even faster.
I know that we'll have a ball if we get down go out and just lose it all
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
First Kitchen Day
Today was my second day at the zoo, the first one with my other keeper, Stacey. She only works in the kitchen so that's where I stayed all day.
The day started off with her telling me to just stay out of the way and watch til all the keepers had their food and were out of the way, so that's exactly what I did, while eating a cookie that one of the docents brought. When that was over, she finally acknowledged my existence and showed me around the kitchen and the warehouse area. Then she gave me a fatty binder with the diet of every animal in the zoo listed inside of it. She told me to read all of it, so I did. It took about 45 minutes along with some other distractions including talking to the community service lady who also works in the kitchen.
After I was done reading, Stacey told me to make all of the tortoise diets, so I did. A lot of salad and fruits and vegetables, and now I know the difference between a zucchini and a cucumber (I think). Seriously, they look way too alike to be completely different things. After I was done making the different diets and putting them in the right refrigerators, the weekly delivery of mealworms came in, so I had to help put them in containers for the rest of the week.
When the worms were put away we cleaned up the kitchen and that was pretty much it for the day. Vet visits are on Tuesdays and Fridays, so hopefully I'll get to be around those more often than standing in the kitchen and making tortoise diets...but it's easy work and for credit. And it's still working at a zoo, so it's not bad, just not as exciting as petting rhinos and getting chased by giant meat eating birds.
I can't walk and I can't talk anymore since you, walked out the door
The day started off with her telling me to just stay out of the way and watch til all the keepers had their food and were out of the way, so that's exactly what I did, while eating a cookie that one of the docents brought. When that was over, she finally acknowledged my existence and showed me around the kitchen and the warehouse area. Then she gave me a fatty binder with the diet of every animal in the zoo listed inside of it. She told me to read all of it, so I did. It took about 45 minutes along with some other distractions including talking to the community service lady who also works in the kitchen.
After I was done reading, Stacey told me to make all of the tortoise diets, so I did. A lot of salad and fruits and vegetables, and now I know the difference between a zucchini and a cucumber (I think). Seriously, they look way too alike to be completely different things. After I was done making the different diets and putting them in the right refrigerators, the weekly delivery of mealworms came in, so I had to help put them in containers for the rest of the week.
When the worms were put away we cleaned up the kitchen and that was pretty much it for the day. Vet visits are on Tuesdays and Fridays, so hopefully I'll get to be around those more often than standing in the kitchen and making tortoise diets...but it's easy work and for credit. And it's still working at a zoo, so it's not bad, just not as exciting as petting rhinos and getting chased by giant meat eating birds.
I can't walk and I can't talk anymore since you, walked out the door
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