Week 10: Pre-Davis Insanity

This week was all about getting ready for the second years to be gone. We made sure that we were set in our area (nutrition) and that we knew what we were doing with our animal assignments. I kind of slacked off on building my relationship with the vervets so we aren't great buddies, not that any one really is with them. I did a few in-depth sessions with Benji, but he won't let me bedroom him so we can clean his enclosure, so I'll have to rely on my other caretaker for that while I keep working on it. Ebony and I have a pretty good relationship, I got her to do all her behaviors for me the other day and she gets excited to see me now.
I did my first emcee on saturday! It was OK, nothing to write home about. It was pretty awesome to have Clarence (our glapagos tortoise) in the show; I didn't even know he came up for them. We also had the start of Boo at the Zoo, our Halloween themed event. It was definately under-advertised, so it was sort of a bust, but we'll wait and see how we did money-wise to fully judge it. I'll be really busy next week, feeding all my animal charges! I'll be sure to post lots of cool pictures!

Week 9: Not so on fire!

Apparently the fire season in California works year round, it just rotates through the latitudes. Ours is happening right now. On Monday, a couple large fires were burning, I'm sure you all heard about them on the news. I knew a few people that had to evacuate their homes and it was pretty scary. In fact, the Sesnon fire is still burning! (but contained) We did see a bit of smoke around here at the zoo and got prepared to at least get the birds out, but it never got to that point, thankfully. However, more are likely on the way.
On a lighter, happier note, we got our animal assignments for Davis week and I'm not too disappointed with mine! I've got the toucans (Rico and Iggy), the emu (Julietta), a white-cheeked turaco (Bwana), a raven (Ebony), and this is all in addition to the vervets (Benji, Annie, and Sydney). Next week we'll get our protocols for exactly what we really get to do with these guys, but in the meantime, a lot of people have been finding and working with their second years on getting to know these guys already. I know the toucans are just a matter of feeding and weighing daily, Bwana is just feeding, and I've been doing a lot with the vervets already.
My area this week was MMQ, short for maintenance, mews, and quarantine. Maintenance is just another area of the zoo, oddly named like show, with various species of animals housed there. Mews is where the birds of prey are (if you didn't know, a mew is what you call a house for a bird of prey in captivity). Quarantine is just that, quarantine. Luckily no animals were under quarantine in there (we keep a few in there that don't need to be bothered by the public or ourselves too much) so we didn't have to deal with any crazy protocols about separate tools. Our domestic dog lives in maintenance (yes, we have a dog at the zoo) so we get to take her out on walks daily. It was fun, but she's not very good on the leash, so it was more like she walked us. It's a pretty easy area over all with just a lot of hosing and raking.
On a side note, it's starting to get pretty cold at night here, and it stays that way into the mornings. I have discovered that Starbucks has an excellent new beverage called the "salted caramel signature hot chocolate". I highly recommend this drink! Or any of their signature hot chocolates really, they're rockin'!

Week 8: Back to my roots

This week we had another diversity test, he's starting to be really hard and crafty. I'm not worried I failed or anything, but we'll see. I've been seeing a lot of the vervets this week, creating some BE for them that they seemed to enjoy. On a progressive note, we got our assignments for Davis week and I'll be in nutrition. I actually like nutrition (I've got the knife skills, so I knock those diets out). Since there's obviously no animals in nutrition, I've been assigned on the side to parrots. Not too excited about that, but no complaint here as I got a special assignment with the vervets. Next week we'll know what specific animals we've been assigned and we'll start working with them. I did another manning session this week, this time with our red-tailed hawk, Arrow. He's pretty cool.

As for the title of this little entry, this week I was assigned to hoof stock area. That's my current skill base with animals, and I had a lot of fun getting back to that smell (you know what I'm talking about). Walking Nick (our mini-horse) was lots of fun; he's definitely got a lot of spunk and I ran with him for fun! It was constant work, but pretty easy to me, just lots of raking and shoveling poo. I can't quite believe how much those sheep can poop out in one day...
On a more fun note, I was a handler in a show this weekend with one of our sugar gliders, Darwin. So, this was my first appearance on stage, just letting that guy crawl all over me while the emcees talked about him. My husband thought that was pretty neat-o and came along to take some pics. That's all for this week, next week should prove an exciting post...

Week 7: Carns Carnival

Yea alliteration! There was some super crazy stuff this week, and some super awesome moments for myself too. The first thing that went down was a trainer on the siamangs was bit and had to go to the hospital. She and the animal are OK, however, she has not yet returned to school as she's dealing with some good infection. Now, before you go freaking out about this, let me tell you: this stuff happens. We are working with essentially wild animals, and you can't always read what they're about to do. This is an inherent risk all animal caretakers assume, especially when you are in a free-contact setting with the animal. It is most likely that at some point I, myself, will be sent to a hospital for stitches or even something more serious. I am OK with this, so don't go sending me every article you find about maimed/dead zookeepers/animal trainers. I know it happens, I got over it a long time ago, I suggest you do the same if you plan on staying around me. This is not to say that I or others are doing this in an unsafe manner, it's just what happens. It's the same thing for police officers or fire fighters. They run risks of getting shot, smoke inhalation, and all sorts of nasty, potentially lethal things happening to them on a daily basis! Mine just makes for a more interesting story! I'm stepping off my soap box now...
Now some good news! Davis week quickly approaches. This is a week where all the second years leave on a super cool field trip, so all us first years must care for the animals! The animals you get assigned to is largely dependant on what area you are in that week, however, a few other animals need a more special relationship (primates) and those were assigned early for those who were interested. I was lucky enough to get assigned to the vervet monkeys (look it up!). We have three: two girls and a boy. They are housed separately by gender. They are pretty dangerous, but there's no real contact with them so we're in no real danger. I'm really looking forward to getting to know these guys and maybe actually finding another primate I'd like to work with besides our ring-tailed lemurs. More details will be forthcoming as this story progresses...
This week, I was working the carns area. That's short for carnivores. This is where all our large, truly dangerous animals are (i.e. tiger, lion, wolf, hyena, mountain lions). I was looking forward to being here, and I was not let down! Most mornings Taj (tiger) chuffed at me, and for those who don't know, that's a happy sound. I really loved watching her play around in her pool and splash people! She really is a silly kitty sometimes! A silly kitty that would totally kill you if given the chance... I also witnesses Savuti (hyena) devour the bottom end of a femur in the span of thirty minutes. This was definately a rewarding week overall and I can't wait to be back in carns!