Week 66: Peggy!

After several months of anticipation and preparation, Peggy, our new, 3-legged opossum, arrived at the zoo! She is pretty small still and quite cuddly. So far she has an amazing temperament, perfect for being a handler animal. We plan to keep her that way so she stays friendly. Peggy is definitely no good at walking (missing your left front leg is kind of a big deal as an opossum) so she needs our help to get out and around to see things. Her favorite activities so far include sleeping and smelling everything. We look forward to seeing her grow more and helping her out in life.
Another big happening this week was an escape drill. We safety managers had been planning this out for a few weeks. We decided to have two trainers play their animals, one was Ozz the Geoffory's tamarin, and the other was Buddy the raccoon. Since I was a lead that morning in area, I didn't get to do much in the actual drill, but planning it was fun and it went off really well. No one got "bit" and both animals were dealt with quickly and successfully. One of the trainers even managed to squeeze himself into a crate! It was a great learning experience over all and we were proud of how well everyone functioned.
On Friday, we had a guest speaker: a studio trainer from Birds and Animals Unltd. came and he brought the capuchin he works frequently with. She is the capuchin featured in "Night at the Museum" and has done several other movies (I just can't remember, but if it's a monkey, it was probably her...). He also brought a dog with him and the dog was in "Hotel for Dogs" most recently, a super cute border collie. He discussed what it was like to be studio trainer and all the ins and outs of that side of the business. It was good to hear that it was all the same things that I had picked up on my project with Hollywood Animals. (Pictures: Peggy and I.)