Rainy Days

It was a rainy, cold, dreary day at the Greenville Zoo, but that didn't stop the keepers and I from having some fun with the animals! The morning started out like any other; I went to Asia with Greg to start cleaning exhibits and feeding animals. I worked in the hornbills exhibit, cleaned the orangutan den, and learned how to do laundry for the animals. I definitely am not as comfortable is Asia as I am in other parts of the zoo, so it was nice to get some more experience working there this morning. I cleaned the orangutan den while they were still inside (in a separate area, of course), which was a difficult task, because orangutans are so curious that I had to be extra careful during the cleaning process. I left the trash bag I was using too close to their side and the next thing I knew they were sticking their hands through the fence and trying to grab the bag! Luckily, I grabbed it away in time, but it definitely made me very aware of how close I was to them and how careful I had to be while cleaning in such close proximity to animals.

After the morning cleaning was done (and I was thoroughly soaked from the rain), the afternoon got interesting. Afternoons at the zoo are usually reserved for special projects, training, etc., but when it's raining, the animals and the keepers both don't want to be outside, so we have to occupy ourselves with inside projects. Luckily for me, I got to help with some extra fun projects today. Bob, the youngest orangutan in the family, is leaving the zoo in the next few weeks to go to Portland, Oregon. He's going to be part of a breeding pair there, which is great news for him and for the species, but obviously sad for the Greenville Zoo family to have to say goodbye. To help say goodbye to Bob, the keepers are working on making him an airplane out of cardboard for him to play with (it's good enrichment!) in his final days in Greenville. I got to help paint the plane today and work on the tail of it, which was really fun, and different from anything else I had done at the zoo previously. After working on the plane, a few keepers and myself went down to the orangutan den. Since it was too cold for them to go outside today, we wanted to make extra sure that they got some good enrichment so they didn't get too bored in their den, so we brought canvases down with us and did some painting with the orangutans! Basically, there's a special brush the zoo has that the orangs can grab a hold of through the fence and we put paint on the end of the brush, and then they move the brush around and make brush strokes on a blank canvas to create some cool art! It was a lot of fun for me and the other keepers and the orangutans, particularly Chelsea, loved painting! I really appreciate how the zoo staff goes above and beyond at all times with their animal care, and even manage to make things fun for themselves in the process!

The zoo closed a little bit early today since attendance was so low due to the weather, so I finished the day by helping close Africa. I raked the giraffe stalls, helped prepare their evening diets, and then helped bring the lions in to their dens. Because today was such a strange, slow day, I got to bond with a lot of the keepers, which was something I really enjoyed. Every week I feel more and more comfortable at the zoo and with the people there, and I am glad that the feelings are being reciprocated!

Stay tuned for more tails from my zoo internship, but until next time, have a wild day!

Happy Birthday Walter!

Today was a special day at the zoo, because our oldest male giraffe, Walter, turned 9! There were some birthday celebrations that we had in place for Walter, and it made it an all around fun day. I was lucky enough to work in Africa again, so I could witness and partake in the celebrations!

My morning was spent cleaning the Africa exhibits and dens. I did the entire lion and tortoise exhibits by myself, and did a large portion of the giraffe exhibit and barn. It was tiring, but we got a lot done in the morning, which made the afternoon better! Additionally, we got to take some time to watch the lions and their enrichment in the morning. We built them a leaf pile and sprayed cinnamon on it to see how they would react. Chuma loved it! He was rolling around in the leaves and laying in them. He loved it so much that he passed out for an hour and a half just laying in his leaf pile! It's great when the keepers can find enrichment that the animals truly enjoy, and it make their experience that much better.

The afternoon was actually kind of slow because we had gotten so much done in the morning. We celebrated Walter's birthday by bringing bamboo and mulberry around to the front of the exhibit and feeding the giraffes so that the public could get an up close look! I loved doing that, because I got nice and close to the animals and I got to make the guests happy! I even took some pictures for people and answered a few questions about the giraffes. We then observed some giraffe behavior and lion behavior before heading back to do some more work. Then, we went to the lemur exhibit to do some training with them. Once again, I got to be the distractor, so I was feeding the lemurs raisins to keep them out of the way!

Walter enjoying his birthday bamboo

Happy Birthday, Walter!

Towards the end of the afternoon, I helped finish the paperwork for enrichment that I had started last week. The keeper was so grateful, and I was glad to help (especially since I'm a decent typist). Finally, at the end of the day, I went up to help feed and get the animals inside. Since we had some extra time before we could take the animals in, I got to take some pictures feeding the giraffes! Unfortunately, I can't post them on social media, but for any of you who know me personally, I would love to show them to you at some point! It was definitely the highlight of my day.

Finally, we fed the lions, brought them in, and then brought the giraffes inside. I even got to talk to Keith (the general curator of the zoo) about staying on for next semester, and he said that I could stay for as long as I liked! I really enjoy my time at the zoo, and I'm so happy to be able to be a part of such a wonderful organization.

Oh, and Happy 9th Birthday Walter!

Monday at the Zoo

Today being my fall break, I was a little uneasy about going back to the zoo. When I woke up at 6:45 this morning, I was tired and not in the mood to drive 45 minutes to the zoo again this morning. Luckily for me, I had an amazing time today and I was able to have so many new experiences!

I worked in primate row with Jackie today. This was the first thing different about coming in on a Monday, because usually when I work with Jackie, it's in Africa! However, with different days of the week come different keepers at the zoo locations, so I jumped at the chance to work with Jackie in a new location. 

It was an interesting morning. We had lots of cleaning to do on primate row, including bleaching all of the dens. Thankfully, our cleaning was split up by some animal observation time, because we got to give the primate pumpkins today! We put their morning diets in pumpkins and got to watch to see how they interacted with the pumpkins. This was great enrichment for the animals and great fun for us! After finishing up on primate row, we headed to the education building. 

In the ed building, in addition to cleaning exhibits, we also got to weigh all of the animals! This was great because I got to interact with them. I held, moved, and weighed birds, turtles, and skinks! I also got to pet the chinchilla and kinkajou while Jackie weighed them. I love any and all animal interaction I get, and I appreciate the fact that the keepers trust me enough to allow me to handle the animals. 

The best part of the day happened in the afternoon when we went to weigh the lemurs. There are 4 lemurs, and it can be a difficult task to get weights on all of them since they all want attention and snacks (they get food rewards to stay on the scale). So, today, my job was the distracter! I got to distract the other three lemurs while Jackie weighed the fourth one. Essentially, I got to hand-feed lemurs raisins for ten minutes, so needless to say, I was thrilled. They were so cute and gentle when I put the food in their mouths!

I'm so glad that I came in to the zoo for an extra day this week. I got so much animal interaction and had an overall great day. I'm thankful to the staff at the Greenville Zoo for trusting me and allowing me to help care for the animals and I'm thankful for this amazing experience! I can't wait to share next week's "tails" with all of you! Until then, stay wild!

The Paperwork Side of Zookeeping

Many of the zookeepers often warn me that you can't be afraid to do paperwork if you go into the zookeeping field. Today, I got a first hand experience at some of the kinds of paperwork you do at the zoo, and it definitely is a lot to handle!

My morning started off in Asia, where I helped clean some exhibits and do morning diet prep. Since the weather has finally fully changed to fall weather, there were some unusual things that had to happen since some of the animals can't be let outside if the weather is too cold. For example, we had to delay letting out the hornbills and orangutans because the temperature wasn't going up fast enough to let them into their exhibits. Fun fact: a lot of the animals at the zoo hate the cold! I watched so many of them huddle into sunny spots in their exhibits to soak up the warmth. I guess that's the problem with living in South Carolina; it's really hot in the summer and really cold in the winter!

After Asia, I went to Primate Row to help finish the cleaning. Because it's fall, there are so many leaves in all of the exhibits, so it takes at least an additional 30 minutes to clean the exhibits because there are so many leaves to get out. I cleaned the spider monkey exhibit, put out their food, and then cleaned some dens until it was lunch time.

After lunch, Dindy, the primate row keeper asked me to help her with some typing and paperwork type things on the computer. I typed up a diet sheet to save for future use, and then began working on enrichment sheets for the education building animals. Basically, I had to go through and make calendars for each month of 2015 and put the different types of enrichment each animal should get for each day. The cool part was that I got to decide which enrichment activities went on which day! That made the work a little less tedious and a little more fun. I did the paperwork for the rest of the afternoon, until it was time to leave. To give you an idea of how long it is, I only got through 2 months (after the diet sheet), and I'm a fast typer! However, it was a nice change of pace for me to do the enrichment calendars, and I especially didn't mind since it was so cold outside! I'm actually very pleased that I got to do some paperwork, because I really want to get the full "zookeeper experience" while I'm interning at the Zoo, and I know that paperwork is a big part of it!

I'm going back to the zoo tomorrow morning because it's my fall break, so I don't have classes! I'm excited because I have never been to the zoo on any other day than Sunday, so I will get to meet some new keepers and have some new experiences tomorrow.