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!