Aquarium - Day Ten

Well, I certainly had a big surprise today at the aquarium. I busted my butt all morning doing all of the AM tasks and preparing fish and cleaning buckets. I had to work super hard and super fast because it was memorial day weekend and the aquarium was extremely busy. There was a dolphin encounter session early in the morning, so all of the trainers were busy with that, so it was my job to get done all of the typical morning tasks. I was exhausted after only like 3 hours of work, and I just happened to glance out at the audience as I was walking around, and I saw my mom and my sister randomly standing there! I was completely shocked to see them standing there and ran out to talk to them.

It turns out my whole family drove down to Baltimore for the day to see me at the aquarium! It was a really nice surprise and I ended up having lunch with them and they watched some of the training sessions and one of the enrichment sessions I ran! During that enrichment session, I decided to use ice at the windows and we picked some volunteers from the audience to help us throw ice at the windows and make designs on the windows. It was a lot of fun and the session actually went really well because all of the dolphins were engaged and interested in what we were doing!

I also got to do a few more observations on Bayley for my research project, which was really great since there were so many people in the audience. I actually started working on the project this weekend, so it will be interesting to see what my final results are at the end of the week!

This weekend I also have to work on a training plan to train a trainer. I have to be able to train a trainer to do something as if they were a dolphin, meaning I can't use words or manipulations to show them what I'm talking about. I plan to teach the trainer how to bump a volleyball back to me, which should be interesting without using words! It's definitely going to be an interesting project, and I'll keep you posted on how I do!

Next week is my last week of this internship. It's been a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. I'm excited to see how this last week goes! 

Aquarium - Day Nine

It really is a shame that this is only a three week internship because I finally feel like I am comfortable at the aquarium. I know what is expected of me, I know how to do most of the jobs now, I have a much better understanding of the training sessions and what goes on during them, I know the dolphins and information about them, and as of today, I can officially enrich the dolphins on my own! It's been exciting to finally feel like I get what's going on now and that I can be more helpful to the trainers.

Today was a really busy day. I started out my morning like always, by doing a lot of cleaning. I then talked with Kimmy all about enrichment, which is basically a way to stimulate the dolphin's mind and keep their environment interesting and changing. It's also a way to encourage natural behaviors, good socialization, and playfulness. I learned all about the types of enrichment that they do in the aquarium, the safety that surrounds it, and about the things I can do to help enrich the dolphins.  I actually ended up participating in 3 different enrichment sessions today, which were a lot of fun. We threw jello from the roof into the pools for the dolphins, we played sound and showed them mirrors at the windows, and we even celebrated a birthday today! Jade turned 16 today, so we made her a birthday card and then had all of the kids in the audience sign it. Afterwards, we showed the card and many other birthday signs to the dolphins! It was a lot of fun participating in these sessions. I also enjoy actually being put into the schedule now and knowing that there is a place I have to be, a time I have to be there, and a job I have to do.

My days are starting to go by a lot more quickly, and I think that's because I can do so much more now that I have more ways to fill my time. I also am able to do things like fish prep and kitchen cleans a lot more quickly now, which also helps!

The best part of my day was yet again getting to participate in a mock encounter. As I explained in my last post, one of the newer trainers is learning how to give encounter sessions, which is where guests pay extra to come and have some personal time with the dolphins. Since she is still learning, I get to be her guest that gets to rub the dolphin and play with them! This time we worked with Jade (the birthday girl!) and it was a lot of fun!

My research on Bayley is also going pretty well and I'm hoping that I will soon start to see some clear trends developing. So far I have 9 data sets, which is a decent start, and I'm hoping I will be able to collect even more tomorrow and at the beginning of next week. Bayley is a lot of fun to watch and I have a theory that she knows that I am studying her because every time I go down for observations she spends at least 30 seconds at the window in front of me just staring at me! She's so adorable and I love her playful personality.

Tomorrow is day 10 of my internship and the end of two weeks. After tomorrow I will only have one more week left, which is crazy considering I feel like I just started! I think next week will be the best one yet, and I'm hopeful that I will continue to learn and enjoy my internship experience! Thanks for reading!

Aquarium - Days Seven and Eight

I had to combine my two days into one post because time is just flying by and I feel like I'm always busy trying to finish work or busy at my actual work at the aquarium! Anyway, these past two days have also been great ones. Yesterday I got to learn some Sd's which are the hand signals the trainers give the dolphins to ask for a behavior. I also got to learn more about husbandry behaviors, which are behaviors used for medical purposes. The dolphins are trained to do layouts to have their bodies checked, they can give fecal and gastric samples, give blood samples, and even breath samples, plus many more husbandry behaviors! It was interesting to learn about the behaviors and the different things the dolphins are trained to do. I also learned how to take respirations, which is another one of the AM tasks. Basically, you count how many times the dolphins breathe in a 5 minute period and record it. This is just to make sure that everything is normal and no one is acting unusually. This may seem easy, but when all 6 girls are in the same pool it can get quite difficult to keep track of who is breathing!

Today was actually my best day so far! I got to shadow one of the trainers in the amphitheater during her narration of the training session and listen to some commonly asked questions and even give out some answers myself. I like to talk and interact with people, so this was a lot of fun for me and also very interesting. A lot of the questions are "what time is the next session?" but a lot of other people are interested in the dolphins themselves and their pools and some characteristics of dolphins. The best part of my day was when I got to help out with a mock-encounter session. An encounter session is a service the aquarium offers where you can pay extra and come have some private time to meet the dolphins! One of the newer trainers is practicing her encounters, so I got to be her pretend audience! We laid by the side of the pool with Foster, one of the male dolphins. She asked him for certain behaviors and I got to listen to her talk and give Foster lots of rubs on his back and belly! I was really glad that they gave me this opportunity and it was definitely the most fun thing I have done so far!

Of course the day wasn't all fun, there was a lot of work too. We had a shipment of squid come in this morning so I stood in the -9 degree Fahrenheit freezer for a while helping to unload the squid. That was definitely a cold experience. I also helped out with cleaning, as always, and practiced some more gating. I was also able to get a few more observations in on Bayley these past two days. So far I haven't really found any correlation, but I only have a few data points so it's still too early to tell anything for sure.

Tomorrow looks like it's going to be another busy day since I am learning all about enrichment for the dolphins! Stay tuned for more posts about my aquarium internship and all of the great experiences I am having!

Aquarium - Day Six

After a nice relaxing two days home with my family spent catching up on some reading and celebrating my mom's birthday it was time for me to return to Baltimore and the aquarium. When I came in today I felt so much better about everything. I was able to get to work right away working on the AM tasks which include cleaning the deck, cleaning the rails, cleaning center deck, placing toy bins, filling buckets and tubes, and all kinds of other preparation and cleaning tasks. I also got to help with a few more gating sessions this morning, which makes me feel like I am actually being of help to the trainers and not just solely helping with cleaning.

I also got to start my project today. A part of the internship requirement is that you conduct a research project for the aquarium and then present your findings on your last day. I decided to do an observational study on Bayley, who is the youngest dolphin in the aquarium. I am doing a window avoidance study to see if the size of the crowd in the amphitheater affects the amount of times Bayley swims past the observation windows. My hypothesis is that the larger the crowd the fewer times she will swim past the windows, but I have to see what results my research produces! I'm actually really excited about the project especially because it's another way for me to productively fill my time and be of help to the trainers. With the information from my study they may be able to work on training certain behaviors with Bayley or they may be able to use the information to control crowd size or manage stress in the dolphins. I'll be taking multiple 10-minute observational studies a day for the remainder of my internship in order to present the results at the end and share my findings with the trainers! I even made up a project proposal plan and a data collection sheet to use.

I was really happy at the end of the day today because when I was leaving Kimmy stopped me and told me how hard I was working and how whenever she looked up I was also working and helping out with something. It was really nice to hear this and to be recognized for the improvements I've been making throughout my time here! I thanked her for her help and guidance profusely!

Things are getting crazy now because I have a lot of outside work for the aquarium on top of a summer literature course that I am trying to stay on top of. These three weeks are going to be some of the busiest weeks, but hopefully productive and fun weeks as well!

Aquarium - Day Five

I'll be honest, by the end of this first week I was beyond exhausted and so ready for my weekend. I felt like a million different pieces of information had been thrown in my direction and I was so worried about making a good impression and showing the trainers that I could and would do a good job that by the end of the week I was just so tired. However, things did go really well today and at the end of the work day I felt pretty confident in my abilities as the marine mammal training intern and I was hopeful that the next week would lead to good things.

On day 5 we focused on gating, so I learned how to move the gates in the pools with and without the animals. The gates are all at least 50 pounds, so it definitely does take some practice! Kimmy wasn't there today so I spent most of my day working with Leah. We went over all of my reading information and the basics of the tasks for the day. I also helped out a lot with fish preparation and cleaning tasks including cleaning the buckets and the toys.

I'm really looking forward to next week and hopefully more good days. I looked ahead at the schedule and it seems like I will be getting a lot more experience and practice time next week as well as some more animal interaction, so I think my one bad day is out of my system and it will be a great experience from here on out!

Aquarium - Day Four

Today was leaps and bounds better than yesterday! I finally feel like I understand the flow of the day at the aquarium and I am now able to do enough tasks where I can be helpful and accomplish a lot of things in one day. I learned how to do AM/PM tasks this morning as well as help with the weekly and monthly tasks, so now I know what I can do whenever I feel as though there isn't anything else I can help with.

I also got to help with three enrichment sessions today, which were a lot of fun. In the morning we ended up playing jump rope in front of the windows for the dolphins, which they actually found really amusing! One of the dolphins, Spirit, was super into it and kept bobbing her head up and down with the jump rope. Later on in the day, I got to go up on the roof and through jello cubes down into the tank from way up above. I loved doing this because the boys were so confused during the whole thing and it was really funny to watch them try to swim around and figure out where the jello was coming from. The last enrichment of the day we used ice cubes and were throwing, rubbing, and sliding them against the windows to get the dolphins attention. I had a lot of fun with this too, and Bayley and Spirit were cracking me up because they kept trying to eat the cubes we were throwing despite there being a huge wall of glass between us!

Today there was also a lot of time to sit down with Kimmy and go over a lot of material and training basics. She took me down into the observation pit where I will be learning to take observations on the animals and conducting my research project. We also talked about training session types again and about bridging stimuli and least reinforcing scenarios. Bridging is when you do an action which lets the dolphin know that they did a good job and will receive a reward when they return to their station. A lot of times this is done with a whistle, but the trainers can also do it by pointing at the dolphin or slapping their palm against the water. Least reinforcing scenarios are what you do when you are unhappy with something a dolphin did. You don't punish them or act angry, but you also don't give them attention or a reward. Essentially, you continue doing what you were doing and don't give the dolphin any sort of response. It's interesting for me to learn more about training and different terms and situations. I feel like I've already learned a lot more about the topic and it's only day 4, so I'm excited to see all that I know by the end of this internship!

Aquarium Day 3 - The Rough Day

I'll be the first to admit that I did not have a great day today at work. There was a lot of little things that kept happening that by the end of the day just led to a lot of frustration on my part. I made a few mistakes here and there, and being the perfectionist that I am, I really let them get to me when I should have just shaken it off. However, after having some time away from the situation, I feel much better and am ready to get to work tomorrow and show everyone what I can do!

I was taught how to clean the deck this morning and how to do the rest of the daily morning chores. I struggled a little bit with cleaning the deck because I used too much water, which ended up leaking into the downstairs rooms. It wasn't a huge catastrophe or anything, but I was embarrassed when somebody came up to say something to me. The trainers all assured me that they had all made the same mistake before too and not to worry about it, but I still felt bad for causing problems, especially because I'm supposed to be there to make their lives easier, not more difficult!

For the rest of the morning I tried really hard to stay out of the way and do a good job. I found myself struggling a lot with finding things to do, because I still really don't know how to do that many tasks. Once all of the morning tasks were done, I cleaned up all of the toys and then often found myself struggling to find more work. I kept trying to clean buckets, but someone always got to them before me, and when I asked to help they said that they were fine. It was kind of stressful for me because I didn't want to feel like I was just standing around, but I also really didn't know what kinds of things I should be doing.

After lunch, luckily, one of the trainers asked if I would help her with enrichment. I know a decent amount about enrichment from being in the zoo, so I was grateful for the opportunity to help them with something I felt like I could actually do and do well. We ended up playing a bunch of different sounds for the boy dolphins at the windows and they loved it! They were dancing in the water and kept pushing their heads against the glass wanting to hear more. It was a lot of fun and we laughed a lot at their crazy reactions. I also blew bubbles over the girls water, but they weren't as into that as the boys were into the sounds. Then, she taught me how to fill in the paperwork and even let me fill it out for a few of the dolphins! I was really thankful that she let me help with that and was taking a hands on approach to teaching me, because it was something I felt like I really needed.

Later in the afternoon, I had a talk with a trainer about expectations. I think there was a big miscommunication somewhere along the line and somehow the things that I was expected to do got lost in translation. Part of it was my fault, I was always just kind of waiting to have someone tell me what to do instead of taking the initiative to look for something to do. I hadn't been down to the kitchen in a while, so she sent me down there to finish some cleaning. I left the place extra clean and even brought up a few things I anticipated that they would need so that I could prove to them and myself that I had what it took.

Finally, at the end of the day, I talked with Kimmy (my mentor) about expectations and about a project I have to do during my internship. I asked exactly what was expected of me, which cleared a lot up and made me feel better about the whole workday. We also discussed potential project ideas and what the final product should look like. Basically, I have to do behavioral observations on the dolphins and then report my findings to the trainers at the end of the internship. I'm looking forward to getting started on that and I've been brainstorming a few good project ideas!

I was completely overwhelmed by the end of the day, but now I'm feeling a lot better. I remember feeling similarly when I was first starting at the zoo, but after pushing through the initial overwhelming feelings and learning how to take initiative, I ended up loving the zoo and my job there. I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to be a much better day, if only for the fact that I understand so much more now and I am going in with a great attitude about the work I have to get done. I'll be posting tomorrow to let you know how it goes, so wish me luck!

Aquarium Day Two - Fish Prep Shift and Cleaning

For day two of my aquarium internship, I woke up bright and early in order to get to the aquarium by 6:30 for my fish prep shift. Usually there are two trainers who come in early in the mornings and prepare the diets for the day. One drastically different thing from the zoo is that the only animals I'm dealing with are dolphins and so therefore the only diets I have to know are fish diets! All of the dolphins eat the same fish, herring and capelin, and the only real difference is the amount they each get. They also get fed 5-6 times a day rather than once or twice which means there are a lot more dishes to do and a lot more food preparation to take care of. In the morning, the main thing to do is sort through the fish and pick out the bad ones that aren't up to the quality to give to the dolphins. The dolphins only get the highest quality fish, and there are three different checkpoints the aquarium goes through to ensure that the fish being fed to them are only the best. The first checkpoint is in the sorting in the morning. Basically, we are dethawing the fish and sorting them into buckets and weighing out the buckets so that we can have all the diets prepared for the day. There are 8 dolphins in the aquarium and at least 5 buckets per day, so we were weighing over 40 buckets of food for the dolphins! It was definitely gross at times sorting the fish, especially when one would break in half and I would just be staring at fish guts or a fish head. Definitely not something I would recommend for those with weak stomachs!

After sorting all of the fish and putting them into buckets, it was time to prepare the first two buckets of the day. This means dethawing the fish again since they are still semi frozen and rechecking to make sure only the best fish are going into the buckets. This is the second checkpoint. The third occurs right as the keepers are giving the fish to the dolphins. If something doesn't look right, they don't feed the fish to that dolphin and replace it with another instead. After getting all of the buckets ready, the final step in the fish prep morning routine is to clean and scrub the kitchen. Anything that the fish may have touched gets rinsed, scrubbed with soap, rinsed again, disinfected, and rinsed one more time before it can be considered clean. The morning was definitely a lot of hard work, but I actually didn't mind getting up early because there was so much work to do that it went by quickly.

For the rest of the day, I was told to keep track of dirty buckets and toys, so I spent most of my afternoon picking up toys and cleaning them and cleaning all of the dirty buckets. It wasn't the most interesting day ever, but it was only my second day, so I know I still have a lot more to learn and do before I can move on to more advanced tasks.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the week and what it has to offer! I'll keep you all posted!

Marine Mammal Training Intern - Baltimore Aquarium

Well, you can clearly see I'm not in Greenville anymore! I'm actually now in Baltimore, Maryland, where I will be living for the next three weeks as I intern at the National Aquarium with the marine mammal training department. Today I had my first day on the job, and it was a little overwhelming! Since I have previous experience working with animals, I kind of forgot what it is like to start over at a completely new place with new people and animals, so there was a lot of information thrown at me today and I was trying to keep track of everyone's names (trainers and dolphins!) and what exactly is expected of me on the job.

When I arrived this morning, I was met by my mentor, Kimmy, who is one of the dolphin trainers at the aquarium. We spent most of the morning going over basics: she gave me my uniform, taught me how to clock in and out, went over safety instructions, introduced me to the dolphins, and went over basic protocols. Before I knew it, it was lunch time, and then it was back to work for me! I learned how to clean buckets and toys in the afternoon. The National Aquarium has really strict cleaning protocols for everything; it has to be rinsed, scrubbed with dish soap, rinsed again, soaked in a disinfecting chemical, left alone for 5 minutes, rinsed again, and then hung to dry. This applies to food buckets, toys, the entire kitchen, the floor, the deck by the tank, basically anything that may come in contact with the dolphins or any of their food. I appreciate the strict standards the aquarium upholds, but I was definitely overwhelmed by all  of the information at first.

I also had a lot of reading to do today. I read information about the founding of the aquarium, information about the keepers and dolphins, and then basic aquarium protocol like uniform and jewelry policies and all that fun stuff. It definitely wasn't the most interesting read, but I survived and have a lot of new information now!

The coolest thing I got to do during the day was rub one of the dolphin's backs during a training session! I'm looking forward to some more dolphin interaction as the days pass by, and I'm really hoping to learn a lot from this internship and enjoy my three weeks with the aquarium!

Last Day... For Now

So today was my last day at the zoo... for now. Luckily, pending the results of a negative TB test this summer, I will be able to return back to the zoo as an animal department intern in August when I return to Clemson to start my senior year! I'm so happy I will be able to return and see all of the animals and keepers again and continue to learn and grow as an intern in the department.

For my last day, I did something really new and worked farmyard/kitchen. I had briefly worked farmyard before, but I have never been in the kitchen so it was something completely new to me. Farmyard has 3 goats, 1 pig, a bunch of chickens and ducks, and a great-horned owl. I got to help with the morning cleaning of the pens and barns and then I went by myself to feed the chickens and ducks. I even managed to get a huge bruise on my leg from hopping the fence, but I'm just choosing to call it my battle bruise. (:

In the kitchen, I helped Greg to prepare the diets. We prepare the afternoon diets and the following morning's diets so that the animals have food for the night and the next morning. I mainly helped with primate diets, so that meant preparing the food for the spider monkeys, lemurs, guenons, colobus monkeys, orangutans, and siamings. After chopping, measuring, weighing, and combining all of that food, I moved on to the carnivore diets and got the meat ready for the lions, leopards, owl, vultures, and ocelots. I was really getting my hands dirty as I was elbow-deep in that horse meat... but it was definitely worth it to make sure the animals were getting well-fed.

I really actually liked being in the kitchen. At first I was a little disappointed because it meant I wouldn't get much animal contact on my last day, but I ended up really enjoying it. We were busy the entire morning and we got to have some good conversations and I learned a lot about animal diets!

I'm really looking forward to a great summer and to returning to the Greenville Zoo in August. For now, I'm headed home for a week. Starting May 12th, I'll be down in Baltimore as the official new marine mammal training intern at the National Aquarium! I'm really excited to learn about the other side of animal care (the aquarium side) and to be able to work with the dolphins and their trainers at the aquarium. I'll be posting about my days on here, so be sure to stay tuned for more exciting "tails!"

Asia, for a Change

This week at the Zoo I switched things up and worked with Greg in Asia. Since I haven't been in Asia in a while, I was excited to be back there and work with the hornbills, red pandas, squirrels, siamings, leopards, and orangutans!

There was some big news that has happened since I last was at the zoo, and that is the fact that Oscar and Ella, the siaming gibbons have welcomed a baby siaming into the zoo family! It's still too early to tell whether it is a boy or a girl, but the baby seems to be healthy and I was lucky enough to get a glimpse! He/she was hanging onto Ella's stomach and looked up at Greg and I as we fed the siamings. This is the first birth I have experienced since working at the zoo, and it was so exciting to share in such wonderful news with the zoo family and Greenville community. I'm excited to see the baby grow and learn what his/her name will be and what role they will play in the family dynamic of the siamings.

For the rest of the day in Asia, we cleaned and fed all of the animals. It wasn't too busy of a day, so Greg and I did a lot of talking about animals, conservation, and travel. I recently just got back from a Spring Break trip in India studying biodiversity and conservation, so I shared with him and the other keepers a lot of details of my trip and even showed them the picture of the wild tiger I saw!

All in all it was a pretty good day at the zoo. I had a lot of great conversations, got to meet a new baby, and obviously worked hard and enjoyed myself. I only have a few weeks left until the end of the semester, so I'm hoping to make the most of them and enjoy the time I have left working at the Greenville Zoo. See you next time for more "tails!"

Visitors to the Zoo!

Today was probably one of the highlights of my time at the zoo. I finally got to show my family and friends what it is I do at the zoo and tell them all about the animals that I love to work with.

I started working in Africa in the morning with Ben. We had a normal morning where I cleaned the giraffe barn, helped with training, checked on tortoises, you know, all that fun usual stuff. However, once it hit lunchtime, the day was far from ordinary!

I met my mom and my three friends, Allie, Alli, and Kaitlyn, at the zoo entrance around 12:00. I then gave them a tour of the zoo and told them about all of the animals! I showed them primate row and pointed out my favorites (the spider monkeys) and then we walked through Africa and said hello to Chuma and Saied, watched Kiko drink Kesi's pee (ew), and saw Bubba being his typical tortoise self. We then went up through Asia and saw the siamings and the red pandas as well as Jade and Clover, the leopards. At 1:00, Ben said that we could meet him in the keeper room and we could have a giraffe feeding session!

I loved being able to have my friends and my mom get to spend some quality time with the giraffes. They are the animals I get to spend the most time with and work with the most, and I'm so happy that others could see how truly awesome they are. My friends and mom all said that it was one of the coolest things they've done in their lives. Hodari was being extra obnoxious and trying to steal all the food, and Kesi and Kiko spent a lot of time trying to win over our attention. I took a lot of pictures of my friends and mom feeding the giraffes, and Ben even took some time to talk to us about giraffes and conservation issues in general. We spent over an hour up with the giraffes, and it was so much fun!

After our giraffe feeding, we did a quick walkthrough of the rest of the zoo and I showed them South America, including the lagoon, and the Farmyard. I left with them around 2:30 because I had to drive my friends back to the airport since they were visiting from other states.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to share what I love with some people that I love. I know that the keepers trust me and like me, which is why they have given me so many incredible opportunities. I can't wait to see what the next few weeks have in store at the Greenville Zoo!

A New Kind of Africa

I was a little nervous about returning to the zoo this morning. I hadn't been to work in two weeks since I was out of town the past two weekends, so it had been a while since I had been to the zoo. A lot has changed in those two weeks - Jackie, the keeper who I usually work with in Africa left for a new job and the zoo was closed for 10 days to do renovations and routine maintenance. This new maintenance impacted Africa in that there were shade structures and new wiring built in the giraffe paddock.

Ben has replaced Jackie as the weekend keeper in Africa. I've worked with Ben several times before, and I really enjoy not only working with him, but also talking to him about zoos, conservation, and a variety of other subjects. He's very well informed on a variety of topics, so we always seem to have great, intellectual conversations. He also always has answers to my questions, and if he doesn't know, he looks it up for me!

We finished all of our cleaning in the morning, so in the afternoon we had some free time. We hung out with the giraffes, did a Kiko feeding session with some other staff, went down and looked at the trees that fell over the lagoon during the storm this week, and talked about his career and my future career. I also got to help with Kiko training again, which is always a treat! It was a great day, I had lots of animal interaction, lots of interesting conversation, and the weather was finally nice! The zoo environment is a constantly changing one, and I am excited to see where these new changes take me on my journey as the animal department intern!

Running Around the Zoo

This week at the zoo was by far the busiest day I've experienced. I was exhausted by the end of the day, not only from running all around, but also from doing a lot of hard, manual labor! We were down two zookeepers this Sunday, which meant that everyone else had to step in and take care of certain areas that they usually do not have to. They were eager for my help this week as I helped to open Africa, Farmyard, and Asia!

Opening Africa and Asia was the same as usual, I took care of the tortoise enclosure, the giraffe yard, the lion's den, the orangutan enclosure, the red panda enclosure, and the hornbill den. However, a new experience I had this morning was that I got to experience the Farmyard area of the zoo. In the Farmyard, there are chickens, ducks, a pig, and goats. We went down in the morning and cleaned the yards, fed all the animals, and made sure they were ready for the day. This was a lot of fun, because it was a new area of zoo and because I got to pet and feed the animals! I also was able to experience a veterinary procedure in the morning with Owlice, the great horned owl at the zoo. She has a problem with her eye, so I watched the keepers catch her up and the vet tech give her drops in her eye to try to fix her problem. This was really interesting, and it was the first time I was able to witness something like this!

After lunch, I went to South America to work on the aviary. We are building a new exhibit for the South American birds, but this is taking a lot of time and hard work. First, we transplanted plants and replanted them inside the exhibit. Then, we mulched the floor and cut fencing to patch some fence areas. I was exhausted by the end of this, especially because this was definitely the most manual labor I've done since interning at the zoo! However, this was a great experience and it's really cool that I will be able to say that I helped get the aviary read for all of the animals!

Finally, it was the end of the day and it was time to close Africa and feed all of the animals before we went home. I fed all the giraffes, helped bring the lions in, and then packed up to go home. This was the last time I would work with or see Jackie before she moves to her new job, so I made sure to say goodbye to her. I was really sad to see her leave and say goodbye, but I'm very excited for the opportunities that she will have at the Phoenix Zoo. I gave her a card and gift card to show my thanks to her, because she has taught me so much about the zookeeping field and also let me have a lot of fun, and for that, I am so thankful!

So, there you have it. My crazy, exciting, sad day at the zoo. As I've said before, the world of zookeeping is an ever changing place and there's always something new, exciting, or crazy going on, which is why I think I am so intrigued by the field. I'll be taking a 2 week break from the zoo as my best friend is coming next weekend and I'm visiting my family the following weekend, but I'll be back with more stories to share with you in a few weeks! Until then, stay wild (:

Africa, Animals, & Action

Once again this weekend I worked in Africa with the lions, giraffes, and tortoises. I won't bore you anymore with the details of the cleaning I do each week, but trust me, there was a lot of it! I found out some sad news today, Jackie, the keeper in Africa that I usually work with, got a new job in Phoenix and will be leaving Greenville in a few weeks. I was obviously pretty bummed when she told me the news, but I'm also really excited for the opportunities that Arizona will bring her!

We did some fun things today while working in Africa. We put some paint on Bubba's (the tortoise) foot and made a footprint on a canvas for Jackie to keep as a souvenir. We also met with a family for a private giraffe feeding, and afterwards Jackie took some more pictures of me feeding the giraffes! This was a blast, as it always is, and the picture of me feeding Walter is even the new background on my phone! There was also some orangutan fun in the mix when we had Chelsea help us paint a canvas. It was an action packed day between the cleaning, preparing diets, and working on the special projects, but it made the time pass quickly and the day way more fun.

I'll keep you updated on the changes going on throughout the zoo as there is a keeper transition and some animals come and go. One thing I've learned by interning at the Greenville Zoo is that the zoo world is an ever-changing place. People and animals are constantly coming and going and there's not much that stays constant for too long. It makes for an exciting job, but it also makes for some tough goodbyes. I'm glad that I am getting this experience and learning these types of lessons, because it is helping me prepare for a career in the field.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to let me know in the comments section below. Until next time, stay wild!

Returning to the Zoo

After a nice, relaxing Winter Break at home in Pennsylvania with my family, I returned back to the Zoo on a chilly Sunday morning to see all the animals and zookeepers again. I was very happy to be back and even more excited to get back to working with the animals again. It was really nice to say hello to everyone and see how excited all the keepers were to have me back interning with them again!

I worked in Africa once again this week, and got to spend time with my favorite lions, giraffes, tortoises, and vultures. It was a pretty slow day since it was so cold, so we spent a lot of the morning waiting until it was warm enough to let the animals outside for the day. I did the typical cleaning in Africa, got to watch Kiko's training session, and gave the giraffes snacks in the middle of the day.

During lunch, one of the keepers called me "one of the best interns" which I loved to hear. I really enjoy going to the zoo and working with the keepers and animals and I'm glad to know that the feeling is reciprocated. I also got a great letter of recommendation from Keith, the General Curator of the zoo, so that I can use it for internships this summer. Working at the zoo has been one of the best experiences I have had during college, and I am looking forward to a spring semester filled with lots of fun "tails" to share with all of you!