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!"
