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! 

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!