Keeper Assistant: Week 6

I so love being at the Zoo on Sundays...its the only part of the week that I actually look forward to. When I come home on Sunday nights, even though I am physically exhausted, I just can't seem to leave it behind. Thinking about Kima and Hasani (my favorite otters), the lovely lemurs, and even those icky baboons and mandrills - just keeps life interesting and exciting. Sort of makes me think that I should be leaning towards a possible career shift soon. Or at least incorporate the zoo into my current career somehow. I'm definitely moving in that direction, which was in fact the plan all along. I guess time has just gone by so fast...its hard to believe I've already been volunteering there for almost 8 months! LIfe changes fast and with what I'm trying to accomplish, I need to be sure to keep evolving with the changes.

As for the work day, it was another one on the baboon string with Lelanie (I think she has adopted me for Sundays...which I am totally okay with).

For starters, Saturday had been "winter in July" for the Phx Zoo. This is the annual event that brings actual snow (mainly in the form of behavioral enrichment for the animals) to the zoo. They haul huge ice chunks in trucks and in the wee hours of the moring, put them in some sort of chipper thing which then blows snow out for the animals! By the time I arrived at the Baboon exhibit on Sunday morning, there were still patches of snow on the ground! A very odd sight in the middle of summer in Phoenix - but awesome nonetheless.

So, in the nighthouse when we first arrived, we gave Wucaria (our "older lady" female Mandrill), Spock and Pearl some morning treats of banannas and leafeater biscuits. Spock got very angry when I offered him a biscuit instead of a bananna. When he gets angry he hits the metal door very hard with his hand which makes a startlingly loud crash. Enough to wake me up, that's for sure. I ended up feeding Wucaria while Lelanie distracted Spock at the other end of the enclosure so that he wouldn't get mad when the girls got banannas and try to violoently take them away - it can be a tricky business.

Around 7:30am - after cleaning exhibits and preparing food:

NOTES:

Baboon/Mandrill Meds:
Old age/stiff joints > Ibuprofen
Toxoplasmosis > Fluconazole, Sulfadiazine
Valley Fever >

Above: Two of the Hamadryas girls: Gertie & Grady.

We also went out to Spider Monkey island with the 200lb scale (the thing is just really freakin heavy) to try and get weights on Debbie and Kelly. Only Debbie cooperated and got on the scale with a little coaxing. The keepers are in the process of station training but we didn't use a bridge (whistle or clicker) at all, just food and praise (the praise they couldn't really care less about).