Volunteer Keeper Week 5

Above: Red Ruffed Lemur (Varencia variegata rubra)

Today was my first time on the island and I absolutely fell in love with the Red Ruffed Lemurs :-)

There are six Red Ruffed Lemurs in our living collection; 3 females and 3 males. The only names that I can recall at the moment are Oncavia (a female) and Comet (male). I never realized how insanely cute these animals were until I saw them up-close and personal! They would take small pieces of fruit from my hand as gently as a kitten...and then they'd close their eyes with what seemed like incredible contentment as they chewed. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. I definitely made an inter-species connection with those little guys - they are my new favorites (when the stingrays are gone for the summer of course...). I've been reading up on the Lemurs also, and will include some very interesting facts in here shortly.

Above: Hamadryas Baboon (Papio hamadryas) "Kenny"
Born: 1983 (captive born)
(photo credit:flickr.com - guppiecat)

Above: Mandrill Baboon (Papio sphynx) "Spock"
Born: 1993 at PhxZoo
(photo credit: :flickr.com - guppiecat)

The two (un-becoming in my opinion) primates pictured above are Kenny, our dominant male Hamadryas Baboon, and Spock - the dominant male of the Mandrills. There are 5 Hamadryas total; 4 females (Gladys, Grady, Gertrie and Sky) and our beloved Kenny. On this particular Sunday, Kenny was having a bit of stomach trouble. Apparently vomiting in the cheek pouches and then eating it back up is a normal occurance for these creatures. Kenny's projectile variety vomit that Lelani and I were subjected to at close range however - not so common. We probably shouldn't have fed them marshmallows for morning goodies - oh well, live and learn. Even though I have never taken a particular liking to these animals, its amazing how close one can feel to any animal after being such a contributing part of his life. Seeing such a big, often ferocious animal such as Kenny barf right there while we're trying to medicate him, and seeing that sad look on his face as he looked to us to "do something" really affected me for some reason. Working at the zoo is a very eye-opening experience in so many ways - every Sunday its something new.

Another interesting (and completely un-related) incident that happened in the Baboon kitchen - we found a medium sized scorpion in the restroom/storage area behind the toilet. Denise (who trains and cares for the Orangutans...) is deathly affraid of creepy crawlies so Lelani decided to make the most of this situation. She proceeded to grab the scorpion across the middle with a pair of scissors, clenching them just enough as not to slice the thing completely in half. Mischeviously she decided to torment Denise who was outside on the cart, which I thought was hillarious. Watching the little monster squirm as its guts started to fall out seemed like a lot of fun for Lelani. Girlie screeches, eeeews and intermittent laughter could be heard as Lelani continued to mutilate the scorpion via scissor-stabbing in a puddle of its own guts out on the scorching pavement, I swear I could hear it sizzling. I guess an important lesson I'm learning here is that there is no place for squeamishness in the world of a zookeeper.

I will get to Spock and the other Mandrills later.

The otters were cute today, as always. I love working with these guys because they are one of the few aquatic, fish eating species we have at the PhxZoo - in fact Biko and Kima came to us from the San Diego Zoo! It just makes me feel that much closer the reality of working with dolphins ;-)

So for otter feeding time, we separate each one out into a separate stall so that Biko doesn't steal everyone's food, and to make sure everyone gets their alotted diets. In the a.m. this diet includes about 2 medium sized whole dead fish, and a good size ball of raw ground meat. We also float a bowl of kibble and carrots in the main stall that they have access to while they're on exhibit (floating the food in two bowls is just so that the ants can't get to it). The otters will usually take the meat easier than the fish but with a little coaxing, everyone eventually finished it all. We also made them "otter pops" which are just fish that have been frozen in water. As you can see from the photo below, they absolutely love them.


Above: Kima enjoying her otter pop! (photo credit: flickr.com - guppiecat)

Above: Black Handed Spider Monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) "Debbie"
Born: 1979 at PhxZoo
(photo credit:flickr.com - guppiecat)

This was also my first time at Spider Monkey island to visit Kelly and Debbie. Spider Monkeys are New World monkeys who (somewhat misleadingly) are actually more primitive than Old World monkeys. The New World monkeys consist of four families of primates which inhabit Central and South America.