Baboons and Mandrills

First part of the day was spent cleaning up the baboon/mandril night houses and exibits. I learned some valuable tidbits about the hamadryas baboons from Debbie that I actually remembered. I learned how to positively tell the girls apart. I will note it here so that I can always use it as a reference:

Gertie - stalkiest of the three females
Grady - really red face, especially around her eyes
Sky - long, slender face/nose

It's harder to tell them apart on exhibit, the keepers even admit they still have a little trouble with this. But now at least when they are stationed in their night houses I can tell them apart.

I did get to visit lemur island which was great as always. I did something a little different with the food this time though, the three males are a little underweight so they're biscuits are carefully measured out and need to be hand fed to make sure each animal gets his alotted diet. It was quite the task to get each one isolated enough from the dominant females in order to get them their portions. It took a bit of clever maneuvering but I think Comet, Mantabi and Maswalla all got enough biscuits! They are such sweethearts.

Back at the Zoo!

I got to work on the Uco string again, this time with Lelanie. It's so good to be back, I really missed everyone -- maybe next weekend I'll get to hang out with my Lemurs again :-) Last weekend was great though, Will and Rio (Spectacled Bears) were cute as ever, Rio graciously accepted carrots from me before she was let out on exhibit. Vashti and Misto were really comfortable with us, I met the new Agouti and took care of the Coyotes and Coatis. It was a beautiful day. :-)

Volunteer Keeper Week 25

Today I worked with Amy on the Uco String. The Spectacled Bears (Will and Rio) are getting more fruit in their diet now, and they loved their oranges today. They won't eat lettuce or celery at all but for some reason, comessary still includes it in their diets. In the morning I mixed Will's glucosamine tablets with some grape jelly and let him lick the spoon -- he seemed to especially enjoy this. Rio wouldn't go out on exhibit, instead she insisted on making a nest for herself using palm tree frawns and burlap -- quite an interesting behavior to witness. We thought that she may be going into estrus, explaining her sudden, intense nesting behavior. I also learned today that the male bear is only "effective" certain times of the year, this being one of them.

The new baby otter - Mckenna - swam in little circles around her tub chasing her toy -- the most adorable thing I've seen in a long time. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera with me.

Volunteer Keeper Week 24

I was assigned to work with Amber today on the Uco String. It was cold and rainy which made for some rough golf cart rides around Zoo grounds, but the experience was well worth it. Preparing diets for Spectacled Bears, cleaning the Cheetah nighthouse -- I'm really getting a feel for all the aspects involved in being a keeper.

---

Cheetahs → Juma & Ratel

The Phoenix Zoo housees two Cheetas, Juma and Ratel. The two are brothers and have been raised from cubs by humans. Although fierce predators in the wild, these Cheetahs are very comfortable with people and will even allow us to go into their exhibit (territory) and to be within very close proximity to them. From what I understand, Cheetas are not considered to be a part of the "big cat" family since they don't roar.

---

White Faced Saki Monkeys → Misto and Vashti

Below are Misto and Vashti, male and female (respectively) White Faced Saki Monkeys. We hand feed them today. We decided to let them dig through the pan themselves after a bit, to pick out what they liked best - turns out it was peanuts. Who knew?

---

Coatis → Jake and Lewis

The Coatimundi (most people shorten this to Coati) is a mammal related to the raccoon, in the family Procyonidae. The Coati is a widespread species, living in habitats ranging from hot and arid areas to humid rainforests.

Coati's have been scientifically described as 5 different species:

1. South American Coati (Nasua nasua)
2. Brown- or White-Nosed Coati (Nasua narica) - Jake & Lewis
3. Nelson's Coati (Nasua nelsoni)

4. Wedel's Coati (Nasua wedeli)

5. Mountain or Andean Coati (Nasuella olivacea)

Our little Coatis, Jake and Lewis, are complete sweethearts.

Below is Jake, being cute, and Lewis, peeking through the gate to watch me clean his bowl. We had just finished setting up thier exhibit, which today, included a bowl of water with antiseptic mouthwash in it for behavioral enrichment. Apparently they love this, because they rubbed it all over themselves.

---

Volunteer Keeper Week 23

Here is Bandit, the Ringtail (cat) who lives all by his lonesome in the Hamadryas night house. They are actually nocturnal, solitary animals in the wild so Bandit is quite content with his situation.


Catta -- so pretty up in the tree.

Below is Pia, you can really see her identifying pink ear tag here, as well as one of her grooming teeth. She's licking bannana off her hands --- aaw.

AAZK

Last weekend I was at the zoo, but we had the American Zookeeper Association fund raiser so I helped out with that. Silent auction, live auction, raffle, you know all that stuff. It was really fun being a part of AAZK though and we earned almost $13,000!!

Volunteer Keeeper Week 21 & 22

Week 22 - worked with Denise on Orangutan string. Snuck away for a moment and one of the elephant keepers invited me to feed Reba some peanuts. That was really cool.

Reba
Photo courtesy Phx Zoo

Week 21

Sad day. Found out Gladys, one of the Hamadryas girls, has an in-operable form of throat cancer. She'll be put down tomorrow, just a couple of weeks before her 30th birthday. :-( We put extra Behavioral Enrichment in their night house just for her, since it will be her last night there. *so sad right now* I'm in total agreement with Denise when she says, "I'm tired of watching animals die". It is an extremely depressing part of this job.

Didn't get to see my RedRuffs today, but did spend a little time at Stingray after all the work was done. Met up with Mike there, hung out for a bit, then had a really nice dinner at Philly's. Even when everything else in my life seems hopeless, I can always rely on Zoo Sundays to remind me of what it's really all about - and that it's really not all that bad.

Stingray Bay