missing the marine life

...my one true escape from the desert, while in the desert.

Only a few more months until the rays come back. This year I have set a goal to work specifically (maybe exclusively) with them while Living Exhibits keeps them at the zoo. I'd still have to visit my lemurs though.

Long Day

Humid and hot but it was still a great day. I accomplished a lot and managed to capture some pretty decent photos and videos.

This one is of our baby orangutan, Kasih. She is 2 and a half years old and really starting turn in to quite the "little orangutan" - swinging around in her exhibit and all around being a rambuctious kid. Denise decided to do some interaction with the orangutans and the public via the bubble machine. It was great to watch Kasih's reactions.






















































No day at the zoo is ever complete without paying a visit to at least one species of lemur. Luckily today, I got to spend time with both ☺


The ringtails...

and of course, my favorites, the red-ruffs ☺

And here is Biko, big papa otter.

it's really hot outside

I got my annual review last week and for being relatively new to the zookeeping field, I'd say I did pretty good.

Posting late

I was at the zoo sunday, June 30th, didn't post until now.

I need to go back and add up all my volunteer hours so that in case someone (potential employer) wants to know how many hours I have logged I can give them an accurate answer.


I helped Denise with Orangutans last Sunday. Nothing major happened it was just hot as hell again. I briefly helped Heather clean baboon/mandrill night houses.

Life has pretty much sucked ass this week, I'm starting to not care. I mean, of course I still care about the important things ya know? But as for most things - who gives a shit.

Good Lord it was hot today.

Here are the animal updates, unfortunately I didn't bring my camera.

Red Ruffed Lemurs:
We fed their a.m. diet early - around 6:30am, before it got too hot. They enjoyed this and Comet ate his biscuits and banannas like a champ. He's back up to his target weight now.

Mandrils:
I hand fed Wucaria this morning and she ate all her greens and most of a bananna. Spock was pleasant enough over in the next stall, he refrained from beating his fist on the metal door while I fed Wucaria which was nice. We threw ice pops out for them at the 12:00 encounter - the guests always love that. Makes for some great photo opps.

Baboons:
We have two new Hamadryas girls in quaranteen that came from the St. Louis Zoo - they are mother and daughter, Bernice and Claribell. There is going to be a lot of preparation that goes into introducing the new girls to our Baboon family. We have to move Bandit the ringtail cat from the Baboon night house area over to the Mandril area to make room for the new girls. A whole lot of coordination and effort goes into such a move and introduction, much more than one might expect.

Otters:
Biko shifted into the night house perfectly today. We had to rake up all the dead leaves on the platform over the pond on exhibit, that area doesn't get maintained very often so it was a pretty big job. We filled 2 large trash bags with leaves and otter poop.

Other events and happenings:

After a long hard day of working in 114 heat, I get in to my 135 degree car, ready to go chill out and have an Alaskan Summer Ale with Mike - the damn car wouldn't start. Luckily there is an aawesome guy who works on all the carts at the zoo and has a shop about 20 yards from where I'm parked. I told him my situation and he was a complete life saver today. He pointed out the fact that my battery was totally corroded and dead and that all I needed to do was find a way to get to Napa and buy a new one. I brought the new battery back to the Zoo and he installed it for me - I am SO bringing him a six pack of coors light next weekend. So all in all it was an insanely exhausting day. I came home, took a three hour nap and I think I'm better now.

I don't suppose they have these types of days in San Diego.

What's the big deal with lemurs?

Those of you who read my blog every so often (all three of you) might wonder, "why is she so into those lemur animals? What's the big deal about lemurs?" Well, I thought I might take a little time here to explain why they are such amazing and important animals (besides the fact that they are adorable and sweet).

• Lemurs in the wild are found nowhere else on the planet except in Madagascar, one of the
most important conservation hotspots on Earth.

• Lemurs are the last living link to ancient primates that have a common link to the primate
lineage that evolved into humans.

• Lemurs are the most endagered of all the living primates, due entirely to human development
and deforestation (habitat loss) of Madagascar.

• Lemurs are closely related to bushbabies, lorises, and pottos and look something like a cat,
being nocturnal, insectivorous and characterized by a small body, long nose and large eyes.

• Lemurs have an interesting evolutionary history and the only reason they still exist today is
because of Madagascar's isolation from the African continent (which took place around 160
million years ago).

Memorial Day Weekend

Zoo attendance was higher than last year at this time because of this nice cool weather we've been having for the last couple of days. It really was a beautiful day to be outside.

This morning started out on the Baboon string with Debbie - otters all came in and shifted really well, Spock was actually in a good mood (he didn't display any threatening behavior) and the lemurs were awesome. Comet still needs to gain a couple of pounds so we really tried to get him to eat all of his buiscuits (understandably, they prefer bananas and other fruit to these "grainy" biscuits which are very high in nutrients and calories). This means feeding them by hand out on the island which is a lot of fun - I could hear the people across the lake at the picnic tables "ooooh"ing and "aw"ing and going, "look honey, she's feeding them!" It's actually quite funny. The girl lemurs were being especially obnoxious for some reason today, making it really difficult to hand feed the boys. They would chase them off and then look at me like, well, aren't you going to give me any? Brats. Even still, I just enjoy the hell out of these little animals so much - they are so amazing. I figure I've got enough pics of them on here though, so I didn't bring my camera along today. I did learn each Lemur's aquisition number however, which is good information to have (if you're into that sort of thing...).

Red Ruffed Lemur Info:

10566: Comet (red) father
10567: Moswalla (green)
10568: Mantabi (blue)
10569: Ankavia (yellow)
10570: Pia (pink) mother
10571: Catta (no tag)


When we got back from lunch, I ended up helping Amy on the Uco string, which now includes the two Fennec Foxes, Kotto and Mpoko - two girls that just recently came to the Phoenix Zoo. I actually discovered a tunnel that they made by stepping in it to mine and Amy's amusement as I was cleaning the windows of the exhibit. The public got a kick out of it too - they were at eye level with my feet. I had a shoe full of dirt and we found out that those Fennec Foxes are crafty little girls, trying to dig their way out of the exhibit. They are really adorable too: