Week two has come to a close. This week I was stationed on Routine 3 and the aviary. I was once again working with Sandy, my fellow Illinoisian, who instructed me to give stickers to only the cute and nice children; needless to say, I left work with a pocket full of stickers...monsters I tell you! Making me re-wash windows like a mad woman! Routine 3 involved the education and discovery center animals: the chinchilla, turtles, salamanders, fruit bats, skunk, aquarium, more turtles, screech owl, and an animal I never even knew existed, the springhaas: a large rabbit like looking animal with a long tail; I would describe it as a rabbit kangaroo-ish animal. Because Sandy is one of the primary keepers for the Tur, we also went out on the mountain and took care of them.
This week involved very little scrubbage compared to last week, and I was only sent to do dish duty once or twice.
Each year the zoo takes in a number of turtle hatchlings, raises them for 6 months, and then releases them back into the wild. One of my responsibilities this week was to weigh each of them and record the data. There are 24 of them all together that can be identified by nail polish spots placed on their backs. It was a slow task identifying them by looking through sheets of paper to find which picture matched each turtle I had at hand, but I felt very professional with my charts and data so it was definitely worth it.
Saturday was the first day the outdoor aviary was open to the public. It's a place where people can enter a giant cage filled with budgies, cockatiels, and rosella, and feed them if they wish. It was my job to try and sell seed sticks while keeping an eye on everyone and the area. To be honest it was one of my most boring, yet busiest days. I had an hour in the morning to feed and clean before everyone came, and when it was closing time I had a bagillion things to take care of! 11 hours in the sun resulted in what I like to call tomato face syndrome. I did get to meet Jay, the zoo president while standing there though, and we got to chat about the zoo's future plans which I thought was very cool.
My mom and Friend Bob also came to visit me that day! They were my saviors and brought me water before I shriveled up and died in the sun :)
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