Mission Complete

I have officially made it passed the required 180 hours for school credit. That being said, this will be my last blog entry concerning the Racine Zoo for it has been a mad house and I simply no longer have the time. Just as the last entry I will summarize the last couple of weeks that I have missed writing down for you.

I have now worked on every routine there is at the zoo, ending with the Routine 2 (Cats, Bears, Coati, and Fossa) and Routine 1 (Primates).

It was so crazy being that close to lions; only a strong, yet thin fence between us. I watched as Katie hand fed Skins, the adult male, his 17 lbs. of meat. It was super duper exciting to even be there. I found that they like to hand feed as much of the diet as possible to the cats and bears, this provides a small relationship between trainer and animal, but no where near strong enough to even think about going in with them.

The two andrean bears are little goof balls. The male Diamond loves to play with female Haylie, but Haylie absolutely hates him. We put out little globs of honey on the trees for some enrichment for them. Andrean bears are very arboreal and it was quite a site to see them laying in the trees.

In all honesty, I was a little freaked out when it was time to move on to primates. They are such smart animals so I was way more cautious around them compared to any other routine, the spider monkeys especially. When your working with the primates you have to be extra careful that you don't bring any illnesses or harmful bacteria with you into the exhibits, or bring them out. On this routine it is required that you were latex gloves, and a face mask, both are neccessary and both contribute to the sweltering heat....seriously, I thought I was going to drown in that mask XD

I will still continue to be an intern at the zoo up until the end of August when it's time for me to drive back up to Unity. See you all there, and enjoy the rest of your summer!

Because I'm a slacker: Weeks 5 and 6

So, I just realized that I never did an entry for the week of June 13-19 so I will combine that week with the current week of June 19-26.

Last week I got to work with the Giraffes, Bo and Mac. When doing this routine I am also obligated to participate in the three giraffe encounters that the zoo sets up. This is a chance for the public to come out and feed the giraffes at 11, 1, and 3, everyday (needless to say bo and mac eat a lot of crackers) I also got to participate in a training session! This was very cool, especially after having taken an animal training course at Unity College. They, like my class, use the method of operant conditioning, which is always a positive experience for both trainer and animal. Whenever Lisa would use her clicker I would give Bo a reward (carrots!). We were training him to walk into a shoot that is to be used for medical purposes. He walks through it just fine when both ends are open, but when one is closed he won't go in there. He has already worked on target training, putting his face up to a tennis ball on a stick, but Lisa wants him to now touch his chest to the ball and guide him this way, that way instead of just stretching his head into the shoot, he will walk in.

Holy thunderstorms/tornadoes! All week, tornado warning after tornado warning, thunderstorm after thunderstorm, RAIN RAIN RAIN!!! It has been crazy weather I tell you!

This week I got to shadow the vet, Steve. While shadowing him I observed some orangutan training (open mouth, target hands, expose shoulder, toes, etc.), bat checkups, and he also drew blood from one of the alpacas. It was Steve's birthday earlier in the week and I guess everyone wore fake mustaches; there were some left over so I took the liberty of wearing one the rest of the day since I was going to be working with him.

This week I had to fill out two incident sheets. It's true, my clutsiness has finally shown itself to my coworkers. First I cut my finger while chopping sweet potatoes, and then the very next day (today in fact!) I got kicked by an alpaca. I know it was out of spite, those alpacas are in for revenge! I had to catch said alpaca and hold him still while Angie administered some medication. Mr. Alpaca didn't like this. When it was over I turned around to walk away, and he kicked me right in the leg! jerk face.

Week 4: Rhinos are just like puppies...

With huge horns that can puncture your face.

- Kianga

This week I was on routine 4r; it consisted of the rhinos, zebras, and storks. Because these animals are housed in the large barn on the far end of the zoo, we were able to be lazy and ride in the cart whenever we needed to go elsewhere, 'cause we're cool like that. The mornings started out in the yard raking and shoveling, and then moved indoors where we continued to rake and shovel, but most importantly disinfect. That's right, we once again find ourselves scrubbing. However I did get quite a break on dish duty, I was barely in the main building, and cleaning up after rhinos is a time consuming task.

We also had a bit of giraffe drama. The Giraffes, Bo and Mac, are housed in the same building but are on a different routine; however the keeper ran into a bit of a problem with Mr. Bo. They had just put in mulch on the ground outside to fill in a worn down path, and Bo wasn't too sure about the strange new stuff on the ground. After trying to coax him out with wheat crisps and sweet potatoes we decided just to leave him be; when he was hungry or thirsty enough he would walk out there on his own...and he did, it only took the majority of the day to do so.

The coolest thing to happen this week was being able to feed the Rhinos their supplemented bread. In order to feed them you have to stick your whole hand in their mouths! then they use their top lip to grab it and shove it farther into their mouths so they can chew it. They are very strong; it was an amazing experience.

We just got a new zebra to accompany the older zebra T.J. The Zebras and Rhinos share an exhibit, but they can't be out at the same time due to a lack of space and the fact that the rhinos are black rhinos, meaning they tend to be a bit more aggressive than white rhinos. There are two black rhinos: Timu the female (who is currently in estrus) and Kianga the male.

During lunch we also took the zoo dog Sheila for walks, it was nice to have a relaxing walk instead of the usual fast paced rush from destination to destination, plus we got to see Sheila have fun chasing all the geese.

Next week I switch from 4r to 4g, the giraffe and Watusi :D

Week Three: The Undertaker's got nothing on me!

I did a combination of everything I've done so far this week: Routine 3, the aviary, and Routine 5, all crammed into two days. When doing the aviary, one is also in charge of the farm a.k.a the petting zoo animals (goats, sheep, and a zebu). It was a quiet Thursday afternoon, well as quiet as 13 school groups can be, when I was sent upon a task like none other before! Giving the farm animals their dewormer. It was myself and another intern Kate that marched into battle, with nothing but 24 syringes and our trusty rubber boots. It was muddy, it was exciting, we both got pooped on, and it was so worth it. It was probably one of the most fun things I have done yet; chasing sheep just may become a new hobby...or not ;) But really who needs a herding dog when you've got two enthusiastic interns to do the work?!

When that was all over it was back to selling seed sticks, this time I was sheltered from the fiery death of the sun under a bamboo hut, and had fellow intern Shane for company, that is until I was snatched away by Sandy to assist her with Routine 3.

The next day I was back on routine 5 with Angie, and my favorite penguins. It was also hay delivery day! which meant unloading and stacking many many MANY bails of hay into the barn. We finished a tad early so I had some special arts and crafts time in which I used to make more seed sticks!

Next week it's on to the Rhinos! Routine 4R

The sun....it BURNS!

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 :)

Week One: Success!

Let me break down how things are going to work for the next 13 weeks of my life.

Each animal is assigned a "Routine" number. Each number is assigned two to three keepers, the primary keeper, and the secondary keepers. When I go in I'm assigned to one of these routines and work along side which ever keeper is working the routine that day.

This week I worked with Angie and Sandy, the secondary keepers of Routine 5. This routine consists of the penguins, meerkats, pelicans, kangaroos, walaroos, emu, tur, swans, and egrets. My shifts were from 7 to 3:30, which meant leaving my house by 5:30 so I could get there on time! In the mornings I would collect the food out of the fridge that the night keepers had already prepared, and prepare the sinks for the rest of the day. The first day Angie went over all the cleaning and feeding procedures, and we worked together to scrub, hose, shovel, and scrub some more!

The first stop is the penguin and meerkat exhibit; they share the same holding area building so it's easy to multi-task in there. The first thing we do is go out on exhibit while the animals are still inside. In the penguin area we hose all the rocks off really well, and scrub them with water and disinfectant. We then go out to the meerkat side and test the hot wire, shovel any scat, and pick up any debris that could have fallen in there over night. We then go back in and let the animals out onto exhibit. When they're outside we clean their indoor holding areas. While Angie did the penguins, I worked on the meerkats. There was more hosing and scrubbing, and some squeegee-ing too. Once this is done we go out and feed the penguins. The first two days I only took note of how many fish each penguin ate, but on Saturday Sandy let me feed a couple of them, which was really super awesome. The penguin named Brown, is my favorite, she ate the most haha. Penguins Yellow and White laid an egg, which is very out of season for them and quite a surprise for us! They however, are terrible parents, so we had to switch out the egg for a dud while the actual egg was put in an incubator.

We went from exhibit to exhibit all day,feeding, shoveling and scrubbing, hosing and scrubbing, scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing!!!! Not only were there exhibits to be scrubbed, but there were also dishes....

This is the super awesome amazing fantastic faucet. I named it Sam after Sam from Lord of the Rings. Sam is always there for Frodo, helping him along in his journey, and I feel my Sam is a great help in the land of dish washing. Seriously, it is a talented sprayer; I've never rinsed, scrubbed, and rinsed again so many dishes in such little time. Sam is my hero.

After day one I was entrusted to clean the aviary, kangaroo, meerkat, tur, and egret exhibit on my own so we could get all the work done faster.

The indoor aviary is really neat...and DIRTY! Those birds are terribly messy, I clean it and then the next thing you know there's seed all over the floor again. It's really hot in the room; it's always a relief when the birds fly around and give you a nice breeze as you're sweeping and SCRUBBING away :) Once it gets warmer out, the birds will be transported to the outdoor aviary. This should be sometime soon, considering it was almost 90 degrees today (Holy Bajesus!).

I continue my scrubbing adventures next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. This time my shifts arn't quite as early, but I feel like I'll be just as exhausted by the end of the day as I was these first three. It's been an adventure that's for sure, and I've enjoyed every second of it....even if it involves more scrubbing than I ever thought possible :D

So, let's get started!

It's almost time! For the next three months I'll be interning at the Racine Zoological Gardens located in Racine Wisconsin. This will be a whole new experience for me and I'm very excited, a weeee bit nervous, but mostly excited! Coming from a backround of very, Very, VERY little experince and having owned no pets (well, except my fish Dale, may his soul rest in peace), this is all going to be very new. But it will be awesome!

Well, I have orientation this coming up Sunday and once this whole thing kicks off I'll keep ya'll posted :)

Until then.