Day 12: Escape Artist

This morning I was excited to hear that we would be moving the giant tortoises outside, but then later found out that it would be postponed due to the weather. Since the building opens at 8am now we do not have to clean glass! A keeper comes in earlier in order to get everything ready to go for the day. The other intern and I went around and picked up salads bowls/trays and then went out to clean the giant tortoise exhibit. One tortoise was quite enjoying the neck rub it was getting so I knelt down to its level and it put its head close to me. It was cute! We almost had a tortoise get out on us when we tried to open the gate to leave. Thankfully we could get it back inside. Unfortunately, in its escape attempts, it bent a rake so far back that it broke in half! After break we finished sorting through wax worms to separate out the living from the dead ones. We also cleaned out the mice enclosures.

After lunch we worked on cleaning out the Spotted Turtle and McCord's Box Turtle tanks. Today the building got its weekly delivery of crickets so we then had to clean out the cricket tubs and add the new ones. After break we worked on dishes, checked to make sure all the animals had clean water, and did some miscellaneous housekeeping and organization tasks.

Day 11: Caught on Camera

I arrived at the herpetarium a little early and was sent to work right away to clean glass. With the new summer hours the building opens at 8 so we can't go out and start glass at that time anymore. I was able to get one whole side of the building done and a few other interns got the other side. Afterwards, I started pulling salads from the building (I also single-handedly picked up all the salads I had put out yesterday!). This took a while especially when I had to change some water bowls along the way. I then cleaned out/did a water change for some McCord's box turtles. By then it was time for break, followed by cleaning the giant tortoise exhibit with the other intern. Even though it is hard work to clean the giants exhibit, I don't think that I will get tired of it. I was thinking today of how much I am going to miss those tortoises when this internship is over. Thankfully I have a long time before I have to say bye to them! I then worked on cleaning some Spotted Turtle tanks until lunch. Over lunch I was looking at a book about sea turtles and the best places to see them. It had a section about Tortuguero, Costa Rica which made me happy because I went there for sea turtles! The book even mentioned the program that I went on to go there to work with turtles.

After lunch, I finished cleaning the turtle tanks and then went to clean the black worms. Once I finished up that I was taught how to further take care of the Giant Haitian Galliwasps. The zookeeper said he has never seen them actually drink out of their water bowls, but since they still need water and moisture, they wet the soil on one half of the enclosure. With half of the enclosure being wet and half being dry under the light it allows the animals to regulate their body temperature better. I also had to clean water bowls and remove any waste from the exhibit. While the task itself is not hard there are a lot of Galliwasps to take care of! I finished two of the racks and then went to go check on the time to find that I had worked 20 minutes past the normal start time of my break. Break today was fun because I got to see my parents and some family members that were in town. I gave them a personal tour of some of my favorite exhibits in the house. While talking about one enclosure and animal, I found that I had forgotten to pull a salad. So I quickly went behind the scenes to pull the salad and was then photographed working.

After break, I finished my work with the Galliwasps and then had to go take care of the rodent/cricket room. I found out that I am better able to handle working with crickets when I am wearing rubber gloves. I didn't have time for a full cleaning, but I did have time to clean out dead crickets and make sure they had enough cricket quencher and food. By the time I cleaned up that room, I was one of the last workers to leave the building.

Day 10: Salads!

This morning all of us interns were out in the house woking on cleaning the glass. We were almost done with the whole building when the custodian came in and told us that all the glass was cleaned already. No wonder the glass wasn't as finger printed as normal! After that confusion, it was time to start preparing salads for the day. I started off cutting up the bananas, sweet potatoes, etc. that would be fed to the giant tortoises and a few other turtles. After the vegetables and fruit was cut up I started making the various salads. This morning a few keepers took out eggs from the False Gharial exhibit. The eggs were unfertilized so they let us look at them. The shells of the eggs were amazingly hard, to the point where if you bumped two together it made a sort of clinking noise. During morning break we were talking about a tortoise tour that was coming in for the morning and realized we didn't have any large carrots. One zookeeper quickly put an order in for large carrots while the other intern and I went to the tortoise exhibit to do a quick hose down of the exhibit. There wasn't any salad that needed to be picked up today but there was some hay and some tortoise left behinds. We got the exhibit to be as good as we could get it for the time being right before the tour came. In the few minutes that we were waiting for the tour to arrive a few of us were waiting in the outside enclosure. One visitor was joking around with us that he was looking at the exhibit of humans in their natural habitat. The tour group today was a group of girl scouts who had brought presents for the snakes (such as logs and other enrichment and enclosure items). When the head zookeeper asked them why snakes out of all the other animals, one girl replied, "Because no one ever thinks about snakes." It's true. Snakes are underrepresented and often misrepresented as horrible and mean animals. On the contrary they are anything but that. They bite out of instinct of feeling threatened and to eat food, not just for the sake of bitting. They are amazing creatures and are quite beautiful. I got to help out with the tortoise encounter which was fun because of seeing the kids get excited about being in there and feeding them. After the tour I helped make a few more salads before lunch time. 

After lunch I helped finish up the salads and then distributed the salads to the whole building by myself.   Before, I had only picked up salads, I had never had to lay them out. It was a little confusing at times to figure out what specific salad in which sized tray went to which animal. When I was giving the Pancake Tortoises their food, one of the zookeepers asked if I wanted to handle a snake. I then learned how to correctly pick up the snake and guide it back to its enclosure. I worked with a Black Headed Python, which is really pretty. This snake is pretty docile so they use her for a lot of keeper chats and interactions with the public. It was so cool to be able to hold it and feel how solid and heavy the snake was. I eventually figured it out which salads went where and felt really accomplished when I had all the salads delivered to the right animal! I then went over to the Gila Monster exhibit to help the other intern shovel out more sand that was in there. After the afternoon break I did some sweeping, throwing out trash from the salads, and cleaning of the salad bins. I went into the radiated tortoise exhibit to restock their salad trays and then put the rest of the salad in a bag for one of the other zookeepers to use. I then cleaned out food and water bowls for some McCord's Box Turtles off exhibit. At the end of the day I did the dishes and helped to gather trash from around the building. It was another very full and very busy day, but it went fast!

False Gharial

Black Headed Python

Radiated Tortoise

Day 9: I'm a Gila Monster

Today I got to meet another one of the house interns and some new hellbender interns. This morning there were so many people in the break room it was quite crowded! The other intern and I started going around the building to collect salad trays. We also fished salad scraps out of the aquatic turtle tanks in the atrium of the building. After that I got to climb into a Jamaican Boa exhibit in order to clean the glass from the inside. While I was cleaning the glass another keeper was watching the snake just to make sure it didn't get upset that I was in there with it. I then changed some water bowls and newspaper linings in a section of the building. After the morning break, the other intern and I went to clean the giant tortoise exhibit. It was so nice having help this time! We had the outside door open to the enclosure while working in order to get some cooler air, but that excited one of the tortoises. The whole time we were working one tortoise was pushing against the gate trying to open it. If it hadn't been locked she would have opened it herself! Every time we needed to get out or into the enclosure we had to really watch the tortoise who was at the gate. At one point we had to move her aside in order to get out. They are ready for some fresh air, but the temperature at night needs to be warmer and more stable in order for them to be outside for the summer. Once again some of the tortoises came over to say hi and get a neck rub!

After lunch, I finished taking out salad trays from the rest of the building. That didn't take too long so I then went to help the other intern with the crickets. Maybe by the end of this summer I won't be as freaked out by them...maybe. What is worse than crickets though is cockroaches. In the corner of the wall near the ceiling there was the largest cockroach I had ever seen in my life. It was there for a while but one time when I glanced up it was gone. Needless to say I was a little uneasy after that. Today we had gotten a cricket shipment with all different sizes of crickets from pinheads to adults. If needed we had to clean out the tanks and then we put the new crickets in the tank. We then cleaned out a few large bins that were used to hold the salad from yesterday.

Raja

On break the other intern and I went over to River's Edge to see the new baby elephant!!!! Her name is Priya and she was born on April 26! She is sooooo cute! She has thick fuzzy hair  on her head that made her even more cute! She  was staying close to mom but was exploring too. Her older sister was out in the yard as well and some of the other women elephants were nearby. In another enclosure Raja, the father, was outside. Since we were dressed in the normal zookeeper uniform we kept getting asked different questions about the elephant. I was lucky to have some background knowledge of the herd in order to answer a few but for some we had to admit that we were herpetarium people and didn't know the answer. It was definitely a fun break!

Baby Priya and mother Ellie

Older sister Maliha on left

After that we grabbed some dust pans and went to the Gila Monster exhibit that is under renovation to help remove sand. There are a whole bunch of holes and pits that sand and rocks had gotten into (and not to mention a lot of sand was in the exhibit to begin with) so it took some time to get it all out. We wore face masks since it got dusty with the sand but they were so tight and thick is was a little hard to breathe through them. While in the exhibit people kept stopping to look at what we were doing. Basically it felt like we were on display. At one time a kid knocked on the glass and waved to me. I kept thinking that we must look like the weirdest Gila Monsters ever! Once we got most of the sand out I helped finish up the dishes right before we closed.

Gila Monster

Jamaican Boa

Day 8: Herpetarium or Insectarium?

This morning we had two vets come in to do some medical work on a Reticulated Python that has been sick and not shedding properly. It took five zookeepers to hold the snake and the two vets to give various shots and some sort of IV to the snake. It looked like the five zookeepers were doing everything they could to keep the snake still but it was still able to move them at times. I picked up salad trays from some exhibits in the house and also from a room of animals off exhibit. I changed the water bowls for the Giant Haitian Galliwasps again as well as for the Pancake Tortoises and various lizards. When there was clean water, clean newspaper bedding, and the salad bowls removed, I went on to letting the desert tortoises soak for a few minutes.

Fly River Turtle

I finished the last few enclosures of desert tortoises after lunch and then did the dishes. One of the house interns started today, so I was able to be on my own for some things while he was getting trained on others. After dishes, both of us interns were taught how to clean the tanks for baby alligator snapping turtles. While the other intern practiced at that, I cleaned the black worms. In the same room as the alligator snapping turtles we cleaned out water bowls for some McCord's Box Turtles. They can reach adult size in about 4-5 years which I find amazing. I then learned how to backwash a sand filter for a few tanks with water turtles in it. I got to see the Fly River Turtle (Pig-Nosed Turtle) up close again, which always brings a smile to my face. In one of the other tanks there are two Red-Bellied Short-Necked Turtles, which really do have a red/pink colored plastron!! I also learned how to correctly hold an alligator snapping turtle and why/how you have to hold common snapping turtles differently (they have a long enough neck that they can swing around and bite your hand if you are holding them at the top of their shell. Alligator snapping turtles have a shorter neck and cannot reach your hand).

After break, the other intern and I got an in depth tour of the insect and mouse room. We had to clean water bowls for a few mice and then learn how to clean bins of....crickets. I avoided the insectarium for a reason... I understand the huge importance of having a healthy food source for your animals, but crickets still freak me out at the moment. Thankfully, after admitting my dislike for crickets, the other intern stepped in for some of the closer handling. Some of the crickets are fed food called a 'gut bomb' which adds nutrients and calcium to them so the animals that eat them can have a better food source. Evidently, crickets are very sensitive to too much moisture. They still need some moisture, so they are given 'Cricket Quencher', a gel-like substance, in order to give them the small amount of water they need. It was then time to gather trash, turn off the lights, and close up the herpetarium.

Reticulated Python

Red-Bellied Short-Necked Turtle

Day 7: Long Tasks

After cleaning the glass, I went downstairs to clean out salad trays and water bowls from turtles and iguanas. I then headed back upstairs to clean out the giant tortoise exhibit. It was a slow process again because every time I was almost calling it as good as it was going to get, one of the tortoises would stand up off of the salad they were on, leaving me with more work. There also was no water pressure, so having to clean the floor took a while too. At one point when I was on the far side of the exhibit, one of the medium sized tortoises followed me over. Later, when I was hosing down an area of the floor, one of the really big tortoises came over and stopped right in front of me, demanding attention. Of course they each got a little neck rub, but then I had to get back to work. At the end, one of them was laying right on top of the drain opening, which I needed to put the drain plug back in and fill up their little pool. So it took some coercing to get the tortoise to finally move! Finally I found some hay and put that out to finish.

I then was shown how to use the intercom system inside the building and was given a small pad of paper so I can be an official zookeeper. Before lunch I did the dishes. I bought lunch for the first time using my employee discount, which made it only a little over $3!!

After lunch I cleaned and filled water bowls for tortoises, skinks, and some lizards. A few of them needed their newspaper changed as well. I then cleaned the McCord's Box Turtle and Spotted Turtle cages like I had done last week. It was a good feeling to be able to do it by myself and know what I was doing. I then went into another area of the building to change out water bowls for Giant Haitian Galliwasps. I also got to climb into an exhibit of iguanas to clean the glass from the inside because there was a buildup of salt. There were a few more tanks to clean and then I ended the day cleaning more dishes that had been brought in.

Giant Haitian Galliwasp

Day 6: Turtle Mania!

This morning I was sent off with the task of cleaning the giant tortoise exhibit by myself!! I was able to scoop up most of the salad, but of course some tortoises were being difficult and decided to lay right on top of a salad clump and not move. I tried rubbing their neck, I tried spraying some water on the floor near them, but they would not move. On top of that, one of them decided to lay on the hose again. So cleaning took a while. Regardless, it was still fun because I got to give them a little attention and simply because I was surrounded by giant tortoises! Mid morning we had two tour groups come through of teen volunteers at the zoo. Everyone got three carrots to feed the tortoises and that finally got the few stubborn ones to move. It was fun seeing the tour guests interact with the tortoises. It was because of this tour last summer that got me the connections for this internship. There is a Galapagos tortoise, some Aldabra tortoises, and some Yellow-Foot tortoises. Between cleaning and the tours, I spent most of the morning with the giant tortoises! I'm not complaining! After that I learned how to clean tanks for baby McCord's Box Turtles :) One was newly hatched and was so small and adorable! McCord's Box Turtles are virtually extinct in the wild. Actually, their natural location in the wild was unknown until fairly recently. All records of them previously was from seeing them in the pet trade in Asia. When a survey was done in China only one turtle was found. So the survival of the species is now solely dependent on zoos and their breeding programs. It is really unfortunate how so many animals are exploited in the pet trade or killed for some body part. These animals share the world with us and need to be respected more.

After lunch, I helped change water bowls for some lizards. I was told that I should avoid one of them because she was a little feisty. I looked into the cage and when she saw me, she put up the frill of skin around her neck and hissed. I understand why I was told to not worry about her water bowl. I also helped to give some desert tortoises a soaking. Even though desert tortoises are adapted to a dry environment, they still need water and moisture to survive. Putting them in a shallow amount of water gives them some moisture, an opportunity to drink, and it even stimulates excretion. Most of the tortoises were Pancake Tortoises which are naturally found in Tanzania and Kenya. Unlike other tortoises, Pancake Tortoises have a different bone structure so their plastron (lower shell) is slightly flexible. When I was picking them up I could actually feel a slight bend of the shell. The flexibility allows them to press themselves between rocks to hide. Their carapace (upper shell) is suppose to be smooth but some of them had more of a bumpy carapace. I learned that the shell growth is determine by the humidity, moisture, and other environmental factors. The zoo keeper that was training me went to go take care of other things and let me finish going through the tortoises and letting them soak. It was a cool feeling to be left in charge of handling and caring for the animals again.

When I was done I was looking for one of the main zoo keepers to find out what I could do next, but they must have been in another part of the building, so I decided to take care of the dishes. After taking the afternoon break, I learned how to clean spotted turtle tanks. (Spotted turtles are also super cute!). Once the tanks were clean, the zoo keeper I was with had me watch while he candled a turtle egg. The egg was laid May 1, so the little turtle was still a small red blob. It was amazing that you could see where the head was, an eye, what would turn into the shell, and the main blood vessel that attaches to the yolk. Unfortunately, when looking at an egg from another species you could tell that the egg was already starting to decompose. Most turtle eggs are temperature dependent for the gender. As the saying goes "hot chicks and cool dudes". So the hotter the temperature, the more females; the cooler the temperature, the more males. In captive incubation, you have total control over which gender the egg will be. So the healthy egg was set at 80 degrees, meaning that for that species it will be a male. Every turtle species has different temperature parameters for the genders, depending mainly on geographic location because of different climates. What might be a perfect temperature for one type of turtle might 'cook' a different turtle egg. Interestingly enough, soft shell turtles actually have genetic determination of genders. With a little bit of time left at the end of the day and a few extra carrots from the tortoise tours, we decided to see if some of the other turtles and larger lizards would go for some carrots. One of the lizards had some interest but the other ones seemed unenthused.

I definitely learned a lot today and of course, I loved spending the day surrounded by turtles and tortoises!

Aldabra Tortoise

Yellow-Footed Tortoise

Galapagos Tortoise

McCord's Box Turtle

Pancake Tortoise

Spotted Turtle

Day 5: Busy, Busy, Busy

This morning I went to hellbenders and was about to wash the first foot bath but was then told that I would be in the Herpetarium house today!!! Today was a salad day so I learned how to make salads for the whole house. It might sound easy but there are different types of salad for different types of animals, different sizes of bowls, and lots of animals!!! Salads took all morning... It normally takes a while because of the specifics but we also had 5th-8th graders touring behind the scenes. Since there were constant groups of tours heading into the kitchen work had to be halted for a little bit.

Common Misunderstanding: That the dangerous snakes are poisonous. They are venomous!!! Venom is injected (as in snakes and spiders). Poison is secreted (like in the Poison Dart Frogs).

On top of the field trip tours, there was a tour for the giant tortoises. We had the state herpetologist in as well as a person who is an expert on snake bites. He works closely with the zoo but is also called from all over the country when doctors need advice on how to treat a patient who was bitten by a venomous snake. He was getting shown around the building while an electrician was also there working on things. So there was a lot of commotion.

I did get to watch salad get delivered to some turtles in the basement. There was a Fly River Turtle (aka Pig-Nosed Turtle) as well as two other types of turtles. The Fly River Turtle (which is normally adorable) was even more adorable catching a piece of food and then using its flippers to brush away the food from its mouth that it was not currently chewing.

Everyone in the herpetarium ate together today along with the state herpetologist, the snake bite expert, and our curator. We played the game of how many zookeepers can you fit around a table...for the record, we can fit quite a lot!

After lunch we went to listen to a talk by the snake bite expert about snake bites, treatment, and anti venom. It included many pictures of gross after effects, but it was quite interesting. I don't work with venomous animals as an intern, but I sure hope to never get bitten at some point in my life... After that presentation was over he gave a presentation about his work in Sri Lanka with snakes. That was really fascinating and it was fun to hear some of his stories. I was able to talk with him briefly this morning and found out that he also does work in Costa Rica. I wish I could have talked with him after the talk, but since it was already well into the afternoon and the animals still hadn't been fed, we had to go. Once back I had to quickly finish cutting all of the fruits and veggies for the giant tortoises. There was a lot so it took a little bit to get through. Once that was done, it was combined with a mixture of different greens and then it was feeding time! We did a quick cleaning of the giant tortoise exhibit and then started putting out salads. It was really cute seeing them head toward the salads and start eating. In a way it was slightly amusing because some of them were moving soooooo slow. I was cheering them on in my head a little bit. These tortoises are definitely slow, but not all tortoises are! (Another common misconception!) Gopher Tortoises are actually quite fast and will dart into their burrows when they see you coming.

Afterwards, we added fish to a tank with turtles (had some interaction with the public, which was fun). In the tank, the other zookeeper saw a penny. He then had to fish the penny out with a net without covering it with sand. A turtle could accidentally eat a penny which can cause serious health issues. So please, please, please do not throw money into the tanks at the herpetarium. Or any animal tank anywhere for that matter. Save the coins for a real wishing well.

We had just a little bit of time left to do dishes and the end of day cleaning. There were so many different activities going on today it was hard to get the work we needed to do done. Regardless, it was a fun day and I am really glad that I got to hear the talks.

To top off the business: It was Zoo Friends Night. So people who are zoo friends were able to come to the zoo at night (which was staying open later) to see exhibits. So instead of closing like normal we had to make sure everyone in the house was a zoo friend and was suppose to still be in the zoo. I was also asked a few questions by the public and got a little time to talk to people which was fun as well.

Day 4: A Special Surprise

The day started off with the usual cleaning of the exhibit glass and foot baths in the hellbender area. After feeding the fish, I was shown where the frozen fish are kept (as well as the frozen mice and rats. As well as mice that were still living..). I had a new experience this morning by learning how to clean an off exhibit enclosure. I got to go in a cage with three larger lizards to take away their salad bowls from the day before. There were also a lot of turtles in the room, so I was happy :) I gathered the salad bowls from the turtle enclosures and even had to move a turtle out of its water so we could change the bowl of water. There were a few different types of turtles in there, including some baby alligator snapping turtles! I then went back to hellbenders and tested the pH and TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) of water samples.

I then got to help clean the giant tortoise exhibit again! I think the turtles know how to get attention because they will lay right on the hose and will not stand up unless you rub their neck. So there was a lot of neck rubbing to get them off the hose and just to give them some attention. It's funny how giant tortoises are almost like a dog when you rub their neck: they'll stand up and stretch their neck all the way out in a "that's the spot" type of way. Tortoises also have cute personalities, the other zookeeper I was working with was hosing down the floor leaning down and one of the largest tortoises came over and put his face right by his, almost to say hi. The keeper do not know exactly, but the largest tortoises in the exhibit are probably around 120 years old! They came over as adults in the 1930s and are still at the zoo! After that we went outside to the alligator snapping turtle enclosures. (These enclosures were some of the original exhibits when the zoo first opened). Since I had boots on I went in the water to clean away leaves from the water grate. There were some kids watching and asking questions as we went in, so the other zookeeper brought over one of the turtles to show the kids and talk to them about it. Right as we were leaving the enclosure it started  raining really hard so we both got a little wet. I started dishes but was not able to finish before lunch.

For lunch we went to Lakeside Cafe and I got to officially eat in the employee only section! After lunch us hellbender keepers went to the sea lion arena thinking that we were going to get a behind the scenes tour. One of the externs last day was today so in celebration of her new job/time here, we were all surprised by getting a personal interaction session with my favorite sea lion, Benny! I met Benny before when I did the Sea Lion Trainer For a Day program in high school. It was a cool full-cirlce moment. The first time I met Benny, I was pretending to be a zookeeper and now I'm back in the official khakis as an intern at the zoo! We all got turns to interact with Benny. I gave him the command to open his mouth and he added to that some sea lion groaning/barking noise. I then did the same picture pose I got to do before where you stand close to him and then he puts his head on yours. Benny was being very cute and it was fun seeing him interact with the keeper.

After the fun surprise, it was back to dishes. This afternoon three adult hellbenders that were on display were loaded up to be taken to another zoo. Afterwards I spent a long time working on cleaning out old food and feeding black worms and mysis (a small crustacean) to a system of hellbender tanks. For the last few minutes of the day I helped to label some tanks.

The day went quite well and was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I pulled a 'stupid intern' at the end of the day. In order to get a house key for the day you have to turn in your car keys as collateral. I turned in the house key, recorded my hours, walked out the locked door....and then realized I never had my car keys.... So like a dog with its tail between its legs, I had to call one of the zookeepers so they could come back and let me in the building so I could get my keys and come home.. Oops! Well, needless to say I won't ever forget my keys again!

 Benny!!!

:D

Day 3: Lots of Cleaning

Today I thankfully had a dry morning commute! After helping to clean the glass in the herpetarium, I was taught how to clean the filter pads in the hellbender tanks. One of the externs said that she would 'take me under her wing' and was really good at teaching me how to do things. I also fed the fish and learned how to clean black worms. The black worms are food for the hellbenders and since they excrete a lot of oil, their water needs to be changed every day in order to keep them alive/healthy to be used as food.

During the morning meeting there was discussion about a new system that stores information for every animal in the zoo. It is a way to keep track of how each animal is doing, treatments they are given, any eggs/babies that are born, etc. One of the zookeepers mentioned that they saw a post on Craig's List of a person selling a native Missouri snake. Obviously that is not ok, so our boss immediately called someone else at the zoo, told them of the post, and they said that they would take care of it. I'm not sure how they go about stopping that person, but it is nice to know that something will be done about it.

After the meeting, I got to watch four zookeepers wrangle two dwarf caimans out of their current enclosure in the basement to be put back on exhibit in the herpetarium. One keeper used a catch-pole to bring the caiman out of the water, one used a pole to gently close its mouth so another keeper could saddle the caiman to tape its mouth, and another keeper held the tail. In the same area of the basement there was a gopher tortoise pen and some tanks that had pig-nose turtles! They were really cute and would come up to look at me almost as if they were saying hi.

We then did the same routine of measuring/weighing another cage of juvenile hellbenders. I found a hellbender from a diagram again and I also found a small notch in the tail of one that would be a great identifier. The zookeeper seemed excited that I had found it!

Lunch was spent in the herpetarium, which was nice because it was a smaller group of people to be able to carry on a conversation with (the last two days there have been multiple conversations going on at one time!). I also read an article from a herpetology magazine about caring for outdoor tortoises. I want outdoor tortoises one day! The author of that article will one day be me with all my tortoises :)

After lunch, I was taught how to do dishes- the zookeeper way! Not much different than normal dishes except you have to bleach all the dishes at the end. I then went back to hellbenders and helped feed black worms and remove uneaten food from certain tanks. I also got to bleach clean the containers and tools we used for measuring/weighing.

We took a break in the afternoon and then I was taught how to clean large sock filters for the outdoor tanks. Even though I was cleaning I had to smile because we had the same type of filters in the coral tank at school. They were definitely smaller, but the cleaning is the same. Who would have thought that being a research assistant for corals would help me work with amphibians! It is paying off for this and also for my knowledge of water quality tests. There was some extra time at the end of the day to do some organizing of materials. Today goes to show that the zookeeper life isn't as glamorous as it is thought to be.

Day 2: I'm Seeing Spots!

Day 2- morning zookeeper conversation topic: How Missouri drivers freak out when there is a little bit of rain falling down. Missouri drivers were put into two types: those that drive 10 miles an hour when a little bit of rain is falling and those that swerve in and out of the first type of people. I think it is quite fitting.

As mentioned, today was a very rainy day so my shoes/feet were instantly wet. The hellbender rooms are kept in the 50s, so I never really dried out.

This morning I learned how to take temperature/humidity readings in each room, which tanks have fish that need feeding, and how to clean out bleach buckets/mats for your feet when you enter/leave a room. It is very important when working with the hellbenders to be as sterile and conscience about contamination as possible. All of the adult hellbender are chytrid positive. This means that they are carriers of chytrid, a type of fungus that is especially harmful to amphibians. Chytrid is typically talked about in regards to frogs, since it is partially responsible for the large decline of frogs. Since hellbenders are amphibians they can also be infected by chytrid. Chytrid fungus interacts with the epidermis, interfering with the transport of nutrients and ions between the skin and water. When these vital transport chains are interrupted (resulting in unbalanced nutrient/ion concentrations), it could cause the heart to stop beating. The epidermis is also hurt from chytrid build-up. Since amphibians respire through cutaneous respiration (through their skin) they could also suffocate because of a thicker epidermis. (Amphibians do have lungs, but they are rudimentary and do not account for a large percentage of respiration). The hellbenders with chytrid also have tumors, which requires surgery to remove. The adult hellbender have other medical problems than just chytrid (skin cancer for example) so treatment for chytrid is not successful. For the younger ones, it has been found that they can be put through heat treatments of 90 degrees (which is hot enough to kill the chytrid fungus). Sanitation is so important because it would only take one drop of chytrid infested water in a clean tank to infect all the hellbenders who are healthy. As a result, we are constantly changing gloves throughout the day.

After the morning routine, I helped with more measuring and weighing of another tank of juveniles. I was actually able to pick out a hellbender from a hand-drawn diagram of spots for that individual! For all the identified ones I counted to make sure they had 4 fingers and 5 toes and then added spots to the diagram where I felt it was needed. After I was done they were then measured and weighed.

Lunch was fun because we (the hellbender keepers) were joined by a keeper of invertebrates (also his wife and adorable 2-3 year old daughter), a big cat country keeper, and bear keeper. Once again stories were exchanged from different parts of the zoo. One of the elephant keepers stopped by and it sounds like the baby elephant is doing well and should be on display to the public in a few weeks!

After lunch, we weighed/measured another tank of juvenile hellbenders. All the juveniles should be tagged and released back into the wild soon!

I also learned how to use a gravel vacuum (or some name to that effect) to clean the bottom of a fish tank. Yesterday a few of the hellbender tanks were fed a small type of shrimp, so we also had to go around to those tanks and pipet out all the uneaten shrimp. While doing this in one of the hatchery tanks (with the baby hellbenders) I had to pull out a hellbender that had died. 

At the end of the day the veterinarian came back to check out three adult hellbenders who had recently had surgery to remove skin tumors. The vet applied this cream that is made from synthetic platelets that encourages cell growth and reproduction in order to quickly heal a wound. Two of them also received antibiotics. Once the vet was done it was 5pm and time to head home!

P.S. Did I mention that there are about 4,000 hellbenders at the zoo?? That accounts for about 20% of the zoo's animal population! And this is all out of the public eye and for reintroduction purposes!

This map shows the range of the two types of hellbenders. 

Fun Fact: Missouri is the only state that has both types of hellbenders!

A juvenile hellbender- like the ones we had to identify from just their spot pattern

First Day!

I survived my first day interning! Today, like all days will, started off by cleaning the exhibit glass from all the handprints, etc, of visitors. I then got a tour of the the Herpetarium from the zookeeper side. I learned how to use a venom extractor, where the snake bite alarms are, and general safety rules since there are venomous animals there (I do not get to work with anything venomous though). It was fun to see animals that are not even on exhibit. There were some super cute baby turtles in the back that I need to become friends with. After my mini orientation, I then became official and was given a name badge, employee ID, and zoo shirt!

I scared a Radiated Tortoise this morning when I had to come into its exhibit to remove the salad trays. To get into the exhibits you have to take a large step down, which must have started him because he hissed/grunted at me...sorry tortoise! While I was working on this, another zookeeper was doing the same in the Komodo Dragon exhibit and then gave me a Komodo Dragon tooth that they had found!

Like I mentioned before, normally I would not be working with hellbenders, but I have been given a special opportunity to work with them until the hellbender interns arrive. Hellbenders actually have a unique spot pattern associated to them. So in order to weigh and measure a tank of baby hellbenders, they had to be identified by their spots. Which is much easier said than done!

I spent lunch with three hellbender zookeepers and we were joined by two carnivore keepers (who work with the bears), and a penguin/puffin keeper. It was fun hearing zookeeper talk from other areas.

After lunch I got to help clean the giant tortoise exhibit!! The tortoises get salad on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but the days in between are salad clean up days. So we had to sweep up all the wilted lettuce leaves, hose down the floor, bleach it, hose it down again, and give them some hay. All while the tortoises are in there. So needless to say, at times it was hard to sweep up all the lettuce when a giant tortoise was laying on it! The gate to the exhibit was slightly open at one point and one of the tortoises, Larry, tried making a get-away. So I had to go stand in front of him to stop him from getting too far! A few times a tortoise would come up behind me and try to get some of the lettuce, so I gave them a little neck rub and carried on. Once when I was hosing down the floor two tortoises started following me (which was really cute). The tortoises are still in their inside exhibit, so it was funny to see how many people stop to look in when a zookeeper is inside. It felt like I was almost on display while I was trying to clean!

Afterwards, the veterinarian came over to the hellbender exhibit. One hellbender needed its sutures redone that had ripped out. Another one had a gash on its leg from something that also had to be stitched up. For both of these, I got to help hold the hellbender down during the stitches. The vet also looked at a few other hellbenders who have had some health issues recently.

To wrap up the day, I helped do a census of all the hellbender that the zoo has. Each tank is marked with which river they are from, hatch date, and number of each tank. So all the numbers had to be added up with each classification of hellbender. We didn't get the final count, but tomorrow we will add up all the different group numbers.

All in all, it was a good first day! It was long and I definitely have a lot to learn this summer. It will also be a great networking opportunity as I can already tell!

I'm official!