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.