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