Day 16: Cactus Overload

Friday, June 7

This morning was like the beginning days, it started with cleaning glass because it wasn't finished before 8am. The other intern and I started cutting up fruit and vegetables right away to get the giant tortoise salad finished. While the other intern went to feed the giant tortoises, I was working on preparing salads for the rest of the building. The building got a huge delivery (a whole crate full!) of cactus pads that needed to be cleaned. So while I was working on salads another zookeeper was working on cleaning the cactus pads. It was nice because it gave me an opportunity to talk to one of the zookeepers while working. After the morning break, I was off to work on salads again. I even had to cut up some of the cactus pads which were quite sticky. I got to go and deliver a lot of the cactus pads to the giant tortoises. While handing the pads out, I ended up getting a thorn in my hand. In terms of cleaning, you do the best you can since it is hard to get every thorn off. I didn't realize that the thorns are actually quite small. It was able to get it out easily, which I was thankful for!. When I was handing out the cactus pads to the tortoises there was a very large crowd of people gathered around the glass watching. Some people were even taking pictures and I had to wonder if the pictures were of me or the tortoises! We then finished salads for the building right in time for lunch break.

After lunch we all had to help unload the back of a van with bags of mulch in it. I then finished cleaning the Spotted Turtle and McCord's Box Turtle tanks from yesterday. I cleaned the black worms, did the dishes, cleaned the salad bins out, and changed water bowls for the adult McCord's turtles. After break, I was back in the lizard room cleaning the dust/dirt again. At the end of the day I was working on gathering the trash from the building when I was pulled to help out in hellbender briefly. All the workers were considered chytrid positive, so they needed someone who had not been in contact with it to help them out. Two tanks were overflowing so I had to help bail out water until the water levels stabilized again. With the extra work at the end of the day, I got out a little bit after 5.