Day 20: Outside Exposure

Saturday, June 15

This morning the interns had to go clean the glass since it hadn't been done yet. After that I got to go outside and clean up the salads in the giant tortoise exhibit! It was exciting because it was my first time being outside with the tortoises as a keeper. Since I went at the beginning of the day, some of the tortoises were still sleeping. I felt like I was disturbing their rest by being in there! Cleaning the outside enclosure is so much easier than cleaning inside! I cleaned up the old salad and put out hay and that was all it took. Of course, I did spend a little time giving some attention to a few tortoises! It was also fun because since I was outside visitors would stop by to watch and could then ask me questions. A lot of people commented on the salad that was there (actually it seemed to be a lot of parents pointing out to their children that tortoises eat salads and corn). One child asked me if they bite and a pair of visitors asked to be pointed to the antelope area. It was fun having a little bit of time to actually interact with the public and be able to answer a few questions. A lot of people walking by would call them turtles instead of tortoises though. Turtles spend most of their time in water, they do come up on land though, but some do have webbed feet to make swimming easier. Tortoises are strictly land dwelling and have legs that allow them to walk better on land.

Once back inside, I helped pick up some salad bowls, cleaned the black worms, and pulled left over salad from the turtles in the atrium. Sometimes that also draws a crowd since the exhibits are just behind a fence in the center of the building. One person commented that the turtles must not have been as hungry as we had thought. Before break I had a chance to talk to one of the zookeepers about a new design for an exhibit and more plans for future ones. After break, I vacuumed the three turtle tubs that I had done a water change for yesterday. While working on that I was pulled by another zookeeper to help them out. The zookeeper needed me to plug a drain in a turtle exhibit so he could remove the drain pipe in order to clean it out. I was behind the glass and just holding the bulb of a pipet on the drain and people were still stopping to watch. When I was heading out, one person that had been watching asked me what we were doing in there. I then finished vacuuming and changed some water bowls before lunch.

After lunch I learned how to do a water change for two fish tanks of stock fish. After the water change and cleaning the filters, I then cleaned some baby Alligator Snapping Turtle tanks. The babies look so cute! So it was fun being able to watch them while cleaning. After break, I did the dishes, filled up a filter tank with water and then helped to gather trash from the building.

Baby Alligator Snapping Turtle

Adult Alligator Snapping Turtle