Day 22: Giant Tortoise Salad

Friday, June 21

This morning I started cutting up produce and preparing some salads. I put the giant greens and fruit/veggie chunks together and then headed out to the giant tortoise exhibit! While I was putting out the piles of salad, visitors were gathering around and asking me questions. Twice I was asked how old the tortoises are and then I had a few other various questions. It was fun being able to share my knowledge with people who were curious about the tortoises! Once again the same tortoise from yesterday (who is my new friend) wanted a neck rub over going to eat the salads like everyone else. When I was giving him a short neck rub I heard someone exclaim that he was like a dog wanting attention (which is pretty true, they stretch out their necks really far when you've got the right spot). Back inside, I worked more on preparing and distributing salads. I really enjoy salad days because they are fast paced and it is also fun to feed the animals. After break I distributed salads to some of the turtles in the atrium of the building. While I was in the exhibit people were watching and asking questions about how long it takes to feed everyone and how often we feed them. After salads were done, the other intern and I cleaned up the mess and then headed outside to turn the sprinkler on for the yellow-foot giant tortoises. The sprinkler needed a little adjusting so it took a little bit to get it working properly. Today was an abnormal zoo day because the whole zoo closed at noon in order to prepare for a very large fundraising event that was taking place that night. So before lunch we had to close the building for the day.

After lunch I filled up the water bowls for the outside tortoises, did a quick clean of the cricket bins, cleaned the black worms, and cleaned the salads bins. For break today a few of the zookeepers and I went into the house to sit on some benches and enjoy the quiet of the building. It was actually quite relaxing because you just heard the sound of flowing water. After break I did the dishes, swept the kitchen, cleaned more bins, swept some downstairs, and took out the trash. A lot of keepers were leaving early today because of the event so it was pretty quiet at the end of the day. The other intern and I finished everything before five so we too got to leave a little early!