Saint Louis Zoo Herpetarium Internship Summer 2013: Day 32: Beak Trimmings

This morning I went to clean the giant tortoise exhibit and for the first time, Othello did not come over to say hi. He was sitting in the water and must have been enjoying it too much to come out. I helped gather salad bowls, cleaned the black worms, and did the dishes before break. Afterwards, I helped two other zookeepers start trimming tortoise beaks. In the wild, a tortoise will naturally grind down its beak by foraging and eating food. In captivity, good diets increase beak growth, but then they do need to be trimmed if they get too long. Figuring out the best way to go about trimming their beaks took a little time, but it still took three of us to hold the tortoise/trim the beak.

After lunch I cut flowers/leaves off of a brach that they were stapled to look nice, but the plants were drying out. Once I started soaking the plants, I returned to help with the tortoise beak trimming process. Once all the tortoises that needed a beak trimming were done, we trimmed the nails of three Arakan Forest Turtles. After break (since the yellow jackets were gone), one of the zookeepers and I organized the water tubs outside. We then moved one of the large water tubs from inside to stack on a tub outside. To wrap up the day, we cleaned the floors where the large tubs had been.