Day 35: My Own Exhibit

Saturday, July 20

I started my day off by cleaning the giant tortoise exhibit. I really enjoy cleaning their exhibit because of giving the tortoises some attention, but also because it gives me a chance to answer questions and share my knowledge of these animals with the public. It is like a small taste of what I hope to be doing in the future with conservation education! I helped collect the remaining salad bowls, cleaned the black worms, moved some more newspaper to other areas of the building, and changed water bowls before break. I then did dishes and was able to help take out old bamboo from the King Cobra exhibit.

After lunch, I was told that this exhibit would be my own to remodel with another zookeeper. I was really happy that they trusted me to help remodel an exhibit that the public will see. We first added two more bags of mulch to the exhibit, then wet down the walls to scrub them and squeegee the glass. The other keeper and I then went outside to cut down bamboo to use in the exhibit. For the exhibit we wanted to put bamboo stalks from the floor to ceiling. We started bringing the stalks in the place and would go out in the house to check how the exhibit looked. We went back out a few times to cut more bamboo for the exhibit. We used some plain stalks and some stalks with leaves to have enough coverage but not too much that the snake could not be seen. After we got all the bamboo we wanted to be floor to ceiling, we then added some bamboo on diagonals, as if it had fallen over. The key to putting plants in an exhibit is to make it look as natural as possible. After everything was in place, I then scattered dried bamboo leaves on the ground to finish. The other keeper and I then went out in the house to watch the King Cobra get placed back in her exhibit. It was fun watching the snake explore her new area (the visitors seemed to enjoy it too!). When I was out there, a visitor asked me a question and then asked if I was Rachel from the blog! I never thought that this blog would be read by many people, but I can see now that it is attracting viewers from all over the world. So thank you to everyone who is reading this, supporting me, and to those interested in reptiles, amphibians, and conservation! (As a result of having a larger reading audience than expected, I will soon be adding articles that feature an animal or conservation topic. So stay tuned for those as well!).  The exhibit looked really great and it felt awesome looking at something that I helped put together and something that I was able to put my creative side into. After a short break, I cleaned up from our exhibit remodeling and worked on sweeping and cleaning our solarium. Today was another day at the zoo that was exhausting, but I still left with a huge smile on my face and excitement from the days activities.

Before (after we took out the old bamboo)

After!