Saint Louis Zoo Herpetarium Internship Summer 2013: Day 38: High Demand

Saturday, July 27

This morning I cleaned up the giant tortoise exhibit and the tortoise Othello came up to me to get some attention. I still think it is so cute that these huge tortoises recognize how to get attention and 'ask' for it. I picked up salads from the building and then started working in the cricket/rodent room. After break, I started working on dishes, but then the whole staff was called to help unload new caging units. We were all outside ready to help right away, but the truck was not there, so we had to wait a little bit for them to arrive. Back inside, I finished dishes and the cricket/rodent room.

After lunch, I cleaned black worms and then cleaned out McCord's Box Turtle and Spotted Turtle tanks. I then got to go inside the Madagascar Ground Boa exhibit to take out pieces of shed that were in there. I was in there with two snakes, but they did not seem to care that I was in there and were just watching what I was doing. Another example that snakes are not out to bite/attack humans for no reason. Cleaning the turtle tubs and the snake shed were tasks assigned by one zookeeper and while I was working on that another keeper asked me if I could help with other tasks. As the only intern today and having keepers off, my time was in high demand. I then worked on cleaning newspaper substrate in off-exhibit enclosures for various lizards and a turtle. By then, it was time for the afternoon break. Since I helped cleaning the lizard enclosures, the zookeeper that was giving me a 'tour' of the building yesterday was able to finish showing me different animals. I got to look at some really awesome animals including a New Caladonian Giant Gecko (that I was totally bonding with (also, this is the largest extant species of gecko in the world!)), a Haitian Dwarf Boa, a Crocodile Skink, a Garrido's Crested Anole, and a New Caladonian Roux's Gecko.