Friday, July 5
This morning I started cutting up produce, preparing and delivering salads. After break, the other intern and I finished preparing salads and then cleaned up before lunch. I then cleaned the black worms, did the dishes, and started thawing fish for feeding some Alligator Snapping Turtles later. This afternoon I got to gather crickets to feed the Giant Haitian Galliwasps, Mountain Chicken frog, and the Hispaniolan Giant Anole. It was fun feeding the animals and watching them eat! After break I fed smelt to five relatively small Alligator Snapping Turtles. I had never fed these turtles before so it was fun to be able to do something new and watch them come out of their hiding spots to eat. After all the feeding was done, I helped one of the zookeepers on the big rearrangement project from last week. I helped move two water/land tubs and filled them up with mulch and water on the respective sides. What was super exciting is that I got to pick up and move two Alligator Snapping Turtles into their new enclosures!
Now as I'm getting more opportunities in my internship, I am loving it even more. I want to go to work everyday and when I am not there, I feel like I am missing out. I know I am in the right place when I don't even want to get sick because that would mean not being at the zoo. Today was one of those reminders that it is important to do something you love and love what you do, whether that is with animals or anything else. If you love what you are doing, it doesn't feel like work!
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Day 27: Animal Hospital
Thursday, July 4
This morning I went out to clean up the old salad in the giant tortoise exhibit. Every time I give the tortoises a little attention, there seems to be a comment from a visitor who is surprised by the fact that I am rubbing their neck. Afterwards, I helped pick up the remaining salad trays from the building and cleaned the cricket tubs. After break I cleaned black worms. While I was filling up a land/water tub for a turtle I found that there were about 12 eggs that had been laid in the water. The eggs should have been laid in the sand, but sometimes for water turtles the eggs can still grow if they are pulled out of the water in time (it is possible that some of the eggs could be infertile as well). One egg was deformed but the others were generally the correct oval shape. I changed out the water in some water bowls and then it was time for lunch.
Afterwards, I cleaned the baby Alligator Snapping Turtle tanks and finished changing water bowls in the same room. I started changing the water bowls for the Pancake Tortoises when the other intern found that one of the Utila Island Iguanas was not doing well. It appeared to be gasping for breath and was not moving much. Our zoological manager called the vet to let him know we had a sick animal that needed to be looked at right away. I asked if I could go along to the hospital and our manager said that I could! Once we got to the animal hospital, the vet checked the iguana's throat to see if there was any obstruction. The vet said that there was nothing in the passageway so we ruled out the idea that maybe it was choking on something. The iguana did appear to have a distended abdomen, which the vet felt had eggs in it. While the vet was setting up the x-ray machine, the iguana stopped breathing. When a heart-rate machine was used, no heart beat was found. In a more solemn state than entering, my manager and I then left the hospital. We had barely gotten halfway back when we got a call from the vet to come back to the hospital, the iguana was actually still alive! (Evidently, there are many stories about reptiles who were pronounced dead that were found to be alive later!) The vet performed an ultrasound to make sure that there was no egg fluid in her body cavity. The iguana got a few shots and then x-rays were taken. The x-rays were really cool because you could see all the eggs that she was carrying! On the x-rays her lungs looked really clear, so we could definitely rule out any airway obstruction. The shots it had gotten earlier must have started working, because the iguana was taking good deep breaths again and was keeping its eyes open more. After taking a small blood sample for analysis and getting shots, we took the iguana back to the herpetarium. It was so exciting to be able to go to the hospital and observe the procedures! My manager was also proud of me that I took the initiative to ask if I could go and watch.
After break, the other intern and I worked on misting the galliwasps and changing their water bowls. While we were working, a drain overflowed, so we then had to take care of that before finishing. I cleaned some of our baby McCord's Box Turtle tanks and gathered trash from the building. Before leaving, I checked on our iguana and it was breathing well, had its eyes open, but still hadn't moved much. At least it was still alive!
This morning I went out to clean up the old salad in the giant tortoise exhibit. Every time I give the tortoises a little attention, there seems to be a comment from a visitor who is surprised by the fact that I am rubbing their neck. Afterwards, I helped pick up the remaining salad trays from the building and cleaned the cricket tubs. After break I cleaned black worms. While I was filling up a land/water tub for a turtle I found that there were about 12 eggs that had been laid in the water. The eggs should have been laid in the sand, but sometimes for water turtles the eggs can still grow if they are pulled out of the water in time (it is possible that some of the eggs could be infertile as well). One egg was deformed but the others were generally the correct oval shape. I changed out the water in some water bowls and then it was time for lunch.
Afterwards, I cleaned the baby Alligator Snapping Turtle tanks and finished changing water bowls in the same room. I started changing the water bowls for the Pancake Tortoises when the other intern found that one of the Utila Island Iguanas was not doing well. It appeared to be gasping for breath and was not moving much. Our zoological manager called the vet to let him know we had a sick animal that needed to be looked at right away. I asked if I could go along to the hospital and our manager said that I could! Once we got to the animal hospital, the vet checked the iguana's throat to see if there was any obstruction. The vet said that there was nothing in the passageway so we ruled out the idea that maybe it was choking on something. The iguana did appear to have a distended abdomen, which the vet felt had eggs in it. While the vet was setting up the x-ray machine, the iguana stopped breathing. When a heart-rate machine was used, no heart beat was found. In a more solemn state than entering, my manager and I then left the hospital. We had barely gotten halfway back when we got a call from the vet to come back to the hospital, the iguana was actually still alive! (Evidently, there are many stories about reptiles who were pronounced dead that were found to be alive later!) The vet performed an ultrasound to make sure that there was no egg fluid in her body cavity. The iguana got a few shots and then x-rays were taken. The x-rays were really cool because you could see all the eggs that she was carrying! On the x-rays her lungs looked really clear, so we could definitely rule out any airway obstruction. The shots it had gotten earlier must have started working, because the iguana was taking good deep breaths again and was keeping its eyes open more. After taking a small blood sample for analysis and getting shots, we took the iguana back to the herpetarium. It was so exciting to be able to go to the hospital and observe the procedures! My manager was also proud of me that I took the initiative to ask if I could go and watch.
After break, the other intern and I worked on misting the galliwasps and changing their water bowls. While we were working, a drain overflowed, so we then had to take care of that before finishing. I cleaned some of our baby McCord's Box Turtle tanks and gathered trash from the building. Before leaving, I checked on our iguana and it was breathing well, had its eyes open, but still hadn't moved much. At least it was still alive!
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| Utila Island Iguana |
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Day 26: Rearrangement
Saturday, June 29
This morning I cleaned the giant tortoise exhibit, which lead to tortoise neck rubbing for my tortoise friend and being able to answer a lot of questions from visitors. I picked up more salad trays, cleaned the black worms, and then finished picking up salad trays in a room off exhibit. After break I did the dishes and changed out the water in the Galliwasp cages.
After lunch, I got to help another zookeeper with a larger project of starting to move around enclosures in the basement. One room in the basement is being rearranged and some of the animals are moving out of it, while others are moving in. I removed mulch from a large water/land tub before we moved it out of the room to clean it. We moved two water/land tubs and stands out of the one room and moved them to another location. Once we got the tubs cleaned and set back up, I filled one of them with sand. We refilled the water and placed a few turtles back inside. The process took a while because during the moving and cleaning, the other zookeeper was trying to figure out the best way to go about the whole rearrangement of multiple animal enclosures. We weren't able to figure out all the logistics of all the moving right then, but maybe when I go back next week more will be figured out. It will be quite a process whenever we start doing more work! I'm excited to be able to help out with the project because it will be something I can look at and know that I had a hand in the new animal arrangement. Afterwards, I syphoned cleaned the bottom of three turtle tubs. After break, I did a quick clean on some McCord's Box turtle tubs, did some general cleaning, took out the trash, and then it was time for us all to head out.
This morning I cleaned the giant tortoise exhibit, which lead to tortoise neck rubbing for my tortoise friend and being able to answer a lot of questions from visitors. I picked up more salad trays, cleaned the black worms, and then finished picking up salad trays in a room off exhibit. After break I did the dishes and changed out the water in the Galliwasp cages.
After lunch, I got to help another zookeeper with a larger project of starting to move around enclosures in the basement. One room in the basement is being rearranged and some of the animals are moving out of it, while others are moving in. I removed mulch from a large water/land tub before we moved it out of the room to clean it. We moved two water/land tubs and stands out of the one room and moved them to another location. Once we got the tubs cleaned and set back up, I filled one of them with sand. We refilled the water and placed a few turtles back inside. The process took a while because during the moving and cleaning, the other zookeeper was trying to figure out the best way to go about the whole rearrangement of multiple animal enclosures. We weren't able to figure out all the logistics of all the moving right then, but maybe when I go back next week more will be figured out. It will be quite a process whenever we start doing more work! I'm excited to be able to help out with the project because it will be something I can look at and know that I had a hand in the new animal arrangement. Afterwards, I syphoned cleaned the bottom of three turtle tubs. After break, I did a quick clean on some McCord's Box turtle tubs, did some general cleaning, took out the trash, and then it was time for us all to head out.
Day 25: Adorable Turtles
Friday, June 28
As per the usual salad day routine, I started out cutting produce and preparing salads. As salads were made, I delivered them to the respective animals. I love watching the Fly River Turtles eat banana slices. They see me and start watching, so when I toss in some bananas they get very excited and swim to it; they grab the slice in their mouth and then use their flippers to help break off a bite sized piece. They are typically adorable turtles but when they are excited for bananas and sweet potatoes it is even more adorable. After break, the other intern and I finished preparing the salads and then cleaned up the mess from the morning preparations.
After lunch, I cleaned the black worms, did the dishes, and changed out water for some turtles and lizards. I cleaned the baby Alligator Snapping Turtles and McCord's Box Turtle tanks again because they had already made a mess since yesterday! The McCord's Box Turtle babies are also super adorable. They are smaller than the palm of my hand and just a few months old! But remember, these animals have been driven to virtual extinction in the wild due to the pet trade, so do not go out looking for one as a pet! After break, I cleaned the Spotted Turtle tanks and then misted the Galliwasps. The other intern and I agreed that it was one of those days where it seemed like we didn't do many tasks, but everything took a lot of time!
As per the usual salad day routine, I started out cutting produce and preparing salads. As salads were made, I delivered them to the respective animals. I love watching the Fly River Turtles eat banana slices. They see me and start watching, so when I toss in some bananas they get very excited and swim to it; they grab the slice in their mouth and then use their flippers to help break off a bite sized piece. They are typically adorable turtles but when they are excited for bananas and sweet potatoes it is even more adorable. After break, the other intern and I finished preparing the salads and then cleaned up the mess from the morning preparations.
After lunch, I cleaned the black worms, did the dishes, and changed out water for some turtles and lizards. I cleaned the baby Alligator Snapping Turtles and McCord's Box Turtle tanks again because they had already made a mess since yesterday! The McCord's Box Turtle babies are also super adorable. They are smaller than the palm of my hand and just a few months old! But remember, these animals have been driven to virtual extinction in the wild due to the pet trade, so do not go out looking for one as a pet! After break, I cleaned the Spotted Turtle tanks and then misted the Galliwasps. The other intern and I agreed that it was one of those days where it seemed like we didn't do many tasks, but everything took a lot of time!
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Day 24: Picture Day
This morning I started the day cleaning the giant tortoise exhibit! I had family at the zoo today so while I was working in various locations, they were taking pictures of me. While I was picking up the salads, my tortoise friend came up to me again for a neck rub. I also was able to talk to another zoo worker about the tortoises and answer some of her questions. Back inside, I helped pick up the salad bowls for the building and then cleaned the black worms. After break, I cleaned some cricket tubs and made sure all the insects had food. I then did the dishes and changed the water of some animals off exhibit. I felt super productive this morning since I was the only house intern today. The other intern is out of town, but I was able to finish all of the daily tasks by myself before lunch.
And some pictures of me at work:
After having lunch with my family, I gave them a quick tour of the exhibits in the herpetarium and gave fun facts about some of the animals. I collected a few more salad trays and then processed the cricket shipment. I cleaned the baby Alligator Snapping Turtle tanks and the McCord's Box Turtle tubs before break. Afterwards I was able to clean the inside glass for the Dumeril's Ground Boa and Black Tree Monitor exhibits. It was cool and a little strange to be in an exhibit with the animals in there too. There was another keeper at the top of the exhibit who was an extra pair of eyes for me and on the animals. This experience is just another example of how snakes are not out to get humans. The other keeper rained water on the boas at first to tell them that it was not feeding time. I was standing just a few feet from one of the boas and it just minded its own business and left me alone. It was funny because I was directly on the other side of glass from visitors who were standing close to see the animal, or maybe to watch a zookeeper in action. It was hard to tell. It was definitely fun being able to do something new! I finished cleaning the McCord's Box Turtle tubs and cleaned the Spotted Turtle tanks before taking out the trash and helping to close the building. On the way out of the zoo, I was walking next to a family and the dad said "It's the girl in the snake exhibit!" He must have been one of the people watching me clean, so I chatted with him and his family on my way out.
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| Black Tree Monitor |
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| Dumeril's Ground Boa |
And some pictures of me at work:
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Day 23: Snake Handling
Saturday, June 22
This morning I helped clean some of the glass before cleaning the giant tortoise yard. Today there were workers outside of the yard so there was no crowd gathered around watching me work. I was happy that I was able to work with the giant tortoises three days in a row! After cleaning all the salad scraps up I took a few minutes to give some attention to my tortoise friend. The other tortoises are always still asleep in the morning or they just let me know that they do not want to be touched. This tortoise is the complete opposite, which is awesome. I felt really sad today when I had to stop giving the tortoise a neck rub and get back to work. He was still stretching out his neck after I was already out of the yard in hopes that I would come back. I then misted the two outside lizard enclosures and cleaned the black worms. I then went to a zookeeper to see what I could work on next and he taught me how to use a snake hook and handle snakes! I was super excited to learn something new! Snake hooks take some practice to work with, but I was able to get down the general idea. I watched the zookeeper handle one snake and then I got to handle a Madagascar Ground Boa. We needed to take the snakes out of their enclosures in order to clean them and change the water. It was hard to try and handle a heavy snake using one hook and then holding the other part of the snake, while trying to get them in/out of their enclosure, while they are moving all over. After the morning break I then got to watch the same zookeeper handle venomous snakes. It was nice being able to watch another zookeeper work and see how they do things. This also gave me the opportunity to talk to him and some of the other zookeepers more who were in the same area.
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| Hispaniolan Giant Anole |
some general cleaning, took out the trash, and then it was time to go.
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| Madagascar Ground Boa |
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| Boa Constrictor |
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| Mountain Chicken |
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| Hispaniolan Giant Anole |
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!
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!
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