From the makers of Xilaa's Insects comes a brand new adventure in the animal kingdom! This is a long post with a bunch of pictures, beware!
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As of May 31st, 2011, I've been an intern at the Oakland Zoo in California. Just getting the position is hard enough -- over 300 people apply for about 50 internships! With a bit of luck and some great letters of recommendation from my past workplaces, I managed to get in!
I started out working with the four African elephants we have. All four of them are very sweet animals (except one of them likes to throw rocks at you if you aren't being entertaining enough). In the course of one day, however, I hurt my back and got heat stroke. Quite unpleasant. My back worsened with the workload, and it was decided between the elephant keepers and I that I change to a different "string" of animals. I'm still good friends with the keepers and the elephants though, and I love to watch them when I have spare time!
This is Donna, the matriarch of our elephants, getting her feet checked out. Our elephants have over five acres of land for their exclusive use, most of which is away from the eyes of zoo guests. (There's only so much "MOOOOM COME LOOK AT THE ELEPHAAAANTS" these guys can take!) Every day, the elephants get debris removed from their feet to ensure their health is top-notch. Jessica, the keeper with the green bucket -- feeds Donna a stream of bananas for being patient.
Donna is in a safety chute while this procedure is done. She's not being squeezed by any means, and she is also not restrained. The chute is for the safety of both the elephant and the keepers. Donna doesn't mind it at all!
I changed from String 5 -- the elephants -- to String 9, which consists of two aviaries, toucans, cotton-top tamarins, a Taiwanese beauty snake, an anaconda, ball pythons, pancake tortoises, an African spurred tortoise, blue and gold macaws, plated lizards, and zebras. It's much less physical labor than String 5, but a lot more detail! It was a bit of a tricky transition, going from animals that weigh over five tons to little birds that weigh only a few ounces, but I love it.
We have two aviaries at the zoo -- Savannah and Hillside. Savannah is the more diverse of the two, containing...*deep breath* spurwing lapwing, white-faced whistling ducks, orange bishops, white-vented bulbul, Hottentot teals, hammerkops, blue bellied rollers, Fischer's lovebirds, Tavata golden weavers, Lilford crane, and speckled pigeons. Whoo! There are about 100 individual birds in all.
These are 2 (and a half) of the whistling ducks. They're one of my favorites in Savannah. It's pretty obvious where the "white-faced" part of their name comes from. The "whistling" part comes from their calls -- they don't quack or tweet, they whistle to each other! It's a three-note call: "peep peep peep!" When I go into Savannah to feed the birds their afternoon meals, the ducks like to follow me and peck at my shoes.
The other aviary, Hillside, has fewer birds and species, but that's because the ones inside are mainly carnivores. They aren't raptors, but they wouldn't mix very well with the tiny weavers or orange bishops. Hillside species include cattle egrets, pied crows, Hadada ibis, sacred ibis, and superb starlings.
This is a cattle egret. They're rather shy birds, preferring to hide in the tall grass of the exhibit, but they can't resist the allure of mealworm treats!
These are our two pied crows. Native to Africa, these guys can be pretty noisy, with cries that can be heard across the zoo! Fun fact: you can tell the male and the female apart by looking at their necks. The male has a jagged pattern between the black of his head and the white on his chest, while the female has a straight pattern! Of course, you can always look at the feet of any bird in the aviaries: boys have bands on their right, girls have them on the left.
Also in this picture is one of the night shelters in Hillside. The birds can use them as places to hide. There are also nest boxes in there.
It's baby season in the aviaries -- we see birds picking up nest material all the time! They also like to copulate in front of the summer camp groups. Educational!
This is one of our blue and gold macaws, although for the life of me I couldn't tell you which one. I'm not too good at telling them apart yet! These guys are very intelligent and like to watch what you're doing. Somewhat nippy too -- watch your fingers. Although they have their feathers clipped, they still manage to escape from their exhibit on occasion. A call came out over the keepers' radios one day: "There's a macaw on the roof." Whoops.
Silly macaws.
Next door to the macaws are the toucans. While not quite as smart as the b&g's, they are intensely curious. Big fans of using their large beaks to investigate everything from toilet paper tubes stuck in coconuts to the shiny zipper on your sweater. They share their exhibit with the tamarins, since the two species normally overlap in the wild. They have a very distinctive call: "hareet-har-har!" Their favorite food is papaya, although they will never pass up a piece of Fig Newton.
The toucan in the foreground, Charles, passed away on Saturday to old age. RIP, sweet prince.
Pancake tortoises! These guys get their name from being very, very flat. They're only about an inch and a half tall! They have no trouble in getting back up if they flip over. They're also rather shy, hiding under rocks or hollow branches. Of course, they have pancake-related names: Flapjack, Ms. Butterworth, and Maple.
This is Soila, our African spurred tortoise, and one of my favorite animals on the string. For being a reptile, she is a very curious animal. If she hears you doing things in the night house, she will come inside to watch you. Soila likes to follow you around and usually makes a mess while doing so. She sometimes gets her water dish stuck under her shell and leaves behind a trail of water as she drags it around. You can't stay mad at that cute little face though! Everyone likes to give her treats of carrot tops and cactus flowers.
This is Domino, one of our four Grant's zebras. They're easier to tell apart than you'd think, especially if you know what to look for. Domino has a bit of a pompadour going on, which sets him apart from the other three zebras! These guys are skittish by nature, but like to watch you work. If you're bringing fresh hay into their exhibit, then they get really interested! They sometimes get a bubble machine as enrichment -- they like to nip at the bubbles!
--+--
tl;dr: Rawbi shovels poo for no pay whatsoever.
Phew! That was a long post. Thanks for bearing with me.
I have my phone on me while I work, and I try to take pictures if anything interesting happens. Expect more in the future!
If you have any questions, I'll answer them to the best of my ability!
--+--
As of May 31st, 2011, I've been an intern at the Oakland Zoo in California. Just getting the position is hard enough -- over 300 people apply for about 50 internships! With a bit of luck and some great letters of recommendation from my past workplaces, I managed to get in!
I started out working with the four African elephants we have. All four of them are very sweet animals (except one of them likes to throw rocks at you if you aren't being entertaining enough). In the course of one day, however, I hurt my back and got heat stroke. Quite unpleasant. My back worsened with the workload, and it was decided between the elephant keepers and I that I change to a different "string" of animals. I'm still good friends with the keepers and the elephants though, and I love to watch them when I have spare time!
This is Donna, the matriarch of our elephants, getting her feet checked out. Our elephants have over five acres of land for their exclusive use, most of which is away from the eyes of zoo guests. (There's only so much "MOOOOM COME LOOK AT THE ELEPHAAAANTS" these guys can take!) Every day, the elephants get debris removed from their feet to ensure their health is top-notch. Jessica, the keeper with the green bucket -- feeds Donna a stream of bananas for being patient.
Donna is in a safety chute while this procedure is done. She's not being squeezed by any means, and she is also not restrained. The chute is for the safety of both the elephant and the keepers. Donna doesn't mind it at all!
I changed from String 5 -- the elephants -- to String 9, which consists of two aviaries, toucans, cotton-top tamarins, a Taiwanese beauty snake, an anaconda, ball pythons, pancake tortoises, an African spurred tortoise, blue and gold macaws, plated lizards, and zebras. It's much less physical labor than String 5, but a lot more detail! It was a bit of a tricky transition, going from animals that weigh over five tons to little birds that weigh only a few ounces, but I love it.
We have two aviaries at the zoo -- Savannah and Hillside. Savannah is the more diverse of the two, containing...*deep breath* spurwing lapwing, white-faced whistling ducks, orange bishops, white-vented bulbul, Hottentot teals, hammerkops, blue bellied rollers, Fischer's lovebirds, Tavata golden weavers, Lilford crane, and speckled pigeons. Whoo! There are about 100 individual birds in all.
These are 2 (and a half) of the whistling ducks. They're one of my favorites in Savannah. It's pretty obvious where the "white-faced" part of their name comes from. The "whistling" part comes from their calls -- they don't quack or tweet, they whistle to each other! It's a three-note call: "peep peep peep!" When I go into Savannah to feed the birds their afternoon meals, the ducks like to follow me and peck at my shoes.
The other aviary, Hillside, has fewer birds and species, but that's because the ones inside are mainly carnivores. They aren't raptors, but they wouldn't mix very well with the tiny weavers or orange bishops. Hillside species include cattle egrets, pied crows, Hadada ibis, sacred ibis, and superb starlings.
This is a cattle egret. They're rather shy birds, preferring to hide in the tall grass of the exhibit, but they can't resist the allure of mealworm treats!
These are our two pied crows. Native to Africa, these guys can be pretty noisy, with cries that can be heard across the zoo! Fun fact: you can tell the male and the female apart by looking at their necks. The male has a jagged pattern between the black of his head and the white on his chest, while the female has a straight pattern! Of course, you can always look at the feet of any bird in the aviaries: boys have bands on their right, girls have them on the left.
Also in this picture is one of the night shelters in Hillside. The birds can use them as places to hide. There are also nest boxes in there.
It's baby season in the aviaries -- we see birds picking up nest material all the time! They also like to copulate in front of the summer camp groups. Educational!
This is one of our blue and gold macaws, although for the life of me I couldn't tell you which one. I'm not too good at telling them apart yet! These guys are very intelligent and like to watch what you're doing. Somewhat nippy too -- watch your fingers. Although they have their feathers clipped, they still manage to escape from their exhibit on occasion. A call came out over the keepers' radios one day: "There's a macaw on the roof." Whoops.
Silly macaws.
Next door to the macaws are the toucans. While not quite as smart as the b&g's, they are intensely curious. Big fans of using their large beaks to investigate everything from toilet paper tubes stuck in coconuts to the shiny zipper on your sweater. They share their exhibit with the tamarins, since the two species normally overlap in the wild. They have a very distinctive call: "hareet-har-har!" Their favorite food is papaya, although they will never pass up a piece of Fig Newton.
The toucan in the foreground, Charles, passed away on Saturday to old age. RIP, sweet prince.
Pancake tortoises! These guys get their name from being very, very flat. They're only about an inch and a half tall! They have no trouble in getting back up if they flip over. They're also rather shy, hiding under rocks or hollow branches. Of course, they have pancake-related names: Flapjack, Ms. Butterworth, and Maple.
This is Soila, our African spurred tortoise, and one of my favorite animals on the string. For being a reptile, she is a very curious animal. If she hears you doing things in the night house, she will come inside to watch you. Soila likes to follow you around and usually makes a mess while doing so. She sometimes gets her water dish stuck under her shell and leaves behind a trail of water as she drags it around. You can't stay mad at that cute little face though! Everyone likes to give her treats of carrot tops and cactus flowers.
This is Domino, one of our four Grant's zebras. They're easier to tell apart than you'd think, especially if you know what to look for. Domino has a bit of a pompadour going on, which sets him apart from the other three zebras! These guys are skittish by nature, but like to watch you work. If you're bringing fresh hay into their exhibit, then they get really interested! They sometimes get a bubble machine as enrichment -- they like to nip at the bubbles!
--+--
tl;dr: Rawbi shovels poo for no pay whatsoever.
Phew! That was a long post. Thanks for bearing with me.
I have my phone on me while I work, and I try to take pictures if anything interesting happens. Expect more in the future!
If you have any questions, I'll answer them to the best of my ability!
