Aside from my usual fun with the rhinos, I've had some exciting tours of other areas in the zoo over the past week. I got a tour of the elephant barn and holdings and got to watch their demonstration, where they show off their ears and trunks and teeth (they have 4!) and feet to the public. These behaviors are also obviously very important for medical purposes. In the restraint stall used for medical procedures, they've got a machine that can actually rotate the elephant onto its side. Really impressive, considering they weigh around 10,000 lbs.! I've also decided I'm happy to not be working with the elephants (as cool and as smart as they may be), since their keepers collectively pick up over 3,000 lbs. of feces every single day--and I thought the rhinos were bad! =) It was crazy to see the old giraffe and elephant barns, which are now used for storage. Some of the bull elephants had bent back metal doors with their tusks and there were markings on the wall of the growth of baby giraffes. Overall, the round-shaped structures seem small and dark. Thank goodness knowledge of animals and conservation policies have changed since then!
The zoo also has some newcomers who aren't on exhibit yet. Two new sea lion pups are in quarantine and being bottle-fed every 4 hours during the day. The 4 AM feeding gets skipped, but someone comes in every night at midnight to take care of the babies. Since they're so small, only keepers from the sea lion team and supervisors go in with them, so I got to see them lounging around through a window. They're pretty cute! My supervisor told us that one of them has recently taken a new liking to biting ankles and proceeded to chase my supervisor around the room the other night when he went in to feed them.
The KC Zoo's kangaroo exhibit has to be one of the coolest parts of our zoo! The 35 kangaroos have free roaming on 7 acres of land and, the best part, there are no fences! Nothing separates the public from the roos. Sweet! When I went on a tour of Australasia on Sunday, I got to feed bread to one of the older females who was off exhibit. She came right up and took the small pieces of white bread right out of my hands. If only I'd had peanut butter and jelly! They like that, too. I also fed the tree kangaroos some grapes.
Speaking of feeding, Jill took me up to the giraffe loft at the end of the day Monday and we opened the doors to the stalls. We sat down on the edge of the loft and fed the giraffe treats out of big bowls. Their huge heads licked the treats out of the bowl with nothing separating us and them. It was amazing! They have pretty eyelashes.
Kirk left for Africa three days ago. He spends three weeks working with hyenas in the wild. His team collars the hyenas, which enables them to track the population and gather data on behaviors, growth, and habitat range. In turn, the African people can better protect and conserve the hyenas and their natural environment. It's hard to believe I only have just over a week left. It's going to be tough to say goodbye to my animal and people friends I've made in my time here. I've already made arrangements to come back and visit, though!
God Bless,
Liz
Zoo-rific Fact of the Day: Zebras like to bite, kick, and otherwise torment each other. You'd think the blows being driven into a zebra's chest by the back feet of another zebra were enough to knock down a concrete structure. And they might be, but when it comes to our stallion, he stands there and takes it and then proceeds to do whatever he was trying to accomplish in the first place. He's a stubborn guy.
No comments:
Post a Comment