Summer Semester Recap!

Oops! I have no idea how a few days turned into a month. How do the days fly by like this??

Last substantial entry I wrote, the turnover process on our animals was in full swing. Now, we have a whole entire summer with our furry/feathery/scaly babies under our belts and we are really truly in charge of our creatures. Summer was much more laid back than the rest of first year. We only had one lecture class that took place Wednesday evenings so our zoo time was open for training, shows, and bonding with our animals. There's really no good way to make this a concise entry, as it was a busy and fun-filled summer, but there are lots of pictures ahead to break up the wall of text!

So without further ado, the highlights:

1. Junior Safari! Over the summer we have week-long camps during which kids get a chance to experience what it's like to be a zookeeper and to learn a little bit about wildlife and the animal industry. We had groups of kiddos running around the zoo every day, and while it could get a little hectic at times it was definitely a fun experience. Their counselors were in charge of keeping them entertained throughout the day, but as keepers we had to do our part in taking animals out, doing training demonstrations, and helping out with the big show at the end of the week.

2. Primate Class! One of the best parts of summer semester is all the field trips we get to take for our Primate Behavior class. We went to Animal Guys, an outreach company; the Gibbon Conservation Center; the Los Angeles Zoo; the Wildlife Waystation, which is a HUGE wildlife sanctuary; Universal Studios to see their Animal Actors show; and believe it or not, the Playboy Mansion! We also had an amazing opportunity to go see the circus for free. I had the best experiences on these field trips, so here's some photos to give you an idea of what it was like!

We camped out all night at the Gibbon Center to hear them all call at dawn!

Class photo outside the playboy mansion :)

This big guy was out for a walk when we went to the Wildlife Waystation. 

We went to the Circus!!

3. Training Class: For the first time, my fellow first years and I got to experience what it was like to train an animal for a grade. I decided to train Miki, the orange-winged Amazon Parrot, and James the donkey. It was a huge learning process and a big challenge, but it was an amazing experience! I'll post a big update with more details soon!

4. My first trip home! I finally got a whole week off to spend back in Chicago with people I love. It was amazing to be back in such a familiar place and I hated having to leave again. Only a couple more months until I get to come home for Christmas!

That's all I've got for summer, stay tuned for training updates!

LOTS of Updates!

Hello faithful readers. Are you still out there? I have been terrible about posting, I know. I'm so sorry. Hopefully these next few entries will make up for it.

Just so I have some accountability, here's what to expect in the next few days:

1. Summer Recap!
2. First Time Training
3. Animal Updates
4. Fall Semester Preview!

I'm working on the summer recap entry now,  but this is just to let everyone back home and anywhere else know that I'm still alive and I haven't forgotten you!

Wait for iiiiiiiittttttt........

Turnover!

As promised, I have a nice long update for you about the turnover process for all of my animals! But first, the bit of exciting news I previously mentioned...

One of the most exciting parts of zoo life is adding new animals to our collection. Recently, we took in a blind baby turkey vulture, only a few months old, and a slightly older kestrel. I put my name on the list to be considered as a trainer for the new kestrel, and I got it! Thankfully the kestrel doesn't have the same long turnover process as the rest of my animals, since she's brand new. So for the first time ever, I am a real live trainer of an ATZ animal! We built her a shelter box and prepared her quarantine enclosure with shade cloth and perching, only to find that she is SO small we had to put a bird cage in her quarantine enclosure because she may slip out through the space between the bottom of the enclosure and the concrete! Her name is Pip, short for Pipsqueak, and she's doing pretty well all things considered. She has a HUGE voice for such a tiny creature, and loves to shriek her displeasure when anyone gets too close. She's pretty snappy and not the tamest or friendliest creature, but at staff's direction we've been attempting to get her to step up this past week or so. On Wednesday, my most recent feed day, I managed to coax her into stepping up on my glove not once but three times! I'm so proud of the progress we are making!

On to the rest of my animals...

Mowgli the Ocelot: Like the rest of my animals, Mowgli's turnover required that I observe him for a certain number of hours and write a paper before I got to proceed further. I finished his observations and paper before any of my other animals because it was so important that I begin practicing his injections as soon as possible. My co-trainers and I observed our second years perform a few injections, and one day we sat down in the vet lab with all of the other trainers on cats who need to be poked, and practiced injecting oranges and feeder mice. It was nice to get the hang of drawing up fluid and build my confidence a little. The next step was to start building our relationship. I visit him one or more times a day just to sit with him, give scratches, and play tug of way. I also bring him 25g of meat from his diet and use that to start asking behaviors: sit, lie down, "be cute," climb it, high five, etc. This gets him used to the idea of seeing me as someone he should listen to. A couple weeks ago I started adding "side" to the behaviors I asked him. This is his cue to press his side up against the enclosure mesh so I can grab a pinch of scruff and inject him. Of course, this was all practice. I would ask side, grab his scruff and manipulate it for a few seconds, then reward him for holding still and cooperating. Some days were better than others, but it felt great to really get that solid. When the time came for me to practice injecting saline for the first time, I felt awesome. I knew I could handle it, and I was confident it would go smoothy. Mowgli was a little less cooperative now that he could see I had an actually pointy pokey thing in my hand, and I did bend the needle on the way out, but I managed to successfully give him the injection! It was one of the most exciting and nerve-wracking things I have done with my animals so far. Now our second years are leaving for their projects, so we'll be taking over all feeding days and medications since we have already learned his diet and cleaning schedule. My co-trainer Amy is currently a little better with the injections, so she will be taking all of them these next few weeks while I continue to practice with Saline. When our second years come back from Projects, all I have to do is demonstrate that I can perform the injection and I'll be good to take over completely. Then all Amy and I have to do is teach our third co-trainer the procedure over the summer, since he hasn't progressed quite as far yet. So aside from getting the injections down really solid, I'm pretty much turned over!!

Cain the Chattering Lory: This little squishybird has been one of the hardest animals to turn over on. As I'm sure I mentioned, I was a caretaker on Cain, which means he has been building a relationship with me since September. My two co-trainers are brand new, so I have had to take a back seat while they "catch up." At first, the plan was for me to limit my interactions to saying hi as I passed his enclosure. The other two girls would take him out with the second years and get to know him a little. During this process, Cain started becoming increasingly aggressive towards the second years. He is a smart little guy, and he is definitely aware that turnover is going on and that the second years are about to leave. At one point we even had to halt turnover entirely until Spring Spectacular was over, so Cain wouldn't attack the second years on stage. Things had been going pretty well for me, as limited as the interactions were. He would call to me whenever he saw me, love dance at me when I stopped by, and continually offer his head to groom. So, I was feeling pretty good about finally being able to interact freely again! Yesterday, I was finally approved to go in and drop his PM diet, something I hoped he would be excited about. Unfortunately, the minute I entered his enclosure he started relentlessly flying at my head. I would duck, and he would land on the branch behind me only to turn around and charge at me again. If he did hit his target he would latch on and start biting. Nothing could get him off - eventually I had to fling him to the ground at which point he sprinted across the bottom of the enclosure trying to bite my shoes. I left, took a breather for ten seconds, then came back with seeds. He was much calmer, and took the seeds without incident.  Today, I took him out to play for the first time. Once again, he was incredibly aggressive. No amount of distraction could divert his attention from biting every exposed inch of skin. We tried everything, but eventually had to take him home. I brought him seeds again a few minutes later, and he tried to make love to my hand through the enclosure wall.

Cain is a walking contradiction.

My theory, and the second years seem to agree, is that this is an incredibly difficult time for him and he may not understand who is leaving and who is staying. He may think of me as being on roughly the same level as the second-years, so as he is punishing them for leaving he is also punishing me. We've adjusted the turnover schedule now to let ME catch up. Tomorrow, I will shower him with love. I get to take all his feeds, bring him seeds all day, and essentially suck up to him as much as I can. Sunday I will be in San Diego, so hopefully on Monday when I attempt to take him out by myself his feelings towards me will be a little more positive!

Michele the Capuchin: Turnover for Michele has been slow because she is a primate. She's incredibly intelligent but also has some neurotic tendencies that can flare up when she is nervous or overwhelmed. We started off simply helping her trainers make her diet and packaging it up in cool B.E. We then helped place her food around her enclosure while she watched from her spot locked off in a separate bedroom, so she could see us with her trainer, know we were "okay," and would associate us with the arrival of good things. The next step was to start dropping food and B.E. on our own. Every so often I would bring her a little flower, a piece of food from her dinner wrapped up in paper, or a packet of cinnamon. Cinnamon is her absolute favorite. When I give her a packet, she squeaks as she opens it up and then rubs it vigorously all over her fur. The BIGGEST step we've made so far in turnover has been to start asking behaviors, which only began yesterday. I practiced with each of her current trainers, and then for the first time today I went to ask behaviors on my own. She can stand up, give a high five, put her hand on her head, climb the enclosure wall, grab and hold a carabiner attached to the mesh, and present her hands, feet, and tail for examination. She performed all of her behaviors for me! It was so cool to hold her tiny hands in mine for the first time!

James the Donkey: Fluffy faaace! So far, I have spent bonding time with him, taken him on walks, learned his behaviors, learned how to administer his medication, taken over feeding days, and observed him in a show. All that is left is to take him to a show on my own and I'll be all turned over! "Turnover Shows" are the last step in the process for all show animals. For me, that is James, Cain, and Miki. I have to bring them to one of our shows for the public and talk a little bit about the species and the individual animal while demonstrating their behaviors. All turnover shows must be observed by staff, at which point we are officially "checked off" on our show skills!

Nadia the Kinkajou: I was making great progress with my kinkajou for a while, and then things slowed down a little bit. However I have caught up pretty quickly. I watched several training sessions with her and accompanied her trainers as they walked her in her crate down to our Eye-to-Eye theater. I've learned how to make her diet, and also how to perform positive checks. Since she is a nocturnal animal, she needs to be checked on three times a day to make sure she's still okay and not too hot or cold. Today was my first official "Nadia Day!" I arrived at the zoo extra early to do her first check at 7:30 a.m. I opened up her little den box and peered under her blanket to see a sleepy little kinkajou staring back at me. Since it was still cool, I took one of her blankets but left the other one behind and closed her box again. By the time I went to do her midday check, the temperature had risen significantly. I opened up her box to get some ventilation going and exchanged her fleece blanket for a much lighter pillowcase. I left the fleece blanket hanging over a branch so she could get it if she got too cool. For the third check, my last of the day, I closed up her box again for the night but left a smaller box open so she could go there if her main den box became too hot. I left both the pillow case and the blanket in her enclosure so she could decide which she preferred. Before I left, I spread her yummy dinner out all around so she could climb around and explore to find it all.

Miki the Orange-Winged Amazon: Miki-bird's biggest problem is his food aggression. I've made GREAT progress with taking him out to weigh him, he is now consistently stepping up for me without lunging or biting. However, when I go to spread his dinner or breakfast around, he becomes aggressive and very possessive of his food. There is an art to accomplishing this task that I haven't 100% mastered: you must duck PAST the angry bird to the very farthest food dish, so he is (theoretically) happily distracted by the food far away from you while you place the rest. However, that bird moves like lightning and I'm not totally comfortable ducking past him to get to the farthest dish and then having to once again get past the incredibly focused parrot now making his way rapidly towards me with fierce determination. My strategy instead has been to put a handful in the dish on whatever side of the door he is not occupying, and THEN sprint to the farthest and back out again, dropping pellets and veggies frantically as I go. I'm sure that as he learns to trust me more (and I learn to trust him) this task will get much easier!

And that's all my critters! I hope this gives you at least a small picture of what daily life is like for me at the zoo. I'll update again as I make more progress!

Love and Bellyrubs,

Christy

Still Alive!

Hello Readers!

Sorry to disappoint, but this is just a teaser entry. I just wanted to remind you all that I have not forgotten about the blog! We have our second big Behavior exam tomorrow, so I have been spending roughly every single night studying the eight chapters covered in this unit. On the bright side, I feel great about the exam! On the downside, I'm tired all the time and all this studying leaves little time for fun things like blog updates.

However, I do intend to keep my promise to update you all about the turnover process! I also have another bit of exciting news that I haven't yet shared ;)

Keep your eyes open for a long update coming soon!

Love and belly rubs,

Christy

A Whole Mess of Updates!

Hello Faithful Readers!

It feels like it has been forever since I last gave you an update. Life has exploded with things to do the past couple of weeks and it has been difficult to keep my head above the pile of busy.

Here are the highlights:

1. Extras have been posted! Along with Cain, James, Michele, and Mowgli, I also get to take care of Nadia the kinkajou and Miki the Orange-Wing Amazon Parrot!

2. My family was here this past week! I truly have to words for how great it was to see them. With all the craziness happening at the zoo it was so nice to have a fresh breath of normalcy. Having them around was truly like fresh air. I was thrilled to show them around my zoo and share this amazing place and my awesome life with them. I already feel lonely again, but I'm comforted to know I will be seeing them in July :)

3. The turnover process for my animals is going very well. I've been performing a delicate balancing act lately, trying to divide my precious and rare free time between painting the Spring Spectacular set, observing Michele for my Animal Behavior research paper, and working on turnover for each of my animals. This is no easy feat! But juggling all of this has taught me that I still have so much to learn regarding the level of work I am capable of handling. I thought I had hit my limit weeks ago, but every day I impress myself with how much I am able to accomplish. Today, for example, I finished my turnover observations, observed Michele for the Behavior paper for four hours, went to two adoption appointments, and did some research for my turnover papers. Compared to other people in my class, I am a few hours behind on the Behavior class observations but from what I have heard it sounds like I'm one of the few that has all my turnover observations done, and that is on top of devoting half my free time to painting the set!

Long story short, there is a LOT going on but I am pretty proud of the fact that I am hanging in there and staying on top of the pile.

Next time, I'll give you all an update on how turnover is progressing for each animal. I have quite a lot of stories there, so stay tuned!

Love and bellyrubs,

Christy

Behavioral Enrichment

Behavioral Enrichment, or B.E. for short, is such a hugely important part of animal care. I cannot stress this enough. Good BE replicates foraging or hunting techniques used in the wild, exercises the animal's mind and body, and helps to alleviate boredom.

One way of incorporating BE into an animal's life is through its food. I have had to do a lot of that this week with Nyani, the Hamadryas baboon I'm taking care of. For example, take a look at her mid-day meal!

The whole spread!

First, I cut up her fruits and veggies into tiny pieces. This gives her more to look for and hopefully it will take her longer to get through her meal. I wrapped each piece in a crumpled strip of newspaper, stuffed a few into a toilet paper roll, and wrapped it all up in newspaper like so.

I continued to wrap the pieces of fruits and veggies in paper balls and filled up a small box. The yummy banana slices she loves were wrapped up and put all the way at the bottom.

Nyani also gets two feet of "browse" every week as part of her food-BE. Other ways to incorporate BE directly into a diet is to add spices, whole fruit, frozen juice, pigeon wings, oatmeal, peanut butter, or a myriad of other tasty treats to mix things up a bit. This way the animals aren't eating the same meal day after day. Today I gave her two feet of trumpet vine to enjoy.

I still had a few little pieces left over after that, so I decided to throw them into her enclosure so she had to forage through the paper already on the ground to find them. Since I usually cut up her leafy greens, I left the romaine whole today and stuck it through the bars up high so she could go climb for it. 

This morning, I took her chow and soaked it in water until it turned to mush. Then I mashed it up with avocado oil, a supplement called Missing Link, oatmeal, cinnamon, all her fruit, and some finely chopped carrots. I spread it in her romaine leaf, wrapped it up like a burrito, and tied it up with a paper towel rope. She LOVED it. She completely ignored all the other food I was putting around her enclosure, eager eyes on the exciting load of goodness I still had in my hands. 

Enrichment is particularly important for primates, many of whom can display neurotic boredom behaviors if not properly mentally stimulated. But this doesn't mean it can be ignored for other species! One of my favorite animals to watch receive her enrichment is Kiara, the lion. Her new trainer likes to hang huge boxes from the roof of the arena with a meatball or two inside, and she leaps in the air snarling to get them down. Impressive for a twelve year old big cat! Every species of animal can benefit from enrichment, even if they must be taught how to use it. I even use BE with my rats at home, switching up their food once in a while and hiding it in newspaper balls just like Nyani's. 

This is one of my favorite parts of animal care. I love being creative and thinking up fun new ways to get the animals moving, thinking, and playing. It's a super rewarding feeling when you come up with a successful idea and watch the animal react. Happy animals means happy Christy!

I highly suggest that whether you have a cat, dog, bird, or guinea pig, you try and implement some new and exciting BE for them this week! If you need ideas, leave a comment!

Love and bellyrubs,

Christy

Not-So-Gentle Reminders

I took Cain out today and he bit me really badly. He came over to me when I went inside his enclosure to get him, love danced at my hand for a couple minutes, and let me give him scratches, but when I finally got him to step up he started biting hard and yelling "NO!!" 

When Cain starts biting, he hangs on for dear life. It's not a simple matter of asking him to step down, sometimes you have to fling him away because otherwise he will latch onto your hand with his feet and attack every inch of skin he can. I finally managed to get him off but not before he had grabbed a tendon in my hand and bit down, pulled, and twisted. I walked away and hid behind a bush while he made his "MOM COME BACK" upset call at me. Ten seconds later I went back in, asked him to step up, and took him out to play with no more issues. This is just the way Cain is. Sometimes he has bouts of aggression that appear to come out of nowhere. I don't take it personally, because it's not personal, but it is a harsh reminder that I'm not working with pets anymore. These are wild animals that do wild animal things. It was hard to use my hand for a few hours after our session and it still feels sore and bruised deep inside. He really got at something in there. But my motor skills are not impaired enough to get in the way of performing the tasks I need to perform, and at least he didn't send me to the hospital like the new coati did to one of his trainers! 

Bites are a part of life here. It sucks when it happens, especially when it comes from an animal you love. But they are a necessary reminder to be careful and treat these animals with the caution they deserve. Just because my ocelot looks like a pretty kitty doesn't mean he won't sink his teeth into me if given the chance. And let me tell you, I would rather have a bite from Cain than one from Mowgli. I'll definitely be a little more wary of the "business end" of all my animals now. 

     

Mr. Mowgli! 

James, my fluffy donkey!

Look at that face. Irresistible. 

And of course, Cain. Looking deceptively innocent.


No pics of Michelley-Monkey yet. She is difficult to photograph.

In other news today, I got to have a nice grooming session with the coati I'm taking care of, giving her lots of scratches. And a capuchin pulled my hair and scratched my forehead. 

Capuchins are dicks. 

Fantastic News!!!

Hello faithful readers!

Here it is, finally, the moment we all have been waiting for (or at least, the moment I have been eagerly awaiting with bated breath for months!)

ANIMAL ASSIGNMENTS HAVE ARRIVED!!! I will be training.... (drumroll please)

JAMES THE DONKEY

MICHELLE THE CAPUCHIN

CAIN, MY BEAUTIFUL AND CRAZY CHATTERING LORY

and MOWGLI THE OCELOT!

Pictures to come soon, but I don't have a whole lot of good ones. I'm working on it!

I am so incredibly excited to be training all of my first choice animals. It feels so good to finally be given a real, tangible reward for working so hard last semester.  I am facing a whole heck of a lot of hard work this semester with turnovers. I have to write at least one paper for each animal (two for Cain), do several hours of observations, learn SO much about diets and behaviors and training, implement new behavioral enrichment plans (and observe some more), and for the animals that appear in shows, bring them onstage for staff to prove my proficiency. On top of that, the extras list has been posted and we now have our chance to ask for animals that have not been assigned yet. My first choice is NADIA, our kinkajou. She has been largely neglected in past years because she is nocturnal and hard to work with, but she should be able to come out and be in shows! I am SO passionate about all these big plans I have for my animals and the upcoming semester/year. I am just bursting with excitement. My goal is to have all my turnover papers done by the end of this week, so hopefully I can stick to that goal. This coming week is Caretaking Week while our second years are in San Diego, so even though I'll have to devote a lot of time to caring for Nyani the Hamadryas baboon, Scout the coati, and of course Cain, next week is also flex week so we don't have any classes to worry about. I have plans to use that extra time productively!


I will update everyone as soon as all of my final extra assignments are made, hopefully with pictures this time. For now, I just want to express how unbelievably out of my mind happy and ecstatic I am. There was a moment of doubt when I wondered if I should have stuck with my original plan of asking for Scooter. She is the easier choice and would in some ways be more fun. She is easier to get out on walks and in some ways easier to train. However, I have to remind myself that I'm not just here to have fun and play with animals. I am here to challenge myself, to push myself, to learn. I picked four animals that are going to test me, challenge me, and force me to learn and grow. And I think that's ultimately the right choice for me. As fun as this program is, I'm not just here to have fun. I want to come out of these two years not only having had some amazing and life changing fun times, but also knowing that I pushed myself, challenged myself, learned a lot, and ultimately became a better person for it.

I'll leave it at that.


I am one happy girl.


Love and bellyrubs,

Christy

STAY TUNED!

The first years have been called to a meeting on Tuesday morning, and it has been officially confirmed by staff that the purpose of this meeting is to discuss animal assignments!!

Hooray hooray!! I can't wait!!

Zoo Foreman

Even after being here for six months, there are still new experiences and new things to learn every day.

This week I got to experience being zoo foreman for the first time! I shadowed a second year as we walked around the zoo checking on all the different areas. Zoo foreman is responsible for making note of any problems within areas or the zoo as a whole and taking steps to fix those problems. We also do a USDA inspection in a different Area twice a week. On Sunday, my second year and I walked around making sure the Carns area was up to USDA standards before continuing to ask the rest of the areas of the zoo if they had anything to report. Monday is inventory day, so we bundled up in our warmest clothes and braved the 2° weather of our walk in freezer to check the amount of frozen goods we had in stock, before continuing to check the rest of the stock in Nutrition and in grain storage. Every night for closing area I was on my own to collect the daily reports for each area as well as the medical compliance binder. I took them back to Zoo 2, our "headquarters," and went through them all to make sure all animals received their medications and that it was properly documented on the daily and in the compliance binder. I also went through the feeding log to be sure all animals were fed. One of the most important things you learn at the zoo is that EVERYTHING needs to be documented once, twice, three times over. Having accurate records is extremely important in the care of animals.

On Wednesday, my last day as Zoo Foreman, we stood up at the front of the lecture hall during our zoo-wide weekly meeting and made our announcements. These generally include things like protocol changes, gentle reminders not to slack on certain things, and any helpful new info.

And that sums up my week! I enjoyed it a lot, and I'm definitely looking forward to being able to tackle that role again. It was a very welcome break from shoveling poop :)


I hesitate to say this, but there is an unconfirmed rumor that animal assignments will be going up TODAY. I am super excited, especially since I thought we wouldn't find out until mid February! Stay tuned, hopefully I will report back later today with some great news!!

Love and Bellyrubs,

Christy

The Little Things

Happy Weekend, Readers!

Today I spent a good chunk of time working the souvenir table at the zoo, selling things like hand-made bookmarks and magnets and other trinkets with the zoo logo to raise money for our class.

I had an experience with a boy about 10 years old that reminded me why I spend all my hours at this exhausting, inspiring, frustrating, amazing place. He had come here with his father, who was catering a birthday party. The boy walked all around the zoo, watching the animals and interacting with those we had out for meet and greets. Eventually he wandered over to my table. I spent the next hour showing him the new bookmarks we had made, sharing fun facts about the species pictured, and answering his endless questions about the program, the animals, how early we have to get up, how late we have to stay, how we train, how adoptions work, and what a day is like at the zoo.

Before he went home, he ran back with two dollars in hand and bought the bookmark featuring our leopard gecko Bianca. He gave me a huge grin and exclaimed, "I want to work here someday!" I told him that he should work hard, study lots, and send in an application as soon as he's old enough. I said it's a lot of work, but it's the best choice I ever made and I just love it here.

With that, I started to pack up my table and he ran off to head home with his dad.

THIS is one of my absolute favorite parts of being here. I love talking to the public and I love it even more when I'm able to give even a tiny party of the excitement and passion I feel for this place and these animals to someone else. I hope I'll see that kid when I come back for a visit ten years from now :)

Love and Bellyrubs,

Christy

Big News!!

Don't get your  hopes up, it's not THE big news... we still won't hear about our animal assignments until next month.

However, we did get our caretaking assignments for San Diego week today! For a week in February I will be responsible for taking care of an adorable coati named Scout and a beautiful, intelligent-as-heck hamadryas baboon named Nyani. I was kind of hoping for the lemurs, since they were on my list of animals to ask for, but I think working with Nyani will be an amazing opportunity. And, of course, I'll get to hang out with my little squishybird Cain again!

In other news... say hello to ATZ's new Adoptions Manager! Here at America's Teaching Zoo families have the opportunity to "adopt" an animal. For a yearly sponsorship fee they get to have personalized meet-and-greets with that animal once a month. I would be the person who puts together adoption packages including sponsorship certificates, and I would also be present for all the adoption appointments with all the animals on the zoo! This is an amazing opportunity to do a lot of interacting with the public and also to spend much more time with the animals!

I am so incredibly excited for what this next year will bring, and I will keep you posted as I learn more about my new position!

Till next time,

Christy

Future Prospects

Just as an example of something I might be doing in a few years, a girl who graduated last spring and used to live in my house now works at Steve Martin's Working Wildlife and trained the dogs for the new Subaru commercial!

Check it out by clicking here!

Quick Brag

To all my followers back home:

It is bright, sunny, and 84 degrees outside on this gorgeous January day! :)

I miss fall, and the sight of the first snow, and the feeling of relief when spring finally comes after a really, really crappy winter, but sometimes I really like California. 


Remember, if you have any questions about this program/the animal industry in general, or anything you would like to know about lil' old me, leave them in the comments and I will answer them in a future post! As I'm sure you've noticed, I love talking about this program.

Stay warm, Midwestern friends!

Love and Bellyrubs,

Christy

New Changes

Howdy friends!

I'm going to try adding advertisements to my blog to bring in a little extra income. I'm sorry if they bother you guys but I'm really, really poor!

If you see something that catches your eye, by all means click on it! However please don't go clicking ads willy nilly just to try and help me out. As much as I appreciate it, I will get in trouble :)

Not much new in Zoo World today. I turned in my animal requests and my manager requests, but so far we have not heard anything. I will of course keep you posted as the (hopefully good) news starts rolling in!

43 days until I get to see my amazing family!

Love and bellyrubs,

Christy

Second Semester

Much like the semester ahead, this blog post is going to be full and busy so bear with me!

First of all, we have made it through our first week of second semester classes! Here's the rundown:

Wildlife Eduction II: The majority of this class is dedicated to honing our show skills and preparing for Spring Spectacular. This is a HUGE event for the zoo and requires months of hard work to make it happen. I am on the set design committee, which means I will be spending many hours every week drawing designs, ordering paint and supplies, whitewashing the stage, setting the sketch, and painting, painting, painting. As soon as the set is all ready and painted I will become part of the props team, attending multiple four-hour-long rehearsals every week to practice moving set pieces on and off stage at the correct times. This committee is going to be an enormous amount of work and I'm a little intimidated, but I'm also incredibly excited to see it all come together.

Animal Behavior: This class is like Diversity Part II, but more theory-based. It is taught by the same scary professor and, while not responsible for QUITE as many failures as Diversity last year, still has a reputation for causing some people to lose their spot in the program. I'm not at all frightened, though. This class is going to be amazing. For the lab portion, we have to complete 30 hours of observation on one or more animals in the zoo and present a paper on our findings. I'm already coming up with ideas! I would love to do a paper on the behavior of animals that are geriatric or have lots of medical issues. How do they spend their time? This is also the class in which we must train a rat to run an obstacle course. I have such high hopes for my babies! I can't wait to get started.

Animal Nutrition: This class will tie heavily into Anatomy from last semester. It's all about understanding the dietary needs of animals, but also learning how to guess what kind of nutrition an animal needs based on its anatomy. When certain species were first brought into captivity there was a lot of guesswork as to what to feed them, as there hadn't been much known about their diet in the wild. A solid understanding of anatomy can help decipher what kind of diet the animal is built for.

Care and Handling II: I am SO EXCITED about this class, particularly because of one of the projects we have to do! At some point during the semester we have to write a research paper on the husbandry and care of a particular species in captivity. This will involve actually going to the Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, or San Diego Zoo to go behind the scenes with a keeper to observe their practices!! I have my heart set on learning about Jaguars. They are one of my absolute favorite animals, and because of their incredible strength and powerful aggression, they can be difficult to keep in captivity. Going to the San Diego Zoo to observe their jaguar collection would be my DREAM, but I would of course need someone to carpool with. Oh the unfortunate downsides of the scooter life :)

Avian and Herptile Care: This class is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. We will learn in depth about the specific needs of birds, amphibians, and reptiles in captivity and how those needs may differ from those of mammals. These are all animals with far more sensitive anatomies that need very specific sorts of care. This semester we'll be learning how to properly provide that care.

That's all this semester, aside from Zoo Skills! A slightly lighter class load in terms of credits, but the work required outside of class far makes up for the missing credits. And on top of that, this is the semester we get to pick our.....

ANIMAL ASSIGNMENTS!!!

I can't believe the amount of pressure I have been feeling over something so simple! I know I will love and care for any animal I end up with, but stick a piece of paper in front of me and say "Pick 6" and of course I will freak out and second-triple-mega-quadruple guess myself. Towards the end of the month we have to submit notecards with our top six choices in four categories: Carnivore, Bird, Herbivore, and Primate.

The only thing I have known for SURE from the very beginning is that my #1 carn choice is Mowgli the ocelot. I love him to death, and he has officially been changed to a year-long animal this year. If I don't get him this semester, I don't get to work with him at all. The rest of my choices don't really matter to me at this point (though Kiara the lion is #2). With my 8 out of 8 points I feel very good about my chances, but the idea of not being assigned to Mowgli is still heartbreaking and enough to make me very nervous.

My top two primates are both free-contact capuchins, but I can't for the life of me decide which one I prefer. Scooter is more independent and doesn't form as close a bond with her trainers, but she also is easier to train and is able to come out on walks much more quickly. Michele is more timid, and it is harder to win her trust, but once you do she forms very strong relationship with her trainers. Both would be a challenge, but in two very different ways. I am planning to sit down with Cindy, our "primate whisperer," to talk about the choices a little more and see if she has any input into which would be a better match. 

I dithered on the subject of birds for a while, but Cain eventually came out on top! I love that little guy so much and I think working with him for the next year will be an incredibly rewarding experience. 

As far as herbivores go, I'm not as worried. Almost all of them are semester-long animals, so I will in theory have the opportunity to train three of them before I leave. Right now my top choice is James, a cuddly donkey with some medical issues that require a little extra care. 

We also get to pick our manager positions this semester. Each of us will be responsible for managing a section of the zoo. These include things like BE Manager (behavioral enrichment), Adoptions Manager, Tools Manager, Euthanasia Manager, Medical Manager, Nutrition Manager, Reptile Manager... the list goes on. At first I wanted medical manager, but I figured out that I can get more practical experience by working with animals that have higher medical needs. I'm not quite as interested in the inventory/ordering prescriptions side of medicine. I want to be the one administering it, the one seeing the difference I am making for the animal. I will do more of that as a trainer. So right now, my number one choice is Graphics Manager. There are so many graphics around the zoo that I always notice as needing a touch-up. Paint is peeling, glass is missing, interactive graphics are falling apart... I would absolutely love to tackle those projects and make our zoo shine again!

Thanks for sticking with me through all the new info! I will of course be posting again when the verdict is in regarding manager positions and animal assignments. Wish me luck!!

Love and bellyrubs,

Christy