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
Friday, January 31, 2014
Saturday, January 25, 2014
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
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
Friday, January 24, 2014
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
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
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
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!
Check it out by clicking here!
Saturday, January 18, 2014
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
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
Thursday, January 16, 2014
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
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
Friday, January 10, 2014
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.....
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
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