Zooooooooo
I started at the zoo Thursday. The first day was pretty much a huge intro. Everyone is so friendly there, something I've noticed every time I've been there. Patty introduced me to a lot of people around the office. I only remember some of their names but all of them were nice and welcoming.
Then, Deb took me out for a tour around the zoo. We saw all of the animal exhibits as well as the education animal areas. Also met the education animals. She has tons of great information, stories, and experiences. Heres some of the cool stuff in no order.
The otters were out this time. They actually came over to the side of the exhibit for her too because they thought she might have food. That is one of the places they used to occasionally feed them from. Side note, I got an A on my otter paper/my writing intensive course...yay!
Komodo Kingdom is a new building in the zoo. In the basement is the new education area, there are classrooms and a bigger nicer animal area. The outside bird area isn't done quite yet but its looking good. On the main floor of the building there are 3 exhibits, Komodo Dragon, Tortoises and Chinese Alligators.
There are actually 2 Komodo dragons but only one on exhibit at a time, TNT is the male and he is about 100 pounds, his sister is about 50 pounds so big difference. They were originally called fire breathing dragons because of their yellow tongue, looked like fire to people who saw them in the wild.
There are two tortoises on exhibit, they're still kinda small(for their species) because they're about 16 or 17 years old. I think they're about 100 pounds or so. They're named after two of the islands in the Galapagos Islands but I don't remember which ones.
The third exhibit is chinese alligators. They're the smallest species of alligator, and they are small. The huge american alligators you see, these ones are like 1/5 of that size.
When we were walking past one of the areas with swans and ducks, there was one duck, named Elvis, who thought he was a swan. He hung around the swans imitating the movements and sounds of the swans. He is also the only one the swans will let near their nest and babies.
They also have Sumatran tigers. These tigers are the smallest of their species, siberian tigers are about twice as large. The male Sumatran here is really large though, beautiful cats, horrible that their are so few in the wild.
They also have two Malaysian Sunbears. They both came from the same zoo but at different times. At their old zoo, the male was an escape artist and he used to get out and wander to a nearby flower bed. Visitor saw this and thought it was perfectly normal and he was trained to do that so they were just taking pictures and stuff.
Red Pandas are cool. They have two of them at the zoo. They're hard to classify because genetically, they have DNA from: pandas, raccoons, bears, and skunks. So its got its own Family (ya know, Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genius species). In the wild they mostly eat shoots and leaves bamboo and sleep all day. Since they don't have to eat bamboo allll day to get a good amount of food/nutrition at the zoo they can spend more time running around and playing...fun to watch.
We also saw the Himalayan Tahrs, they're related to goats and they can jump real high, really high. I think one of them at the zoo was named Pogo or something similar to that.
Next to them are the snow leopards. They were born a couple years ago on May 18th. They're very cool animals. They were actually born somewhere warm, I think Texas, and this exhibit just opened in 2005 so this is their first real [snow] winter and they're loving it!
Then there's a place to go in and see colorful frogs and different bats. There is also one animal in there that I forget what it is but it has big eyes and is hard to spot. She was telling me how it used to crawl through the net at the top of its exhibit and crawl into the lights, so they put up a few layers of netting. So when we couldn't spot it I looked up and sure enough, it was hanging on the net.
Outside that area is the capybaras. When they got them, they were going to get a pair from the Cleveland rainforest. Unfortunately, a few days before they were set to come down here the male died. After the female was in Akron for a bit they noticed she was bigger and yeah, she was pregnant and delivered 3 boys! So now they have 4. I was kinda surprised at how big they are, I knew they were big animals, the biggest of rodents, just didn't realize how big.
Right next to them is one of their natural enemies, but don't worry, it's safe. The jaguar, Chack, is there. He is a male and he is one generation removed from the wild so he has great genetics. There were 4 in his litter and Akron got one, another zoo got one, and another got two. They're part of the Jaguar species survival plan. In October, 3 baby jaguars were born! They and the mom aren't on exhibit right now but are doing well!
Along with their flamingos and some staff, their penguins came from Sea World when it closed. They have 17 penguins and they're really cool. They all have different colored wing-bracelets and Deb was telling me some of their names. I love penguins.
They also have 2 eagles who were hurt so they couldn't be released to the wild so they live at the zoo. Any feathers that fall out they have to collect and send to the government. The only people allowed to have feathers are licensed native americans for ceremonials use.
There are also Andean condors. These birds have huge wingspans. They can mate every other year. A sign is that the male's head will turn bright yellow. She was telling me that didn't happen last summer so maybe this summer it will.
And the lemurs, they're cool. They had a baby ring tailed lemur born early last year. There are now 4 generations. Deb was telling me she was in there once and the baby ran over and pulled his grandmother's tail and she turned around and pulled him up by the ear and spanked him. One little girl watching said to her mom something like 'hey, that's just like my aunt.'
Education animals...
For mammals
They have chinchillas! Much bigger than Critter...I think he was just small. There are two males, Tigger and Saffie I think. They've got a fennec fox names Radar. Two ferrets named Brutus and Scarlet. There is also a groundhog named Digger and an opossum named Snowflake. The skunk and guinea pigs are in quarantine along with the coati who is also in training. It was a baby when they got it a few months ago so it's still pretty hyper.
For birds
I don't know the exact species of them all. They do have an amazon parrot, a scarlet macaw named Quickdraw, a white bird named Angel, a Tawny Frogmouth named Buzz, after a sound they make, a crow named Pete who says hello, a kestrel, an owl, and some more birds.
For Reptiles
There are lots of snakes. I held the red rat snake and we took the king snake to one of the programs. There are also lots of different turtle species. One of the turtles got run over and doesn't have a back foot and they had to do reconstruct his shell out of wire, fiberglass, and stuff after being run over.
There are also cockroaches and a tarantula.
And probably more I forgot
Friday I went with Debra to two preschool programs. The first one the kids, mostly 3 year old with their moms, were really loud, but the ones that payed attention seemed to enjoy it. The second program there were less kids and mostly older ones, much better behaved. It was cool though. That day I also handled the red rat snake and one of the ferrets.
Then, Deb took me out for a tour around the zoo. We saw all of the animal exhibits as well as the education animal areas. Also met the education animals. She has tons of great information, stories, and experiences. Heres some of the cool stuff in no order.
The otters were out this time. They actually came over to the side of the exhibit for her too because they thought she might have food. That is one of the places they used to occasionally feed them from. Side note, I got an A on my otter paper/my writing intensive course...yay!
Komodo Kingdom is a new building in the zoo. In the basement is the new education area, there are classrooms and a bigger nicer animal area. The outside bird area isn't done quite yet but its looking good. On the main floor of the building there are 3 exhibits, Komodo Dragon, Tortoises and Chinese Alligators.
There are actually 2 Komodo dragons but only one on exhibit at a time, TNT is the male and he is about 100 pounds, his sister is about 50 pounds so big difference. They were originally called fire breathing dragons because of their yellow tongue, looked like fire to people who saw them in the wild.
There are two tortoises on exhibit, they're still kinda small(for their species) because they're about 16 or 17 years old. I think they're about 100 pounds or so. They're named after two of the islands in the Galapagos Islands but I don't remember which ones.
The third exhibit is chinese alligators. They're the smallest species of alligator, and they are small. The huge american alligators you see, these ones are like 1/5 of that size.
When we were walking past one of the areas with swans and ducks, there was one duck, named Elvis, who thought he was a swan. He hung around the swans imitating the movements and sounds of the swans. He is also the only one the swans will let near their nest and babies.
They also have Sumatran tigers. These tigers are the smallest of their species, siberian tigers are about twice as large. The male Sumatran here is really large though, beautiful cats, horrible that their are so few in the wild.
They also have two Malaysian Sunbears. They both came from the same zoo but at different times. At their old zoo, the male was an escape artist and he used to get out and wander to a nearby flower bed. Visitor saw this and thought it was perfectly normal and he was trained to do that so they were just taking pictures and stuff.
Red Pandas are cool. They have two of them at the zoo. They're hard to classify because genetically, they have DNA from: pandas, raccoons, bears, and skunks. So its got its own Family (ya know, Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genius species). In the wild they mostly eat shoots and leaves bamboo and sleep all day. Since they don't have to eat bamboo allll day to get a good amount of food/nutrition at the zoo they can spend more time running around and playing...fun to watch.
We also saw the Himalayan Tahrs, they're related to goats and they can jump real high, really high. I think one of them at the zoo was named Pogo or something similar to that.
Next to them are the snow leopards. They were born a couple years ago on May 18th. They're very cool animals. They were actually born somewhere warm, I think Texas, and this exhibit just opened in 2005 so this is their first real [snow] winter and they're loving it!
Then there's a place to go in and see colorful frogs and different bats. There is also one animal in there that I forget what it is but it has big eyes and is hard to spot. She was telling me how it used to crawl through the net at the top of its exhibit and crawl into the lights, so they put up a few layers of netting. So when we couldn't spot it I looked up and sure enough, it was hanging on the net.
Outside that area is the capybaras. When they got them, they were going to get a pair from the Cleveland rainforest. Unfortunately, a few days before they were set to come down here the male died. After the female was in Akron for a bit they noticed she was bigger and yeah, she was pregnant and delivered 3 boys! So now they have 4. I was kinda surprised at how big they are, I knew they were big animals, the biggest of rodents, just didn't realize how big.
Right next to them is one of their natural enemies, but don't worry, it's safe. The jaguar, Chack, is there. He is a male and he is one generation removed from the wild so he has great genetics. There were 4 in his litter and Akron got one, another zoo got one, and another got two. They're part of the Jaguar species survival plan. In October, 3 baby jaguars were born! They and the mom aren't on exhibit right now but are doing well!
Along with their flamingos and some staff, their penguins came from Sea World when it closed. They have 17 penguins and they're really cool. They all have different colored wing-bracelets and Deb was telling me some of their names. I love penguins.
They also have 2 eagles who were hurt so they couldn't be released to the wild so they live at the zoo. Any feathers that fall out they have to collect and send to the government. The only people allowed to have feathers are licensed native americans for ceremonials use.
There are also Andean condors. These birds have huge wingspans. They can mate every other year. A sign is that the male's head will turn bright yellow. She was telling me that didn't happen last summer so maybe this summer it will.
And the lemurs, they're cool. They had a baby ring tailed lemur born early last year. There are now 4 generations. Deb was telling me she was in there once and the baby ran over and pulled his grandmother's tail and she turned around and pulled him up by the ear and spanked him. One little girl watching said to her mom something like 'hey, that's just like my aunt.'
Education animals...
For mammals
They have chinchillas! Much bigger than Critter...I think he was just small. There are two males, Tigger and Saffie I think. They've got a fennec fox names Radar. Two ferrets named Brutus and Scarlet. There is also a groundhog named Digger and an opossum named Snowflake. The skunk and guinea pigs are in quarantine along with the coati who is also in training. It was a baby when they got it a few months ago so it's still pretty hyper.
For birds
I don't know the exact species of them all. They do have an amazon parrot, a scarlet macaw named Quickdraw, a white bird named Angel, a Tawny Frogmouth named Buzz, after a sound they make, a crow named Pete who says hello, a kestrel, an owl, and some more birds.
For Reptiles
There are lots of snakes. I held the red rat snake and we took the king snake to one of the programs. There are also lots of different turtle species. One of the turtles got run over and doesn't have a back foot and they had to do reconstruct his shell out of wire, fiberglass, and stuff after being run over.
There are also cockroaches and a tarantula.
And probably more I forgot
Friday I went with Debra to two preschool programs. The first one the kids, mostly 3 year old with their moms, were really loud, but the ones that payed attention seemed to enjoy it. The second program there were less kids and mostly older ones, much better behaved. It was cool though. That day I also handled the red rat snake and one of the ferrets.