The Zoo!
So I started an internship three weeks ago at the Detroit Zoo. The interns go on rotations, spending 2 weeks at a time on different exhibits. We're basically keepers without keys or paychecks. I work 40 hours a week for free, it's completely exhausting and I love it. If I were getting paid, it would be a totally awesome job.
My phone takes pretty good pictures so here are
This is from my first week at the Barn/Veldt. This is Ngami, an African wild dog in the Veldt holding. I was throwing horse meat mixed with exotic dog chow to her.
The past two weeks I've been doing Camels/Pampas/Tree Roo. These are the Pampas capybara girls! Capys are the world's largest rodents. They're super super cute, but also kinda nasty animals, and they're very skittish. They like frosted mini wheats!
This is Hamburger, Burger, Burgerama, Burgeroid, etc. He's the brother of the other capys, but they all beat him up pretty bad (hence the name) so he lives on his own at the Tree Roo exhibit. Even the pudu intimidates him now.
This is T. Roy the pudu. He's a little deer and he's less than a foot tall at the shoulder! (SO CUTE.) He has one horn and is fearless. He likes his grape snack I give him after we clean out his holding.
This is Laroo the tree kangaroo. She spends most of her day sitting up in her tree, so we don't get to see her very much, but the other day...
She wanted to come in for dinner early! Tree kangaroos are cool because in the trees they climb around like a little bear or cat, but they still hop around on the ground.
Onto the camel exhibit. This is Princess and Boris (just his head behind her) out in their yard. They're Bactrian camels (2 humps), and they are HUGE. Both are pretty cranky and spit sometimes, but every afternoon I give Boris his meds bagel with pills stuck in it. He doesn't notice the pills and eats the whole bagel in one bite.
This is to show their size a little. This is Boris in camel holding, he's a bit shorter than Princess whose humps almost touch the top of that eight foot door. Seriously I can't get over how huge they are.
This is Spike, the male white-lipped deer. He was at the Veldt while I worked there to clear up a minor medical problem, then I got to see him moved across the park to the camels to be with the rest of his ladies. I also got to see him immobilized for a hoof trim. Right now he's really nice, he'll come up to the fence to let you scratch his antlers that are growing for the summer, but apparently during the rut in the fall he's really aggressive to the point that he killed a baby camel a few years ago. But for now, he thinks he's a lap deer.
This is Jacque the hippo. We don't get to work with him very closely, but we got to see another keeper throwing produce at him. He's trying to catch an apple in this picture.
This is Timmy the Tapir! I REALLY LIKE THE TAPIRS. They're one of the few animals that direct contact is allowed, and they're really friendly. Timmy weighs 575 lbs, so his size is deceiving by the picture. He has dry skin so everyday I try to use a pushbroom head and give him a good scratch all over. He makes faces for the first few minutes then sits down then falls over on his side and rolls over so you can give him a belly rub. Just like a dog. I love himmmm.
Part of our job as interns is to help with animal enrichment... basically just doing things for the animals to keep their minds going. I've done target training with the camels and P horses, hidden food around yards, spices on logs for the dogs, etc. This is one of a few food puzzle toys the interns made (this one is probably for primates). You put pieces of food inside and there's a sleeve that can slide along the tube to cover or uncover holes so the food can fall out. It's made of PVC that we had to saw and drill and paint and glue, etc. Power tooollllsss!
This is Dive, the female tapir. Unlike Timmy, Diva is a sass. She squeals all the time and bites keepers shoes if they're not watching. The tapirs are in the Pampas building (not currently on display to the public), so I'm in charge of their enrichment! Yesterday when it was really hot I had prepared a frozen orange juice block for them and judging by how fast they disappeared, I'd say the tapirs enjoyed them. I also give them showers with the hose everyday and yesterday they both got wild and crazy during them. Diva was running back and forth through the yard and Timmy was picking up branches with his mouth and swinging them around his head while sitting in the shower. It was so much fun to watch.
This is not from the zoo. Last week Sean and I had our 4 month anniversary so we went on a nature walk and picnic. He found this baby painted turtle! We offered it some apple then put him back in the creek.
My phone takes pretty good pictures so here are
This is from my first week at the Barn/Veldt. This is Ngami, an African wild dog in the Veldt holding. I was throwing horse meat mixed with exotic dog chow to her.
The past two weeks I've been doing Camels/Pampas/Tree Roo. These are the Pampas capybara girls! Capys are the world's largest rodents. They're super super cute, but also kinda nasty animals, and they're very skittish. They like frosted mini wheats!
This is Hamburger, Burger, Burgerama, Burgeroid, etc. He's the brother of the other capys, but they all beat him up pretty bad (hence the name) so he lives on his own at the Tree Roo exhibit. Even the pudu intimidates him now.
This is T. Roy the pudu. He's a little deer and he's less than a foot tall at the shoulder! (SO CUTE.) He has one horn and is fearless. He likes his grape snack I give him after we clean out his holding.
This is Laroo the tree kangaroo. She spends most of her day sitting up in her tree, so we don't get to see her very much, but the other day...
She wanted to come in for dinner early! Tree kangaroos are cool because in the trees they climb around like a little bear or cat, but they still hop around on the ground.
Onto the camel exhibit. This is Princess and Boris (just his head behind her) out in their yard. They're Bactrian camels (2 humps), and they are HUGE. Both are pretty cranky and spit sometimes, but every afternoon I give Boris his meds bagel with pills stuck in it. He doesn't notice the pills and eats the whole bagel in one bite.
This is to show their size a little. This is Boris in camel holding, he's a bit shorter than Princess whose humps almost touch the top of that eight foot door. Seriously I can't get over how huge they are.
This is Spike, the male white-lipped deer. He was at the Veldt while I worked there to clear up a minor medical problem, then I got to see him moved across the park to the camels to be with the rest of his ladies. I also got to see him immobilized for a hoof trim. Right now he's really nice, he'll come up to the fence to let you scratch his antlers that are growing for the summer, but apparently during the rut in the fall he's really aggressive to the point that he killed a baby camel a few years ago. But for now, he thinks he's a lap deer.
This is Jacque the hippo. We don't get to work with him very closely, but we got to see another keeper throwing produce at him. He's trying to catch an apple in this picture.
This is Timmy the Tapir! I REALLY LIKE THE TAPIRS. They're one of the few animals that direct contact is allowed, and they're really friendly. Timmy weighs 575 lbs, so his size is deceiving by the picture. He has dry skin so everyday I try to use a pushbroom head and give him a good scratch all over. He makes faces for the first few minutes then sits down then falls over on his side and rolls over so you can give him a belly rub. Just like a dog. I love himmmm.
Part of our job as interns is to help with animal enrichment... basically just doing things for the animals to keep their minds going. I've done target training with the camels and P horses, hidden food around yards, spices on logs for the dogs, etc. This is one of a few food puzzle toys the interns made (this one is probably for primates). You put pieces of food inside and there's a sleeve that can slide along the tube to cover or uncover holes so the food can fall out. It's made of PVC that we had to saw and drill and paint and glue, etc. Power tooollllsss!
This is Dive, the female tapir. Unlike Timmy, Diva is a sass. She squeals all the time and bites keepers shoes if they're not watching. The tapirs are in the Pampas building (not currently on display to the public), so I'm in charge of their enrichment! Yesterday when it was really hot I had prepared a frozen orange juice block for them and judging by how fast they disappeared, I'd say the tapirs enjoyed them. I also give them showers with the hose everyday and yesterday they both got wild and crazy during them. Diva was running back and forth through the yard and Timmy was picking up branches with his mouth and swinging them around his head while sitting in the shower. It was so much fun to watch.
This is not from the zoo. Last week Sean and I had our 4 month anniversary so we went on a nature walk and picnic. He found this baby painted turtle! We offered it some apple then put him back in the creek.