Zoo Diary 10th - 12th May
Just realised I missed a crap load out of last week, like cleaning the giant tortoises (having to slide them back across the floor, every 20 seconds as they try and barge their way outside XD) and guinea pig fishing among other things. Must try and write stuff up sooner.
Ok so this week...
Monday:
8 am Got to start with the tamarins and marmosets again and was pleased cos I love them! (and it's quite easy) and was told that I'd be spending the day with them giving the floors "a proper clean", which other than spending a really nice day inside, I didn't have a problem with.
9.30 am Started on the floors. Was given a paint-scraper and a wire-bristle brush and told to scrape and then scrub cos it all gets impacted then to sweep it into a bucket. Was exactly as fun as it sounds.
10 am Breakfast then back to the monkeys. Managed to get the cotton top tamarins done in about 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Also found that after you've scraped up the impacted fruit/ monkey poo and go to sweep it up, it turns into a very fine dust which made me cough like nothing else. Also found you have to go out for a breather every half an hour cos it's kept as a tropical climate in there. After the cotton tops moved onto the emperor tamarins :D
2.00 pm Saw the owner at lunch and decided to ask for a dust mask cos I was feeling pretty crap by this time. When I got back to it the emperors loved it which made up for not being able to breathe properly XD
They also loved the camera bit on the phone because it's shiny XD
I managed 3 cages out of the 6 in the end by 5.30 :S (OK so the 40 pics I took of the tamarins may have slowed me down a little). By the time I got home I was dead, my back was killing me after being down on the floor for 6 hours and I was hacking like I've been on 40 a day for the past 20 years and sneezing brown stringy stuff out my nose (cos that's the kinda information everybody wants) :P I also got weed on AND pooed on so I think that deserves a record of some sort. Came home, had a bath, moaned, went down to the freezing lobby to finish off the report I started at the weekend for Derek (cos he kept telling us to justify what we wanted to achieve enrichment wise, so I offered to write a report) and sent that off then limped upstairs to eat tuna pasta and watch Sherlock Holmes in bed (not 'Sherlock Holmes in bed' :P) Ooh and of course read the next chapter of "Missing" EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Ok so this week...
Monday:
8 am Got to start with the tamarins and marmosets again and was pleased cos I love them! (and it's quite easy) and was told that I'd be spending the day with them giving the floors "a proper clean", which other than spending a really nice day inside, I didn't have a problem with.
9.30 am Started on the floors. Was given a paint-scraper and a wire-bristle brush and told to scrape and then scrub cos it all gets impacted then to sweep it into a bucket. Was exactly as fun as it sounds.
10 am Breakfast then back to the monkeys. Managed to get the cotton top tamarins done in about 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Also found that after you've scraped up the impacted fruit/ monkey poo and go to sweep it up, it turns into a very fine dust which made me cough like nothing else. Also found you have to go out for a breather every half an hour cos it's kept as a tropical climate in there. After the cotton tops moved onto the emperor tamarins :D
2.00 pm Saw the owner at lunch and decided to ask for a dust mask cos I was feeling pretty crap by this time. When I got back to it the emperors loved it which made up for not being able to breathe properly XD
They also loved the camera bit on the phone because it's shiny XD
I managed 3 cages out of the 6 in the end by 5.30 :S (OK so the 40 pics I took of the tamarins may have slowed me down a little). By the time I got home I was dead, my back was killing me after being down on the floor for 6 hours and I was hacking like I've been on 40 a day for the past 20 years and sneezing brown stringy stuff out my nose (cos that's the kinda information everybody wants) :P I also got weed on AND pooed on so I think that deserves a record of some sort. Came home, had a bath, moaned, went down to the freezing lobby to finish off the report I started at the weekend for Derek (cos he kept telling us to justify what we wanted to achieve enrichment wise, so I offered to write a report) and sent that off then limped upstairs to eat tuna pasta and watch Sherlock Holmes in bed (not 'Sherlock Holmes in bed' :P) Ooh and of course read the next chapter of "Missing" EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!