My Zookeeper For A Day Experience at London Zoo - 3rd May 2012
Ok, so I'll write about my day at London Zoo but as I learnt so much I'll try and keep it to what I actually did and not bore you with facts! Needless to say it was an amazing day and one that will stay with me for a long time. I've been to London Zoo a few times but my last time was a few years ago now and even in that short about of time a lot has changed.
I got there at 8.30am and as I was a bit early I was sat in reception and after about five minutes Mick, my escort for the day came over and told me I was the only one signed up for the day when usually there would be five. Amazing! And man it was the best thing that could have happened to me. I got to do everything rather than share it all out and Mick got to answer all of my questions! Actually, Mick was a great guy to be with as he been with the zoo a long time, has worked with nearly all of the animals and so I learned a lot from him, and it was all very interesting.
So after putting some overalls on we got to work. First stop was the zebra enclosure which we were going to muck out. Now when I told people that I was going to be a zookeeper for the day nearly everyone said 'oh you'll be mucking out all day then' which would be fine if it was remotely funny the first time. So yeah, the ninth time you hear it I just started to think 'this is exactly like all of those people that say to me 'you need a Masters to be a librarian? Don't you just shelve books' which is both insulting and ignorant of what the profession entails.
There are three Chapman zebras at the zoo. They run a little retirement home for them as one especially is very old. Their enclosure wasn't actually too bad but all there wod chippings got loaded into a wheelbarrow and fresh stuff was put down, along with sand to wear their hooves down slightly. It looked pretty good when we'd finished although I came back later and the zebras clearly hadn't appeciated the hard work :s Still, I was pleased, especially as it was all heated making it surprisingly hard work.
Next stop was the giraffes who we were going to give a treat to. Well, two of them were being a bit off (a worrying theme of the day and one which I didn't take too personally!) but Millie came over who is the youngest of the three. They're incredible creatures and getting up close to one was pretty amazing. Her black tongue had no problem finding the bread I was handing out.
There are nine bearded pigs at London Zoo and I had the plasure of making their lunch! The kitchen is pretty packed, surrounded with menus for all of the animals in that section. Their menus are pretty varied too, apart from the poor pygmy hippos who are on a diet. There are three deliveries a day and along with the greengrocery around me there were also other larder foods like chocolate spread and jelly! The pigs ate a lot of apples plus potatoes, bananas, beetroot and carrots.
I didn't actually get to feed the food them too though. Instead we went outside and gave them coconuts as part of their enrichment activities. they got one each and I had to throw them into their enclosure. Easy for the first one but after that they spread out so it becomes a quest to not hit any of them! Some of them like to play with the coconuts by rolling them down the moat while others are happy to crunch straight through them! Yeah, you don't want to be on the sharp end of a bearded pig.
Next stop was the penguins who have a new beach! Well, it's been there for a year and it's much bigger than their old pool. All my friends were very excited about me meeting the penguins and so was I...until I actually met them! They have several types at the zoo and some are definitely nicer than others. As soon as you enter the den two Humboldt's are on you and start pecking everything, your scrubing brush, your legs, your shoelaces...nasty little critters. We scrubbed the pool. Penguin pool is really oily and so sticks like gloss paint if you don't scrub it fairly quickly. And it's not a bad job bar the grumpy penguins running around your feet! I did get to meet some of the nicer ones though. One of the African penguins was lvely and let me stroke her. It's funny, as they're birds you expect them to feel feathery but their feathers are so dense that feel quite thick and solid to touch.
Spider monkeys are odd creatures. They have an amazing prehensile tail but no thumb as it gets in the way of their swinging. They also have a liking for popcorn. Who knew! Actually, what we were feeding them wasn't part of their diet per se, but part of their enrichment. There are four spider monkeys but only three were outside. Sonny and Cher are usually quite boisterous but one of them was unusually quiet (told you, it was all odd animal behaviour around me!) and when they went Paulette, one of the oldest Spider Monkeys at 41, came down and took some popcorn which apparently is very unusually. She was lovely and even let us stroke her. I think she gets picked on by the others because ofher age. You could see it in her body language as she appeared very closed up and kept looking over her shoulder every time she took a piece of popcorn :(
The next part of the day was very special. I got to play with the anteaters! They don't usually do that with Zookeeper for a Day as you could never fit five people in the off-show area but as it was just me they let me in with them. They're really dangerous animals though. A vet (not at London Zoo) was killed by one recently. Because of the way they walk you don't see the size of their claws which are huge! There are two anteaters at the zoo. One was asleep and wouldn't wake up but the other was awake. She'd been very ill recently and they thought they were going to lose her. She's recovered though and we put a bowl of food out for her. Obviously you can't replicate an anteater's diet in a zoo so they have to give them this weird slop consisting of all kinds of stuff like fruit puree, porridge, meaty things. Ugh. But because it's so sticky they get it stuck around their amazing noses! So my job was to scrub the anteater's nose! The key? Distract her with meal worms and then get her with a sponge!
It's tiger o'clock! There are two tigers at London Zoo and I got to feed them off-show and then hide some meat in their den. Getting up close to tigers was stunning. They're beautiful. And even though there's a cage between you and them you can get pretty close to them. And really stupidly, I still had the urge to stroke them! Haha. Yeah, and it'd be the last thing I ever did! You can sense the power in them though and Sumatran tigers are the smallest kind so God knows what the others are like.
The last two stops then. First was the meerkats. Now we had to feed them crickets and mealworms but as I'm a wimp I wouldn't put my hand in the bag, ended up shaking the food all of the place and accidentally caused a meerkat feeding frenzy! Oh dear. I was a bit more successful with the lemurs who were lovely. Some will sit on your lap while others meekyl tug at your arm from the side. They looove fruit but there's a real problems with diabetes with zoo kept primates so they only have a limited amount. Instead they get lots of veg which they tend to turn their nose up at. They're beautiful animals. Inquisative and surprisingly light too.
An amazing day then? Most certainly!
I got there at 8.30am and as I was a bit early I was sat in reception and after about five minutes Mick, my escort for the day came over and told me I was the only one signed up for the day when usually there would be five. Amazing! And man it was the best thing that could have happened to me. I got to do everything rather than share it all out and Mick got to answer all of my questions! Actually, Mick was a great guy to be with as he been with the zoo a long time, has worked with nearly all of the animals and so I learned a lot from him, and it was all very interesting.
So after putting some overalls on we got to work. First stop was the zebra enclosure which we were going to muck out. Now when I told people that I was going to be a zookeeper for the day nearly everyone said 'oh you'll be mucking out all day then' which would be fine if it was remotely funny the first time. So yeah, the ninth time you hear it I just started to think 'this is exactly like all of those people that say to me 'you need a Masters to be a librarian? Don't you just shelve books' which is both insulting and ignorant of what the profession entails.
There are three Chapman zebras at the zoo. They run a little retirement home for them as one especially is very old. Their enclosure wasn't actually too bad but all there wod chippings got loaded into a wheelbarrow and fresh stuff was put down, along with sand to wear their hooves down slightly. It looked pretty good when we'd finished although I came back later and the zebras clearly hadn't appeciated the hard work :s Still, I was pleased, especially as it was all heated making it surprisingly hard work.
Next stop was the giraffes who we were going to give a treat to. Well, two of them were being a bit off (a worrying theme of the day and one which I didn't take too personally!) but Millie came over who is the youngest of the three. They're incredible creatures and getting up close to one was pretty amazing. Her black tongue had no problem finding the bread I was handing out.
There are nine bearded pigs at London Zoo and I had the plasure of making their lunch! The kitchen is pretty packed, surrounded with menus for all of the animals in that section. Their menus are pretty varied too, apart from the poor pygmy hippos who are on a diet. There are three deliveries a day and along with the greengrocery around me there were also other larder foods like chocolate spread and jelly! The pigs ate a lot of apples plus potatoes, bananas, beetroot and carrots.
I didn't actually get to feed the food them too though. Instead we went outside and gave them coconuts as part of their enrichment activities. they got one each and I had to throw them into their enclosure. Easy for the first one but after that they spread out so it becomes a quest to not hit any of them! Some of them like to play with the coconuts by rolling them down the moat while others are happy to crunch straight through them! Yeah, you don't want to be on the sharp end of a bearded pig.
Next stop was the penguins who have a new beach! Well, it's been there for a year and it's much bigger than their old pool. All my friends were very excited about me meeting the penguins and so was I...until I actually met them! They have several types at the zoo and some are definitely nicer than others. As soon as you enter the den two Humboldt's are on you and start pecking everything, your scrubing brush, your legs, your shoelaces...nasty little critters. We scrubbed the pool. Penguin pool is really oily and so sticks like gloss paint if you don't scrub it fairly quickly. And it's not a bad job bar the grumpy penguins running around your feet! I did get to meet some of the nicer ones though. One of the African penguins was lvely and let me stroke her. It's funny, as they're birds you expect them to feel feathery but their feathers are so dense that feel quite thick and solid to touch.
Spider monkeys are odd creatures. They have an amazing prehensile tail but no thumb as it gets in the way of their swinging. They also have a liking for popcorn. Who knew! Actually, what we were feeding them wasn't part of their diet per se, but part of their enrichment. There are four spider monkeys but only three were outside. Sonny and Cher are usually quite boisterous but one of them was unusually quiet (told you, it was all odd animal behaviour around me!) and when they went Paulette, one of the oldest Spider Monkeys at 41, came down and took some popcorn which apparently is very unusually. She was lovely and even let us stroke her. I think she gets picked on by the others because ofher age. You could see it in her body language as she appeared very closed up and kept looking over her shoulder every time she took a piece of popcorn :(
The next part of the day was very special. I got to play with the anteaters! They don't usually do that with Zookeeper for a Day as you could never fit five people in the off-show area but as it was just me they let me in with them. They're really dangerous animals though. A vet (not at London Zoo) was killed by one recently. Because of the way they walk you don't see the size of their claws which are huge! There are two anteaters at the zoo. One was asleep and wouldn't wake up but the other was awake. She'd been very ill recently and they thought they were going to lose her. She's recovered though and we put a bowl of food out for her. Obviously you can't replicate an anteater's diet in a zoo so they have to give them this weird slop consisting of all kinds of stuff like fruit puree, porridge, meaty things. Ugh. But because it's so sticky they get it stuck around their amazing noses! So my job was to scrub the anteater's nose! The key? Distract her with meal worms and then get her with a sponge!
It's tiger o'clock! There are two tigers at London Zoo and I got to feed them off-show and then hide some meat in their den. Getting up close to tigers was stunning. They're beautiful. And even though there's a cage between you and them you can get pretty close to them. And really stupidly, I still had the urge to stroke them! Haha. Yeah, and it'd be the last thing I ever did! You can sense the power in them though and Sumatran tigers are the smallest kind so God knows what the others are like.
The last two stops then. First was the meerkats. Now we had to feed them crickets and mealworms but as I'm a wimp I wouldn't put my hand in the bag, ended up shaking the food all of the place and accidentally caused a meerkat feeding frenzy! Oh dear. I was a bit more successful with the lemurs who were lovely. Some will sit on your lap while others meekyl tug at your arm from the side. They looove fruit but there's a real problems with diabetes with zoo kept primates so they only have a limited amount. Instead they get lots of veg which they tend to turn their nose up at. They're beautiful animals. Inquisative and surprisingly light too.
An amazing day then? Most certainly!