Aquatics Internship Week 3 and 4
O.o Tracy was the first to catch on that it's been too long since my last update. Sorry everyone. I've been busy and sleep is a precious commodity here. So I'm lumping week 3 and 4 together. :)
I should also point out now there will be things happening around the zoo that I will not be able to tell you all about. (for media reasons and such) But I'll do what I can.
Week 3 and 4:
I've graduated to feeding the sandtiger sharks in Discovery Bay. :) The Minnesota Zoo has three sandtiger sharks (one large female and two smaller males) in the shark reef exhibit and one white-tipped reef shark. For those of you who may not be shark savvy, typically with sharks females are considerably larger than male...also known as sexual dimorphism. We feed our sandtigers and white-tip mondays, wednesdays, and saturdays. (This is a hint that if you want to catch awesome shark action when you visit aim for one of those days) We use 6 foot long metal feeding tongs and stand on a platform about an inch above the water. When feeding the males, we lower the fish (typically mackerel or bonita) really close to their face but the female is more proactive about eating and... well, my first time I had the tongs a bit close and she grabbed them. It was scary... a 7-8 foot fish weighing 500-600 pounds... But lucky for me, she didn't pull me in and let the tongs go. Since then, I'm good about keeping the tongs away from her mouth. :)
I've also been more involved in feeding the Kemps and Green sea turtles. Aquariums are only allowed to keep sea turtles in captivity if they unreleasable into the wild. Our sea turtles were both hit by boat propellers. Our Green was hit in the back of her shell. She has some buoyancy issues, but moves around the tank really well. Our Kemps was hit in the head... now sea turtles don't have too many brains to begin with, so he's a bit slow. Luckily, we have him on a painkiller that makes him feel better as he's been more active. Our turtles are target trained which is fun. (It's like doing a bit of animal training...since sharks are not the best for target training) Basically, it works similar to target training any marine mammal. We have a white circle on a stick that the Kemps responds to and a black triangle the green responds to. We can get them to do dives or swim in a pattern (as long as you give them food after they touch the target). They're both very cute turtles and I even though they sometimes misbehave or don't do what you'd like, I like working with them. We feed them turtle gel (similar to the fish gel we feed with turtle chow in it) and greens and seafood (mostly shrimp, pollock, and sardines)
I got introduced to cleaning the estuary (the touch pool with sharks in Discovery Bay) and that's pretty fun as long as you don't forget to eat a quick snack before you jump in (like I did). Basically, I get some weighters on and jump into the estuary among the leopard, swell, and horn sharks and bat rays with my ginormous siphon. I get to suck up lots of shark poo, and remove trinkets dumb people throw in such as hair ties and pennies. At the end of my hour and a half cleaning in 57 degree water, I get to feed the swell and horn sharks by putting fish on a stick. Those two species tend to get out competed in the tank by the leopard sharks and it's a good way to offer just them some extra food.
I've also gotten a good hang of feeding the herps (turtles and amphibians) we're in charge of. We feed them earthworms, mealworms or crickets and fish for some of the turtles. The mudpuppies scared me fist time I fed them. They lay motionless until they realize you've put a earthworm in front of their nose. They snap quickly, a lot like a snapping turtle. Makes me jump every time :)
I've been doing a large number of shark feedings now at the coral reef tank. Our shark feeding is 3pm everyday. I jump out onto a rocky platform and sit atop it to feed the bamboo sharks that swim up and the zebra/leopard shark (I'm always afraid I'll mess up and fall in...no one's fallen in yet... I really don't want to be that one... "hey remember that one intern who fell in") :) But it's fun. It's the one opportunity I have a day to make an impact on the public concerning the conservation of sharks...you can only imagine how I ramble on. :) I'm always sure to mention the seafood watch program. The Minnesota Zoo has seafood watch cards put out by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. If you care about conserving fish populations I highly recommend you print one off. Print some off for your friends and family that eat seafood too :)
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_regional.aspx
We have five southern stingrays in our shark reef tank and four of them are large females (4' by 6 or 7' with the tail). Our darkest female has had some bloating (fluid buildup in her back end) However this was not effecting her normal behavior in any way. I got to grab my weighters again one morning and jump in the holding pool of shark reef (about 4 feet deep in there). Mark and I were going to catch the stingray up in a net and hold her for the vets to draw some fluid out so they could test it. Mark let me take the net and catch up the large stingray by myself. We held her face in the water and her rump up for the vets. I can't say she was too happy about being poked with the needle, but the experience was amazing. I felt like a little kid during Christmas the whole day.
My parents also visited one Saturday and I got to 'show them what their money's paying for'. They were very impressed, especially with the life support staff's work. :) They are very important guys. During those two weeks Becky moved two of her four cuttlefish into shark holding as their exhibit tank was getting a bit too small for all four of them. The largest male is getting /huge/!!
I'm sorry I haven't gone into this 'gel diet' I keep talking about. Since this entry is long, I'll fill you all in on that stuff next time.
...and why sharks are in danger. :) So much to talk about and so little time.
*nom*
I should also point out now there will be things happening around the zoo that I will not be able to tell you all about. (for media reasons and such) But I'll do what I can.
Week 3 and 4:
I've graduated to feeding the sandtiger sharks in Discovery Bay. :) The Minnesota Zoo has three sandtiger sharks (one large female and two smaller males) in the shark reef exhibit and one white-tipped reef shark. For those of you who may not be shark savvy, typically with sharks females are considerably larger than male...also known as sexual dimorphism. We feed our sandtigers and white-tip mondays, wednesdays, and saturdays. (This is a hint that if you want to catch awesome shark action when you visit aim for one of those days) We use 6 foot long metal feeding tongs and stand on a platform about an inch above the water. When feeding the males, we lower the fish (typically mackerel or bonita) really close to their face but the female is more proactive about eating and... well, my first time I had the tongs a bit close and she grabbed them. It was scary... a 7-8 foot fish weighing 500-600 pounds... But lucky for me, she didn't pull me in and let the tongs go. Since then, I'm good about keeping the tongs away from her mouth. :)
I've also been more involved in feeding the Kemps and Green sea turtles. Aquariums are only allowed to keep sea turtles in captivity if they unreleasable into the wild. Our sea turtles were both hit by boat propellers. Our Green was hit in the back of her shell. She has some buoyancy issues, but moves around the tank really well. Our Kemps was hit in the head... now sea turtles don't have too many brains to begin with, so he's a bit slow. Luckily, we have him on a painkiller that makes him feel better as he's been more active. Our turtles are target trained which is fun. (It's like doing a bit of animal training...since sharks are not the best for target training) Basically, it works similar to target training any marine mammal. We have a white circle on a stick that the Kemps responds to and a black triangle the green responds to. We can get them to do dives or swim in a pattern (as long as you give them food after they touch the target). They're both very cute turtles and I even though they sometimes misbehave or don't do what you'd like, I like working with them. We feed them turtle gel (similar to the fish gel we feed with turtle chow in it) and greens and seafood (mostly shrimp, pollock, and sardines)
I got introduced to cleaning the estuary (the touch pool with sharks in Discovery Bay) and that's pretty fun as long as you don't forget to eat a quick snack before you jump in (like I did). Basically, I get some weighters on and jump into the estuary among the leopard, swell, and horn sharks and bat rays with my ginormous siphon. I get to suck up lots of shark poo, and remove trinkets dumb people throw in such as hair ties and pennies. At the end of my hour and a half cleaning in 57 degree water, I get to feed the swell and horn sharks by putting fish on a stick. Those two species tend to get out competed in the tank by the leopard sharks and it's a good way to offer just them some extra food.
I've also gotten a good hang of feeding the herps (turtles and amphibians) we're in charge of. We feed them earthworms, mealworms or crickets and fish for some of the turtles. The mudpuppies scared me fist time I fed them. They lay motionless until they realize you've put a earthworm in front of their nose. They snap quickly, a lot like a snapping turtle. Makes me jump every time :)
I've been doing a large number of shark feedings now at the coral reef tank. Our shark feeding is 3pm everyday. I jump out onto a rocky platform and sit atop it to feed the bamboo sharks that swim up and the zebra/leopard shark (I'm always afraid I'll mess up and fall in...no one's fallen in yet... I really don't want to be that one... "hey remember that one intern who fell in") :) But it's fun. It's the one opportunity I have a day to make an impact on the public concerning the conservation of sharks...you can only imagine how I ramble on. :) I'm always sure to mention the seafood watch program. The Minnesota Zoo has seafood watch cards put out by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. If you care about conserving fish populations I highly recommend you print one off. Print some off for your friends and family that eat seafood too :)
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_regional.aspx
We have five southern stingrays in our shark reef tank and four of them are large females (4' by 6 or 7' with the tail). Our darkest female has had some bloating (fluid buildup in her back end) However this was not effecting her normal behavior in any way. I got to grab my weighters again one morning and jump in the holding pool of shark reef (about 4 feet deep in there). Mark and I were going to catch the stingray up in a net and hold her for the vets to draw some fluid out so they could test it. Mark let me take the net and catch up the large stingray by myself. We held her face in the water and her rump up for the vets. I can't say she was too happy about being poked with the needle, but the experience was amazing. I felt like a little kid during Christmas the whole day.
My parents also visited one Saturday and I got to 'show them what their money's paying for'. They were very impressed, especially with the life support staff's work. :) They are very important guys. During those two weeks Becky moved two of her four cuttlefish into shark holding as their exhibit tank was getting a bit too small for all four of them. The largest male is getting /huge/!!
I'm sorry I haven't gone into this 'gel diet' I keep talking about. Since this entry is long, I'll fill you all in on that stuff next time.
...and why sharks are in danger. :) So much to talk about and so little time.
*nom*