Painting Enrichment

  This week we're doing painting as enrichment! I got a couple pictures of Harapan and Liwu doing it and they can be seen below:) Liwu paints canvas' regularly for our gift shop, where the canvas' are sold in order to raise money for panda conservation. Harapan also has some ornaments he painted there too! Harapan uses his nose and upper lip to paint, while Liwu uses her feet and tail!

A Week Full of Vet Excitement!

So I haven't updated yet this week because I knew we would be doing exciting vet-related things all week and I figured I would just update on all of them in one post.

On Tuesday, we did weights on our pot belly pigs. They came to us very overweight so we have been giving them a strict diet (much to their annoyance) to try and get them back down to a more reasonable weight. Denise, the larger of the two, came to us at 307 lbs. and when we weighed her she was only 251 lbs! Sudi, the smaller of the two, came to us at 243 lbs, however she was uncooperative (as animals sometimes can be, we don't force them to do anything they don't want to do!) so we were unable to get a weight on her yet.  In preparation for the next day vet visit, we prevented Denise from eating her afternoon diet, which she was not happy about.

On Wednesday, the vets did a medical check up and dewclaw trim on Denise. In order to complete this she had to be sedated. The vets first tried to administer the drugs using a high pressure needle administer. This scared Denise and she moved, therefore preventing the needle from sticking in her and therefore administering the drug. So they went on to use a long stick device which they press into the hind side which puts pressure on the needle, administering the drug. This worked, and Denise sounded like a dinosaur when she got pricked, clearly expressing that she does not like shots, but who can blame her? We then had to wait about fifteen minutes for the drugs to kick in and her to fall asleep. One of the vets then began giving her oxygen while the other vets began doing her physical and trimming the dewclaws. After the procedure was over one of the vets stayed and woke Denise up, making sure she stood up and was coherent before leaving.

Today, we went to the Veldt, the other area of the zoo that deals with hoofstock, and watched a blood draw be done on Nikki, the Indian Rhino. They did a standing immobilization on her, which is when they sedate the animal, but only to the amount that they are coherent enough to still stand up. This partial sedation is done in order to keep the animal standing since Indian Rhinos are heavy enough that if they were to be sedated and lay down, they could make their legs accidentally fall asleep under them, and they would not be able to stand back up which would cause more complications. So, standing sedations are a good alternative, allowing for vets to safely do work on he animal while also keeping the animal calm. We all had to be quiet so that she would not be nervous, and she had eye covers over her eyes to keep her calm. The vets started the blood draw at her tail, which has a large blood vessel in it. After that began to not provide as much blood flow as they wanted, they moved to her ear and were able to get another 20cc of blood. This blood was taken to do tests in order to make sure she is healthy, standard protocol and examinations.

This week was exciting in the vet perspective, I'm glad I got to see so much of what they do with the animals I work with!

Panda Ultrasound

  We are currently under the impression that one of our pandas is pregnant, yay! So today I got to help/watch an ultrasound on her. We have her locked in right now because if she is pregnant, she should be having the baby soon, and if so then we don't want to risk it being born in a dangerous area outside since they are very helpless and vulnerable when born. How the ultrasound worked was I was in charge of feeding her constantly while the keeper held the monitor for the vet. The vet put a bunch of lube on the panda's belly and took the ultrasound want and used it much as a doctor would a pregnant woman, moving it all around to look for the baby. We unfortunately did not see anything, but the vet is still hopeful she is pregnant and explained sometimes it's just hard to see since you are trying to get a reading through so much fur and a moving animal. We are all hopeful that she is pregnant due to a few signs that generally mean pregnancy: liquid in her cervix, her being moodier than usual, and she is nesting. I will keep this updated as I learn more!

Giving a Sumatran a Shower

   Today was a pretty normal day, though I did get to give Harapan his shower today! Generally I've just watched as the keepers give it to him but I got to be the one washing him off this time :)  We give him a shower at least once, sometimes twice, a day in order to prevent him from consuming as much of the mud he wallows in as possible. This is because mud, in general, is high in iron and iron is the cause of many medical problems in rhinos. Therefore, we are trying to slow and hopefully completely prevent serious medical problems for him by giving him baths!

   Since this post was short, I've added some cute pictures of Harapan:)

Prepping For AZA

   Today we were extremely understaffed due to vacations and people switching their days off so that they would be here for our AZA inspection tomorrow so it's safe to say I was kept quite busy! However, it was a pleasant experience because I truly felt like an independent keeper today, not an intern, because the two keepers who were here relied on me heavily in order to help make sure everything was done on time. I cleaned the camels outside yard, Harapan's entire indoor enclosure, Rhea's (the red river hog) outside and inside exhibits, the takin's indoor enclosure, the pot belly pigs enclosure, and the red pandas exhibit, all of which I did by myself! I also prepared the diets for all of the red pandas, the takins, the wild horses, the emu, and the pot belly pigs alone as well. My keeper even told me "zoo keeping seems to fit you well" so I guess I handled the pressure and added responsibilities well!

  Not only did I help with all of that more than I usually do, I also helped train Harapan twice, feeding him out his entire diet for morning and afternoon, fed the red pandas during their keeper talk, and handed out the biscuits while doing crowd control at the camel talk today. I also got to participate in Jack (the baby camel) training. I had hold of Sauuri's (his momma) harness while the lead keeper had his, I walked around the yard with Sauuri, while Jack followed. This is a training we will begin doing regularly in order to get him adjusted and more use to having a harness on him for when he gets transported to his new home at a different zoo.

   While today was extremely busy and tiring, I enjoyed every moment of it, reassuring me, as this whole experience has, that the zoo keeping field is truly where my heart lies and where I belong.

Animal Training Class

   Today was our first day of our animal training/ operant conditioning course. This is a two hours a day, one day a week, five week long course that the zoo is providing for it's interns in order to teach us the correct and most approved training techniques in terms of having animals do the most natural behaviors possible, and have them work to our advantage to improve their lives within a zoological setting. The class seems that it will be very insightful and it has definitely already opened my eyes to easy, efficient ways to train animals in a way that keeps them safe and happy.

   Today I also got to clean the camel enclosure for the first time without shifting the camels out first. Prior to today we have always shifted the camels into a separate yard while I'm in their yard cleaning, as they were evaluating me and determining if I was trust worthy or not. Today, the keepers decided that after several successful feedings, the camels most likely trust me so we tried out cleaning with them in the yard. It went completely smooth and the only struggle we had was Jack, the baby, wanted to snuggle up on us a lot (which of course is never a bad thing!) so sometimes we had to distract him in order to efficiently clean!

   Update on Harapan Training: He has been doing extremely well, so today while I fed him and gave him constant positive reinforcement while he was in the vet shoot, the other keepers walked around banging doors, turning on water sources, flipping light switches, and trying to make as many distracting noises as possible in order to begin desensitizing him in the next step of his training. He did get nervous and back out once, but for the most part he stayed with me and was completely calm! We're hoping we can progress to actual blood draws soon enough. The reasoning for this training is so that soon the vets will be able to come down and do weekly phlebotomies on Harapan. This is because in captivity rhinos have a tendency to acquire high levels of iron, for unknown reasons, which can cause serious health concerns to them. However, phlebotomies can be done which can reduce the amount of iron within their blood as the new blood that is created within their body does not hold high concentrations of iron anymore.

Rain Pants Are A Must

   Today was the first day working the entire day in a down pour, a literal down pour. To express this clearly: our buildings began to flood so one of the keepers and myself stood at a storm drain outside for 45 minutes while it down poured on us (getting us completely soaked, aside from where our jackets were on our shirts, mind you) shoveling out debris that fell upon it in order to prevent the flooding of muddy water into our behind the scenes red panda enclosure. This was a humbling experience as it made me truly realize all of the things the keepers do for their animals, in less than ideal conditions, in order to make their lives as comfortable and happy as possible. The part that was unfortunate about getting soaked was that we all then had to do our work the rest of the day in sopping wet clothing, including socks since rain went into my boots since I didn't have anything covering the tops of them! Safe to say I have purchased rain pants (thanks mom!) so that I am thoroughly prepared for the next storm.

Duiker Move!

   Today was kind of hectic because we received two duikers from the Veldt. We received them because the Veldt is going under construction soon and they needed somewhere to go. This required us moving our red river hog, Rhea, to a different enclosure so we could transform her pen into a suitable living space for the two duikers. The female of the pair is also expecting -- so we will have a baby soon! To transform the pens we put down mats, covered them in cardboard chips, then saw dust, then hay. We then opened the door so they would have access to 5 pens. They are very sensitive so we have to be respectful of them and not linger around the pens.

  I also got to do diet prep by myself for the first time today, which went well! I then got to help feed out and the only problem was that was when we fed the camels, Humphrey gets mad when you don't feed him fast enough so he spit on the other intern (luckily not me!).

Buildings 1 & 2

  Today was my first time in buildings 1 & 2 since we are going to be switching every two weeks. This means I worked in the buildings that house the horses, camels, takins, pot belly pigs, and red pandas. Overall, this area is pretty uniform to work in. In all of these areas you first lock the animals inside, or in another yard, and clean up their excess food and waste from the day before. You then move the animals back outside (hopefully before 9 when the zoo opens), and work on their indoor enclosures, cleaning up any mess and then scrubbing clean before hosing it down. You then set them up for the day by placing their allotted type and amount of food into their stall or yard. The only variance in this is that of the red panda, since you then refill their bedding as well.

   Other than learning about the buildings in general, I also got to learn about their diets and help feed out at the end of the day. I also got to participate in training Harapan (I got to feed him and reinforce him when he did well!) and got to be part of the panda talk again.