Zookeeper for a day

My mom used to work as a volunteer zookeeper at the small mammal house in the National Zoo.  She worked on Fridays.  As a special exception, they let me come in and spend a day shadowing my mom and the other keepers.  It was a lot of fun.  We mostly just cleaned cages and fixed food, but it was still cool.  I learned a lot about the different animals on the line my mom  worked on.  I also got to shadow one of the regular keepers as he gave a tour to a group of elementary school kids.  I talked to some of the adults in the group and they liked the tour.  A while later the keepers got a letter from them, and they mentioned it was cool a kid my age was still interested in that sort of thing. There are more details in my schedule for the day and the animal profiles below.

Schedule

6:30-get up

645:-leave house-were late because mom and dad slept through their alarms

7:28-Arrive at the zoo; go in through the back employees’ only entrance to the small mammal house

7:30-prepare morning meals for animals

8:20-Wash visitor-side side of exhibit windows
    The meerkats like to watch you wash the windows and floors-One even followed the window mop up and down by bobbing its head, it was really funny

8:39-feed morning animals and clean cages
    Sweep out/pick up droppings in enclosures, rinse out water dishes and give fresh water, hose out holding areas-in the case of the squirrels’ pick out old food from the mulch and change if necessary-take out old food dishes,
    One of the chinchillas likes me, it came over to me to say “hi”, and the other volunteers said both normally hide when the enclosure is being cleaned.

10:28-Wash dirty animal food and other dishes, except the medicine syringes and needles, the other volunteers and the keepers wash those

10:56-Prepare pm and next morning meals

11:05-I take a break from preparing food to shadow a keeper, Steven, as he gives a tour on animal communication to a group of young kids

11:57-Back to preparing food

12:24-lunch break
    I use this time to copy the diet sheets

1:25-feed pm animals
    I watch mom feed Gallya from the visitor side and I answer questions that some of the visitors ask about what mom is feeding her.
    I tag along with the Line 2 keeper and volunteer and watch them feed some of their animals. I hold the old food dish for the volunteer, she hand feeds the Coendou that stays in the exhibit.  I go around front to watch her feed the Golden Headed Lion Tamerins and Acouchis in the combined exhibit; I get to answer several questions about her mask and how to tell which of the Tamerins were the young ones.

3:00-leave for home

Animal Profiles

Tenerecs
Setifer setosus

Names
Morticia (and her babies)
Wednesday or Pugsley (gender not yet determined)
Gomez

Diet
type    weight    schedule
Hills light adult dry feline diet    2g    AM daily
Hills science diet feline canned    2g    AM daily
Mazuri dry insectivore diet    3g    AM daily
mealworms        AM daily
wax worms        treat




Prevost's Squirrel
Callosciuras prevosti gorneonsis

Names
Cliff   Chrissie   Chanel

Diet
type    weight    schedule
Scenic bird food, red apple    15g    AM daily
leaf eater biscuit - lemur    11g    AM daily
variable greens    10g    AM daily
variable veggies    20g    AM daily
variable roots    15g    AM daily
adult crickets    3g    AM daily



Chinchilla
Chinchilla laniyera

Names
Orion   Tumi

Diet
type    weight    schedule
ADF-25(alfalfa-like pellets)    30    PM daily
small Marion leaf eater biscuits    2.2    PM daily
apple    5    PM daily
grape    10    PM daily
rodent salad    10    PM daily
shelled nut    1 nut    PM daily
alfalfa    15    PM daily



Golden-Headed Lion Tamerin
Leontopithercus r. chrysomelas

Names
Amber    Pumpkin    Diego    Gisela     Matti    Zikkie    Gracie   Mateo   Augusta

Diet
type    weight    schedule
zupreem canned marmoset diet    55g    AM and PM daily
marmi balls    5g    AM and PM daily
grapes    1 grape    AM and PM daily
primate salad    25g    PM daily
Banana    9g    PM daily
Hard boiled egg    1/4 cut in 2pices    PM Tues, Fri
Whole fruit suspended in exhibit        PM W,Sat,Sun
mealworms    about 10 worms    AM daily as enrichment

Prehensile-Tailed Porcupine
Coendou prehensilis

Names
Bear   Winnie   Buddha   Percy

Diet
type    weight    schedule
small red leaf eater biscuits    50g    AM and PM daily
rodent salad    50g    PM daily
chopped greens    50g    PM daily



Northern Tree Shrew
Tupaia belangerir

Names
Jay   Uno

Diet
type    weight    schedule
insectivore diet    20g    AM daily
water (mix with above)    5g    AM daily
finely chopped kale    10g    AM daily
root salad    10g    AM daily
grape chopped    10g    AM S,T,R
apple chopped    10g    AM S,T,R,S
orange chopped    10g    AM M,F
mealworms    about 5    AM M,W,F



Armadillo

Names
Julian   Howard

Diet
Insectivore diet mixed with water
Mealworms-Both PM daily

Rock Cavy
Kerodon rupestris

Names
Sparky   Justino    Palomina   Willy

Diet
type    weight    schedule
Rodent mix    20g    PM daily
small leaf eater biscuits    10g    PM daily
variable fruit    10g    PM daily
rodent salad    20g    PM daily




Geoffroy’s Marmoset
Callithrix geoffroyi

Names
Shadow   Bertha

Diet
Same as Golden-headed Lion Tamerins

Marmi ball recipe
150g    marmoset diet
2TBL    yogurt
2TBL    wheat germ


Acouchi
Myoprocta pratti

Names   Estella

Diet
type    weight    schedule
Rodent mix    48g    AM daily
Ziegler low pro    10g    AM daily
coarsely chopped assorted greens    30g    AM daily
rodent salad    15g    AM daily
apple    6g    AM daily
grape    8g    AM daily
shelled nut    1 nut    AM daily


Meerkats
Suticata sariatta

Names
Nell   Conga

Diet
type    weight    schedule
Hills dry light adult feline food    50g    AM daily
chopped apple    10g    AM daily
rodent salad    30g    AM daily
earthworms    20g    PM Sun
adult crickets    6g    PM Mon, Thurs
natural balance carnivore diet    10g    PM Tues, Fri
mealworms    6g    PM Wed, Sat


Pale headed Sakis

Names
Jaimie   Marnie

Diet
type    weight    schedule
MD cut in strips    75g    AM and PM daily
grape    7g    AM and PM daily
mealworms    4g    AM daily
roots cut in strips    50g    PM daily
vegetables cut in strips    25g    PM daily
fruit cut in strips    25g    PM daily
melon cut in strips    50g    PM daily
hard boiled egg    12g    PM Tues, Fri
whole fruit        PM Sun,Wed,Sa,
shelled nut    1 nut    training


Hornbill
Tockus deckeni

Name
Gallya

Diet
type    weight    schedule
bird of paradise mix    20g    AM daily
science bird food, paradise mix    15g    AM daily
water    5g    AM daily
apple chopped    5g    AM daily
papaya chopped    5g    AM daily
orange chopped    5g    AM daily
banana chopped    5g    AM daily
hard boiled egg    1/4 egg    AM daily
mouse pinkie    about 2    AM daily
earthworms    about 1    AM daily
mealworms    about 20    PM daily


Giant Elephant Shrew
Rynchoghoyon petersi

Names
Kubwa  Sukari

Diet
type    weight    schedule
Hills dry feline maintenance diet    20g    AM daily
Eukanuba dry feline maintenance diet    25g    AM daily
zupreem marmoset canned diet    3g    AM daily
chopped apple    1 apple    AM daily
mealworms    4g    AM daily
crickets    8g    PM daily

Animals in each exhibit

Exhibit 1     Diego   Gisela   Estella           Exhibit 2  Jay   Julia              Exhibit 2/ holding area   Cliff

Exhibits 3+4   Nell   Conga         Exhibit 5  Jaimie  Marnie              Exhibit 6  Mattie  Zikkie   Gracie  Willy

Exhibit 7   Shadow  Bertha          Exhibit 8   Mateo  August              Exhibit 9  Gallya  Kubwa  Sukari

Exhibit 11   Justino  Palomina  Uno    Exhibit 10 Winnie  Buddha  Percy   Exhibit 14  Morticia and her babies

Exhibit 15  Orion  Tumi    Exhibit         16  Amber  Pumpkin             Exhibit 17  Bear  Sparky  Howard

Paper 3 Journal

This last paper was also not very hard to write.  I found plenty of sources right off, it was just a pain picking through them for the pieces I wanted in the articles.  It was an interesting topic for me.  It made me look back at a part of my life that I pretty much want to forget.  Length for this one was no problem.  I just kept writing and even for the first draft, by the time I was done I already had seven or eight pages.  The peer editing was helpful, as always.  The only annoying thing was that some people kept marking things to change inside quotes.  It bugged me, it's a quote, i can't help it if they spelled a word wrong.  I couldn't change it.  Over all though, it was kind of a fun paper to write.

Paper 2 journal

The second paper was a lot easier to write.  I already had the source for most of the stories I wanted to use.  It was a lot of fun talking about the stories I like.  Finding other sources wasn't very hard either.  The peer editing was still very helpful.  I just wish I could remember what the T.V. show I talked about was called or which channel it was on.  The only hard thing was trying not to ramble too much.

Sevice

On November 20,  I did 4 hrs of service.  I started at 11:00am pulling weeds at the institute building at the institute service project.  I pulled weeds and dead plants on the hill between the building and the Lofts.  Afterward, me and 2 of the guys there helped Bishop Stewart take all the stuff we pulled to the dump.  Then we went to his house and helped him shovel dirt.  He had removed some bushes, so the front yard was uneven.  We helped spread and pack the dirt until the the two sides of the yard were at an even level again.   One of the dirt piles he got from someone turned out to be basically solid clay.  Nothing grows in clay, we helped shovel the big chunks into his trailer and move the bit that was sticking out into the road aside.  We ended around 3:00pm.

Bluebird Trail

Bluebirds are an endangered spices.  To help protect them, “bluebird trails” have been set up in parks or rec. center grounds.  A bluebird trail is not a set trail, but a series of nest boxes set up for the birds.  My mom is a monitor for the Bluebird trail at Burk Lake Park near where we live.  For the past two years, I helped her.  Every week a monitor goes to each box.  We open them up and see what’s there and record everything.  This is a sample of how we would record the data.

Date	Species	Partial nest	Complete Nest	Eggs	Young	Age	Fledglings	Notes	Initials
3/20	BB	X	x	4				Mother  in area	MD

                  

Bluebirds are not the only birds that use the boxes.  Chickadees, Tree Swallows, House Sparrows, and House Wrens all use them.  The only bird out of those we do not want to use the boxes are the house sparrows.  If we find a house sparrow nest, we take it out, even if it has eggs in it.  If the eggs have hatched, we have to leave it.  House sparrows are an invasive species.  They compete with the other birds for food, territory, and nesting sites.  It is not uncommon for a tree sparrow to go into the nest box and smash the eggs of another bird.  I found one of those once.  A box had a bluebird nest in it and the two eggs that were there were pecked apart.

The Burk Lake trail is several miles long and took 3 hours to do.  It had several sections.  There was one section on either side of the golf course, with two boxes in the middle that we had to skip if it was a busy day.  The third part was along a dam at the lake.  The lake was a favorite spot for the tree swallows.  The lake and the meadow had plenty of insects and nesting materials.  Unfortunately, those boxes were also favorites for wasps.  At the tail end of the nesting season, the birds would be moving on and the wasps moved in.  We had to use a stick to knock out any nests and soap the areas where they might hang another one.

                   The second year I helped my mom, the Rec. Center near us set up a trail.  It only has about 10 boxes, so it didn’t take as long to check.  The boxes are checked every week, but there are several volunteers.  My mom and me checked each trail once a month, sometimes twice depending on how the rotations fell.  They are checked from March through August.

	Abbreviation	Nest type	Egg color
Bluebird	BB	Round, made of grasses	Pale blue
Tree Swallow	TS	Rectangular or square base, with a cup in the center. Uses feathers, large feather dome over eggs common.	White
House Sparrow	HS	Ugly, uses trash, grasses, feathers, anything.  Unorganized, not neat.	White with brown speckles
Carolina Chickadee	CC	Uses grasses and mostly moss	Very light brown to almost white with brown speckles
House Wren	HW	Stick nest	Light brown with darker brown speckles

Fostering Cats

My family fostered cats for about 4 years.  When I say “my family”, I really mean I did.  We fostered cats for a group called Riverside Rescue. They take in strays and some cats that would be put down at a shelter that doesn’t have a no-kill policy.  The cats always stayed in my room.  I had to make sure they were fed and keep the litter box clean.  I liked having cats in my room.  They had to stay in my room because we have a dog and we already had one cat.  We fostered a pair of twins, Isis and Bastet, and our cat Shadow got attached to them, so we adopted them.  We kept fostering cats after that, but we agreed that we wouldn’t adopt any more, three was enough.

My favorite cat that we fostered was a litter of kittens and their mom.  The mother had lost all but one of her kittens, and the three little black ones had lost their mother.  The mother adopted the three black ones to replace the ones she lost.  We had to help her by bottle feeding them, it was so cool.  We named the one orange kitten Nala.  The other three were Port, Starboard and Sir Edmund.  Sir Edmund was named after Sir Edmund Hilary, because he climbed EVERY THING!  You would walk in with or without the bottle and he’d try to claw his way up your leg.  Brush him off and sit down and he’d be at it again.  He climbed my shelves and anything else he could.

            We soon found that I have a special way with cats.  They would give me the shy ones that would hide from everyone.  I would just sit in my room and read a book or something and they would slowly get used to me.  After a while, they would stop hiding every time someone else came into the room.  I liked working with these cats.  The ones I remember the most are Cally, a pretty calico, Mrs. Kitty, a misty grey-and-white cat, and I have no idea how to spell the other one’s name because my dad named her and its Chinese, she was a cute little Siamese kitten.  Cally was absolutely terrified of everyone.  After a few weeks with me though, even she was able to get adopted out to a normal home.

            The adoptions were over the weekend, so we dropped them off on Saturday mornings and picked them up Sunday nights or afternoons.  We helped a lot with the bake sales the group did too.  Every so often they would have a bake sale in front of the Petsmart where they had the cats.  We would make chocolate cupcakes.  We frosted them with white frosting and put chocolate chips on them upside down to look like paw prints.  We would be there for hours or my mom would just drop me off and I would be there manning the booth.