Animal Training Adventures

Days are really starting to blend together….they are long but the weeks go by fast. It’s a little hard to believe its already September!

We have already completed our first week on “area” which means that we spend from 6:30am-8:20am cleaning a certain section of the zoo, and then again from 4-5pm. Each week we rotate into a different area. I loved the area I was in this week – it was a great start to the whole area thing. It’s also rather nice right now cleaning so early in the morning cause its still cool out. And when I say cool, I really mean warm – but not hot. Nice enough to get away with wearing just a tshirt but some people wear a sweatshirt for the first little while. I always say its like the perfect temperature at that time in the morning, but by 8am – it’s HOT already! All the various areas have different duties and different animals. Some of the enclosures we go into – with the animals, and some we don’t. Some only the trainers go into. Some of the animals in my area this week were: the giant 86 year old Galapagos turtle who weighs almost 500 pounds, a blue heron, a trio of sugar gliders, a bunny, an opposum, a miniture horse, a goat, a porcupine, 2 capuchin monkeys, 2 baboons, a beaver, a stork, 2 squirrel monkeys, a fox, and 2 coatis. Yeah, a pretty random mixture of animals! I went right into the beaver’s cage and into his pool to clean it – this gets done everyday – so having rubber boots is very important here. I just love this beaver – he is adorable!! And I’m also in love with one of the Baboons, which I got to accompany on one of her walks. There was about 9 of us on the walk with her and it was awesome! She is amazing. This is all amazing.

Next week I start in Nutrition which is where we will be putting together all the diets for the animals. Things are getting a lot busier and a lot harder. Classes are getting tougher. We have more projects, assignments and quizzes. I have 5 different test/ quizzes coming up this week plus assignments that are due. My biggest piece of advice for anyone who wants to get into this program- is to take as many of the classes you can ahead of time. This is probably only possible if you live in this area and can get into the college. I’m maxed out right now with 24 semester units and its tough. You have to maintain at least a C average in all classes or you get kicked out of the program. Oh the pressure!