Animal Training Adventures

Yesterday was our first official day of Orientation at the zoo. With a new class of 52 students – there were lots of people milling about – some were very quiet and kept to themselves and others hovered around in their little groups of 3-5 (mostly groups of roommates). All bright eyed, excited, nervous and ready to begin this amazing journey.

We started off watching a skit performed by the 2nd year students on a “Day in the Life of an EATM student”. Well done and comical! A great opening to our day. The rest of the morning consisted of in depth tours of the zoo. Each new student was assigned a “Buddy” (a 2nd year student). Our buddies came and found us and we went on tours all over the zoo. It seems like information overload right now as there is SO MUCH to learn about. From where the tools are to the individual animal areas – where all the switches are and emergency phones and PA systems….. and that’s only the start of it. We were walking down the back side road and suddenly we came to the tigers cage. I stopped and just stared in at her – this huge beautiful animal – and I was standing right in front of her! “You have to watch out for Taj” my buddy said to me “she will spray you with little warning”. Good to know. Moving on now.

I was told about all the ins and outs of the various animals: where they came from, their temperaments, which ones are nice and which aren’t. And about other things like daily duties, stuff we have to know for classes, stuff we’re not allowed to do as first years, etc. It was all very interesting but I kept wondering how in the world was I going to learn all this stuff??

As first years we’re not allowed to talk to or touch any of the animals. If Taj the tiger chuffs at us (a tiger greeting), we are allowed to chuff back just once and then continue moving on. Soon we will be allowed to help walk the Emu, hold the rabbit, hold a few of the snakes, but that’s really it.

I was told about how violent some of the primates can be and that may have changed my mind about wanting to work with them one day. On the other hand, one of the raccoons there is incredibly smart, nice and does cool behaviors – and now I really want to work with her one day. Actually there are so many of them that I’d like to work with…

So we walked all around the large carns (carnivores) which included a lion, a couple mountain lions, a hyena (he is so cute!), a wolf, a coyote and of course the tiger. Next was Hoof Stock to see the water buffalo, the 3 pigs, a bunch of sheep, a camel, and a goat. Other animals at the zoo here are an alligator, a whole variety of beautiful exotic parrots and birds, 2 eagles (one golden and one bald), owls, a turkey vulture, a whole lot of primates, a giant tortoise, lots of reptiles and snakes, an emu… hmmm…I know I’m probably forgetting lots…

Our afternoon consisted of a bunch of team building games, such as Never Have I Ever… They were fun but we were out in the heat and direct sun so it was very draining. It’s been in the 90’s all week so quite hot. We were done for the day around 4 and once we got home, all of us (me and my 3 roommates)  fell asleep! haha

Today we were up early again (but not as early as we will soon be getting up for school) and at the zoo by 8:15 for the TB test results. Once those were done, we all gathered in the bleachers at the animal show stage for a presentation by the EATM gardener on tools and how to use them properly. This was the best part of the day! No, I’m not kidding. This guy was absolutely hilarious!!! He did tell us that we are going to be doing a lot of manual labor, which we were told about ahead of time. He said A LOT and told us it would be like a prison camp. He was joking, or at least I hope he was!!

Once our tool time talk was over, we all filed into the nicely air conditioned classroom for more discussions and also to sign up for day watch duty. This is a 2 hour block that we are required to do each week at the same time. The duties will range from answering phones to doing zoo rounds. As we were signing up for those, we were learning about more rules and regulations for us 1st years. Do not talk to or touch any of the animals, Do not run near the primates, do not smile at the primates, do not touch another person in front of the primates, do not make direct eye contact with any of the animals….

The worst part of the day came last today – a moment many of us were dreading but knew it was coming, and knew about it before we even applied to the program. It’s called Pigeon Pulling (I mistakenly called it Pigeon Popping). They warned us about this early on and told us it was a requirement to graduate from the program: we have to humanely kill a pigeon with our bare hands.  This is all about the circle of life and having to feed the pigeons to other animals. Many zoos around the country require their employees to have this skill. It is quick and the best way to humanely euthanize these birds. ugh. We only have to do one the entire time we’re here, but we HAVE to do one. They demonstrated it and then let volunteers get their awful requirement over with but there were only about 12 pigeons today. The rest of us will have to do it during the semester sometime. We all watched horrified as one of the 2nd year students demoed the procedure. One girl had tears running down her cheeks, others were gulping them back feeling ill. Many brave students volunteered to get it over with and their reactions varied. Several burst into tears as soon as they did it. I wasn’t ready to do it yet so I just sat there trying to hold back my own tears. As soon as the last one was finished, we all quietly poured out of the bleachers and headed for the gate, glad to be going home.

I know there are going to be lots of hard times, fun times, and exciting times ahead in the next couple years here. I have to keep remembering how badly I wanted to come and how lucky I am that I’m here.

One of our instructors said it best to us: “this is the place where all your childhood dreams come true. Remember when you were a kid and you kept collecting animals? Sneaking them into the house trying to hide them from your parents? That’s where it started and now you are here and this is where those dreams are going to come true.”