Animal Training Adventures

Week 1 is officially over!

After getting our pigeon ordeal over and done with for the time being, the following day was exciting as we got to pick up our uniforms! We have to wear our uniforms at all times when at the zoo or in classes at the zoo. It has also been recommended to us that we have a couple changes of clothes in our cars at all times as you never know when an animal will spray you. Our uniform consists of a navy blue or black polo shirt, or a navy or white tshirt and khaki pants, khaki shorts, black pants or jeans. The pants/shorts we can buy anywhere but our tops all have to have the EATM logo on them. We also have eatm fleece jackets, sweatshirts and raincoats.  I’ll admit – it was pretty exciting wearing the uniform for the first time! haha

We then were put into groups and we went around the zoo learning to do “rounds”. These are done on the hour where everything in the zoo is checked. Temperatures in certain areas and enclosures, all animals are checked to make sure they are ok, they have water, their cages are locked and that there isn’t anything in their cages that’s not supposed to be there. All info is recorded. It takes almost an hour to do a full round.

The rest of the day consisted of more talks such as equipment, tools and dress code. Then we finished off the day with more team building games.

Friday was an all day workday which meant that we had to wear clothes that we knew were going to get really dirty. This is the day where all the students work together to really give the zoo a big clean/overhaul and get stuff done that needs to be done. I think I was pretty lucky with the group I got: there were 3 of us first years with 2 second year students. We cleaned and re-organized the back of the stage area. (which is a really large area actually!). There are a bunch of holding cages for the animals before they go out on stage during a show, lots of props, etc.

Other groups had to do things like painting, building new enclosures, scrubbing bars and railings, and a whole bunch of other random things that had to be done. It was a long and tiring day..

Classes all happen Monday – Friday and then we are all separated into 2 groups for “area” which is like general cleaning/feeding. The first group come to the zoo Sunday- Wednesday early mornings. We have to be there from 8-11 on Sundays, and from 6:30-8:30am then again at 4-5pm on weekdays. The second group does Wednesday to Saturday. So sometimes we are able to get one weekend day off. Sometimes. Then we are assigned All day Area days which means that we are at the zoo from 10-5 on our supposed day off. They are sporadically scheduled though – I have 3 all day areas between now and the beginning of October. I had my first on Sunday – and the zoo is open to the public on the weekends. Every hour we are switched what we are doing. The various areas are: ticket sales at the front gate, phones/data entry, Galap watch (stationed by the giant tortoise to make sure no one reaches in at him), Primates watch (stationed by the primates to answer questions), Trash, Rounds, and Nutrition. Nutrition is the one I think I will not like so much. There is an odd smell when you walk into the big kitchen style room. This is where all the meals are prepared for the animals. It’s kept very clean and organized and the nice thing about it is that when it’s scorching hot outside, it’s usually really nice and cool in here. Or you can always go stand in the enormous walk in fridge or freezer! Which by the way are stocked with everything from fruits and veggies to mice and rats.

The last couple days for me have just consisted of going to actual classes (which are still held on the zoo compound). There is a lot of information, a lot of projects we’re going to have to do, a lot of memorization, and a lot of studying. And all that doesn’t include the actual work around the zoo we have to do still.

My early mornings don’t officially start until tomorrow which is when I will start to learn about what “morning area” entails. It all seems so overwhelming right now…

On that note, I should get some sleep as the morning will come quick. Here is a photo of one of my favorite animals at the zoo, Taj. Isn’t she gorgeous?