One Week to Go

Well I spent all week jumping around from area to area, helping around wherever I was needed at the time. It was pretty busy this week with several of the keepers being on vacation or off for the day. All the same it was a very good week in terms of weather. Much better than the week before.
Unfortunately, my unlimited month of yoga was finished so I have to pick and choose my favorite classes to drop in on this week.
As it is I have only one week of my internship left. Thursday is my last day and my mom is coming up to help me move out on Thursday and Friday. I am so grateful to have had this summer. I learned so much and I have loved working with the keepers and getting to know all the animals. I have made new friends and have overall just had a really good time this summer.
Come Friday, I will be back to Rochester and back to trying to figure out what to do with my future.

Post-Heat Wave

My excuse this time is that I spent the weekend recovering from the heat and humidity induced coma.
I spent a week of 90+ degree heat and at least 80% humidity with the orangutans again. They are particularly funny because the family that grew up here (Boomer, Kutai, Bajik, and Khali) love playing in the water. They play in their pools and we sprayed them with hose misters at some of the roof feeds everyday. It was hilarious to watch them enjoy their little shower. Kutai has what the keepers call a "water dance." When she gets very excited about playing in the water, she taps her feet on whatever she's standing on and everyone likes to rub up against the mesh to get your attention saying their turn now please! They also found it very amusing to hold onto the end of the mister with their lips and then squirt us back.

Over the weekend I found a cute little coffee shop to hang out in and spent some time on our balcony once the storms cooled the weather somewhat.

Now this week I'm starting to float to whatever section wants my help for the day.

I can't believe there is only two weeks left!

Orangutans Part 1

This week was my first week in with the orangutans. We have 7.
The first is Jay. He is considered retired because he is quite old and has some medical issues with his spine, hips, arthritis... We tend to pamper and spoil him a lot.
In the next exhibit are Bajik and Leela. They are quite young (9 & 10) and Bajik is full of mischief. He was partially hand raised so he likes to have attention especially by female staff members and apparently I lucked out because he seems to like redheads. I've had a lot of fun training with him so that the other keeper can work with Leela without Bajik interrupting.
In the last exhibit is Boomerang aka Boomer and his "family" including Kutai and Yaz, two females, and Kutai and Boomer's daughter Khali. Boomer is a little angsty and Khaki is just leaving the age where she was able to get away with pretty much anything so they tend to be very exciting to work with.
Here are some quick facts I learned about ourangs:
The sexual dimorphism that exists with the males' air sacs and cheek flaps is an adaptation to project their vocalizations and territory calls while living solitarily in the forests.
They can understand spoken language. Many animals can learn cues like our dogs learn sit or walk but orangs can actually follow speech rather than just learning specific cue words.
I'm very excited for another week with them coming up!

Another Late Weekly Update

Last week was my second week in the catch all section of my department. I was overjoyed to spend more time receiving dingo love, slogged my way through camel cleaning, practiced meat preparation for the cheetahs, bonded with our naked mole rat colony, and was delighted to receive a lovely one of a kind painting made especially for me by our two otter "babies". 

Over the weekend I found the mall which left me feeling very happy because I first found a yoga block and strap combo pack on sale at Dick's, got an ear cuff earring that I have been looking for since I got the one piercing almost four years ago but haven't been able to find, and then I found really awesome ninja turtle socks. My day was rounded out with the discovery of a Disney store where I found a cool brave journal and one of the sale's girls fangirled a little about how I look so much like Merida and insisted that I should try to work for Disney as a character look a like. Then I went to teavana, got a delicious ice tea and more Merida hair love. Overall, it was a great week and I'm very excited to start this new one because I am now in the orangutan section for the next two weeks.

Late Update

After a rather busy weekend here is my (late) update of last week's adventures.
Last Saturday, I went with my roommate to a park called Oak Openings Preserve. It was really beautiful and we went on a great hiking trail.

This week I started in the M&M section of my area of the zoo. It's basically where all the extra animals are put. We take care of two geriatric Jamaican fruit bats, a colony of mole rats, four spotted-necked otters, three borrowed camels, two cheetahs, and two dingos.
Although I really enjoy all of the animals, it's very hard not to be biased toward the dingos. They have been trained to be taken to a show for the education center and so out interactions with them are a lot like they are regular dogs. We can go in with them, pet them, (get licked by them... on the face,) and take them for walks. Of course I'm sure not too many dogs get chopped up mouse bits as treats for doing a good job walking.
So it was already a very good week. I had lots of firsts: first time feeding a cheetah with tongs, first time gutting and skinning a rabbit (for the cheetahs) first time walking a dingo, first time getting sloppy dingo kisses, first time brushing a camel,... I'm sure the list could go on forever.

Anyway, on Friday, my parents came up to visit. They took me out to dinner, then on Saturday morning we went to the zoo and then out to lunch. It was a lot of fun and it was nice to have different food for once.

That's all for now.