Massive Storm

The mornings this week were mostly routine again, cleaning either ruffed or ringtail exhibit or cleaning windows, as well as cleaning a couple back holding areas. Then preparing rat and aye-aye enrichment and sometimes doing herps or preparing diets. In the afternoons the bats, rats, and aye-aye are fed, lemur enrichment is done, and sometimes I get to feed the collared lemurs their fruit. On Tuesday and Wednesday the ruffed lemurs outside were starting their new medication so I got to watch the keepers giving the meds to the lemurs. This is done either just squirting it into their mouth or putting it in a piece of banana.

Collared Lemur

Diabetic Ringtail Lemur Rhea

On Sunday the only different things that I did were feeding the islands, both ringtail and ruffed, and watching fossa training.

Monday was a bit of an interesting day as there was a very massive storm the night before. There was a sinkhole washed out in the corner of the black and white ruffed exhibit which caused the exhibit to be unsafe for them so they had to stay in the holding for a few days. The road in front of our building had a lot of mulch washed out onto it so I spend post of the afternoon sweeping that up and putting it back where it belonged. Also today was the first day the new mongoose lemur pair was put back on the exhibit after the switch of pairs.

Damage to black and white ruffed lemur exhibit from storm

Mongoose Lemurs, Edwardo and Selena

Tuesday was a very interesting day. After cleaning the windows and the downstairs mongoose lemur and vasa parrot holding area, the vet came down to get blood from Rhea, our diabetic ringtail lemur. Rhea was in the back holding area by herself and the keepers went in and netted her then held her on top of the barrel for the vet to come in and take blood. After that, Ted, a black and white ruffed lemur had to go up to the vets office and get checked due to problems with his hip. I went too, so that I could watch the procedure. He was put under and then examined. He had a normal check up and the vet was moving around both his hips, and the rest of his rear legs to see if there was something wrong, then several x-rays were taken, blood was also taken. Nothing was found to be wrong with him, though they would have to wait for the blood work results to see if that showed anything, but he was put on some medication for pain. In the afternoon there was an attempt to train the fossa, but they would not come back into their holding area. I then went to rake some on ringtail island, because the island had been flooded and most of it had been underwater from the storm and was now covered in the duckweed that covers the lagoon. Today when I was watching the keepers med the ruffed lemurs, one of the black and whites escaped from its holding area and was loose in the lagoon holding building. After a few minutes of it running back and forth from one end of the building to the other it was caught and put back in its holding area.

On Wednesday the only thing I did that was different was in the afternoon I stripped the rats burrow.

USDA

This was a bit of an interesting week because the USDA inspection wound up happening this week. Sunday through Tuesday the mornings were normal and routine, I cleaned the ruffed exhibit and holding area all three days, cleaned windows, then cleaned another holding area or two. Also in the morning, the aye-aye and giant jumping rat enrichment is given, I do not think I ever explained why these two animals get fed/enriched so many times a day. The rats, it is very easy for them to over groom themselves and each other so we feed them three times a day to try to prevent that. The aye-aye, in the early morning they are given their gruel, then with their second feeding they are given their vegetables, and the third one they are given their fruit. This is done this way because they like the fruit the most and if they were given that with or before the other food they would only eat the fruit and not the other food. Sometimes in the morning I will help with herps, and give the crickets new food. Then tomorrows diets are prepared and that’s the end of the morning. In the afternoon most things are different from day to day, but feeding the bats, and the aye-aye and rats again, as well as preparing lemur enrichment is done every day, most days I also get to hand feed the collared lemurs their fruit.

In the afternoon on Sunday, I went with a keep to the jungle to start laundry and try to find balloons for paper mache, then spent most of the afternoon making paper mache.

Monday was interesting too. In the morning I cleaned the downstairs mongoose lemur holding area with them in it. They were not going on exhibit because they were being moved upstairs and separated. The two mongoose lemurs upstairs were separated as well. They are switching mates in hopes that they will breed. All lemurs were put in separate cages with one empty cage in between them and their new mate. In the afternoon another intern and I stripped one of the herps exhibits.

Tuesday in the morning I cleaned the tenrec’s tank. In the afternoon I helped a keeper to fix fallen shelves and other various tidying up jobs. Then while I was feeding the collared lemurs we learned that USDA was at the gorilla area next to us. Everyone quickly ran around trying to straighten everything up and make sure things were where they were supposed to be. After we did all that we discovered that they were not actually getting to our area until the next day.

Wednesday started off a little bit crazy because we knew that the USDA was going to be there sometime that day and so had to make sure to clean everything very well, including all drains, and make sure all chemicals were put back where they belong after we used them. I started out helping one keeper get down cobwebs from the bird exhibit, but then went to help another keeper clean the giant aye-aye and bat exhibit. After that I neatened up the enrichment hallway a little, and then cleaned two of the upstairs mongoose lemur holdings. Today after the holdings were cleaned, the mongoose lemurs were put into cages right next to each other. In the afternoon I fed the ring tails on the island, watched collared lemur training and fed the red ruffed lemurs outside.

Different Week

This week pretty much every morning was different because on Monday and Wednesday we had four interns and Tuesday the ruffed exhibit and holding area were not cleaned due to exhibit maintenance which caused the lemurs to stay in the back holding for the day.

Sunday morning was like a usual morning, I cleaned the ringtail exhibit and holding area, then cleaned windows, then cleaned the fossa holding area. After that the morning was different though and I brought branches from a tree that had fallen down to all the indoor exhibits, then cleaned up dirt and ceramic off the boardwalk outside from a potted plant that had fallen over during the storm the previous night. In the afternoon I disinfected extension cords, did more rust painting, prepared the lemur enrichment and fed the collared lemurs.

Monday I did not clean an exhibit in the morning, I just cleaned windows, cleaned the fossa holding area, and cleaned the tenrec tank. Then brought the aye-aye and rats their morning enrichment, and cleaned the windowsills in the upstairs keeper/holding area. In the afternoon I scraped chipping paint for the fossa holding area, cleaned the floor in the upstairs keeper area, then pulled weeds out on ringtail island.

Tuesday I cleaned the ringtail exhibit, then swept and vacuumed the public area, another intern cleaned the ringtail holding area since the ruffs had to stay off exhibit for the day. Then I cleaned the mongoose and vasa parrot holding area. Then prepared part of the aye-aye and rat enrichment, then went to get diets and prepared the dry part of their diets, brought the aye-aye and rats their enrichment, and did herps. In the afternoon I went to go get new crickets, unpacked the crickets, fed the bats and brought rats and aye-aye afternoon enrichment, put new browse branches in indoor exhibits and holding areas. Then pulled more weeds on ringtail island. Last for the day prepared lemur enrichment and brought it to their holding areas.

Wednesday I also did not clean an exhibit. I cleaned the windows, fed the crickets, spot cleaned the tenrec’s tank, and cleaned the fossa holding area. Then I went on a trip with a keeper, we brought the bags of weeds to the compost area, went to get diets, picked up clean laundry from the jungle, and dropped off fecal samples and picked up arthritis medication for saggy, the brown lemur, from the hospital. When we got back we added the dry parts to the diets. In the afternoon, more browse banches were brought to the sick lemurs in holding and to the black and white ruffed lemurs outside. Then with a keeper did cleaning and rearranging in the storage area of the fossa holding building. After that I fed the bats and aye-aye and did lemur enrichment.

Aye-Aye...

This week was a short week for me because I had to call in sick on Wednesday. Other then that the week again went pretty routinely, especially in the mornings. This week I cleaned the ruffed exhibit all three days of my working and foamed it on Monday, we normally foam the exhibits, Monday, Wednesday Friday, and back holdings get foamed everyday. I cleaned the ruffed holding area, another holding area, either the fossa or the upstairs or downstairs mongoose lemur. After the holdings are done morning enrichment is done for the aye-aye and giant jumping rats, then herps gets done, then diets get done, and that is usually it for the morning. After lunch tends to be different everyday since the only things that get done everyday are feeding the aye-aye their fruit, feeding the bats, preparing lemur enrichment and hand feeding the collared lemurs their fruit.

On Sunday I went with a keeper to get our snakes back that were removed from their exhibit last week for maintenance, then I washed some dishes and spent the rest of the afternoon painting rusted areas in the upstairs holding area with rust preventing paint.

Monday I did extra stuff in the morning, I cleaned out the tenrec’s tank and I helped to clean the cricket tanks. In the afternoon I did more rust preventing painting, this time in the downstairs holding areas, and then cleaned the floor in the keeper area upstairs. This was done the same way as cleaning the holding areas, with hosing down, then foaming, then scrubbing, then hosing again, the squeegeeing.

On Tuesday, in the morning when I cleaned the downstairs mongoose lemur holding area I also cleaned the vasa parrot holding area, this was a little bit different because the parrots are in there and I have to be careful not to let them out. I also went out to meet a keeper in the outside red ruffed lemur exhibit to feed the ibis that are also out there, they got pinkies, some of which I tossed to one bird and then the keeper put the rest up in the nest while I held the ladder. The ruffs were also fed while I was out there. Then another intern and I stripped the aye-aye holding area. Then I watched collared lemur training and that was the end of the morning. Not really sure how so much got done that morning. In the afternoon I helped put the new crickets in their tanks, watched ringtail lemur injection training, cleaned the upstairs keeper area again and cleaned crates that had been used.