Another Zoo Story

I realized that I told you that I fell in love with the rhinos while working at the zoo, but I never actually told you the story behind that.

I was at the zoo for three months as a Vet. Tech. intern. Four days a week I was working in the hospital, but one day a week I got to go out and work with the keepers. One of the first animals I got to work with outside of the hospital were the rhinos. The zookeepers obvious favorite was the baby. She was full grown by the time I was working there but she was born at the zoo and was still the youngest rhino there, so she was the baby. She had vitiligo (the Michael Jackson disease), so she had large pink spots all over her body. This meant that she couldn't go on exhibit because she couldn't be in the sun for that long.

The keepers had made it their morning ritual to go say hello to her before starting their day. They all crowded around petting her and cooing. When they left to do their work, she'd cry for awhile, sad to lose all of the attention. But they'd come back periodically throughout the day to say hello.

This is Tucker (not Rudy), but he was pretty darn cute too. 

Being new to the group and not a normal keeper, I hung back during their morning love fest. I'm glad that I did, because if I hadn't I never would have met Rudy. I glanced over and there he was, a huge male rhino with the longest horn I'd ever seen on a rhino (admittedly not a huge accomplishment, seeing as how the only rhinos I'd seen at the time where the 4 at the zoo). He was standing there looking at me between the bars with his horn pointed away from me (as if he was trying to let me know that he wouldn't hurt me) and the back of his head facing the bars, like a cat waiting for you to scratch it behind the ear. How could I resist? I stuck my hand through the bars and scratched him on the soft spot behind his ear. He pushed his head closer to the bars and even rubbed them alittle (once again, like a cat begging to be pet). I stayed as long as they would let me, scratching all of his soft spots (behind the ears, under the eyes, the armpit, belly, groin...). Eventually, they made me stop petting Rudy and actually do some work. Every time I walked past his enclosure he would walk with me on the other side of the fence. You can imagine that rhino enclosures are somewhat large and it was nice to have the company for the walk.

I spent my lunch break petting him and playing with him. You know that game you play with dogs where you run really fast then suddenly jump and face him and the dog gets really excited and play bows? Rudy did that.

After that day, we were best buddies. He'd always come up to the fence to say hi, even when he was on exhibit. I'd go out to the public area to "get a drink" and he'd see me and come over. Even though he couldn't get close enough to get a rub down or a tasty morsel, he still wanted to say hello- the visitors loved that. I loved it too. The medical crew had a different uniform than the other employees and the animals knew that the ones in blue were the ones that caught, poked and prodded them. The  other animals hated us, the gorillas would run up and pound on the bullet proof glass every time we walked by (another thing that the visitors loved), but Rudy didn't care, he liked me no matter what my job was.

The kiss of death?

There are only three species of venomous snakes that live in Iowa and all of them are endangered or threatened in that state, so I never really had to worry about them before. Now that I've moved to Texas, I do have to worry about them. Venomous snakes are just as common here as the nonvenomous ones. In fact, the only snake I've seen so far was venomous. I think it might have been a cottonmouth, but it was getting dark and hard to be sure.

I can't identify which species of snake I'm looking at yet, but I do know how to tell if they are venomous or not. Most people know to look at the shape of its head. Venomous snakes have a more diamond shaped head while nonvenomous snakes have a rounder head.

But there are exceptions to that rule. So you have to look at a few other things to know for sure. Nonvenomous snakes have round pupiled eyes, a curved "nose," and larger scales on their head.
The Venomous snakes have slit pupils (like a cat), a pointed "nose," and small scales on their head

A Zoo Story

Doing my interview at the primate sanctuary has me thinking about my time at the zoo. I thought some of you would enjoy this story.

One of my projects during my internship at the zoo was to help train a gorilla to let us take his blood. Before entering the gorilla housing area they explained the rules to us. This is the short version of what they told us:
Don't look them in the eyes- that's considered a threat. Don't stand taller than them- that's considered a threat. There are lines painted on the floor, stay between those lines because if one of these guys can even get a finger on you- he'll rip you to shreds before we can even react. And (now that I've scared the crap out of you), they are going to charge you, don't act scared- that'll only make it worse. Keeping in mind the fact that I was scared enough to piss my pants at that point- how do you walk crouched down, staring at the floor and not look scared?

I didn't have a digital camera at the time. This is a picture that the other

 intern took-they're teaching this gorilla to let them do an ultrasound of his heart. 

It ended up not being that bad and I'm glad that they told me all of that or I probably would have done something dumb and gotten myself into trouble, but at the time it seemed sort of silly to tell us all of that then say "Don't act scared."

Kicked, Bitten & Scratched

A Book Review

A fantastic book for animal lovers, especially those working in the animal care field.

This is a non-fiction book about a reporter who attends Moorpark Community College's EATM program (a school for exotic animal trainers) for one year and writes about her experiences.

The book covers some pretty heavy topics, but overall the author (Amy Sutherland) keeps it light hearted and fun. Although, you don't have a main character to fall in love with and really care about, you find yourself rooting for each and every one of the students and animals.

***Warning: This book may cause impulsive urges to quit your job, pack up everything you own and drive to California to enroll in these classes.