really random and irregular musings (blurb #54)

Today I got the most awesome birthday present. Anna and I shadowed the big cat keeper at the Central Florida Zoo. It was amazing.

We cleaned out animal habitats and got to feed some animals. We cleaned the public habitats for the caracal and the coatis. I even scooped up some poop. Then we cleaned the clouded leopards' and cheetah's night dens. To clean an area we'd remove poop and any leftover food parts and then spray down all of the props and the floor, cleaning out all the loose debris.

All of the cats at the zoo are too dangerous to get to pet, but we did get to interact with several other animals.

I got to hold a baby sloth. She tried to bite me a few times, but very slowly and I was able to easily avoid her. I also got to pet a kankajou.

I was able to help feed a few animals as well. We fed ants on a log to the elephants. The elephants would take the celery out of our hands with their trunks. A few times I put the food directly into the elephants mouth and even got a little slobber on myself. The elephant was able to pick up individual raisins with its trunk.

The keeper talked to us a lot about enrichment. Enrichment is what the call stimulating the animals to keep the lives interesting. We tied a bunch of palm fronds into the coati habitat and hung kebabs of grapes and honeydew melon for them to eat.

It was awesome, check out the pics at http://awe.sm/2G

posted: Feb 13 2009 22:15

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