Halfway Through!

Hit the halfway mark!. There was a lot going on these past two weeks, so there were many special projects that I got to be a part of. The major one was the first ever World Giraffe Day on June 24th. We got to make awesome giraffe hats for the kids (and staff of course) and there was face painting and giraffe feedings going on for the majority of the day, with all proceeds going directly to giraffe
conservation.

I also started doing Wildlife Stage shows twice a week; short ten to fifteen minute shows with live education animals. I do five shows a day, so I get to mix up the variety a lot. My favorite shows are the ones where I take out "Peanut" the baby American Alligator. Zoo visitors are always excited to see and touch an alligator, even if it's a little one. 

 

I worked in Diets for the first time, and it wasn't too bad. It was interesting to see which animals can get certain kinds of foods, and it was mildly entertaining cutting and measuring food out. I'm obviously easily entertained.


I also worked in Rainforest for the first time too! The rainforest is a domed building with glass panels that allow sunlight in and keep the animals and plants nice and warm. There are tropical birds and Giant Indian Fruit Bats in free-flight, along with several animal exhibits with animals such as Golden Lion Tamarins and Dwarf Caimans.

In DA I got to see more of the Lion's Pride section of the zoo. The lions, especially the male, were feeling pretty lazy but once their keeper showed that she wanted to train with them they were pretty energetic and enthusiastic. 

Some friends/interns and I decided to visit nearby zoos on our days off, and this week we went to the Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium in Omaha, Nebraska. It is huge, and has several of the country's and world's biggest exhibits. I am of course biased, and whenever I saw an animal that the Topeka Zoo also had in exhibit, I preferred our own in every comparison. Especially the giraffes. That being said, Omaha was really impressive, and I'll be sure to go back again someday. Their aquarium was intense, and they had a tunnel that you walked through and you could look up and see sharks, rays, fish, and two sea turtles swimming above and around you.




I was VERY lucky and was asked to help with an elephant bath! I got to scrub "Tembo" the African Elephant along with Lauren, and afterwards got to help with elephant painting and got to be a living canvas for her painting on a shirt.Completely awesome (and safe).

Giraffe training is coming along slowly but surely. "Dolly" went from being terrified of the target pole to touching it when asked to, even if she's a little slow since she's an old lady. I tried making my own target pole, but she was scared of it and wasn't used to it, so I decided to switch back to the original target and she responded well!




















We officially welcomed the newest addition to the Topeka Zoo, a Black Bear cub "Independence" or "Indie" for short! She's super cute, but usually a little skittish especially around "Sneak" and "Peek", our adult Black Bears. She was an orphan from Oregon, and is a little underweight, but she is gaining weight and being cute while doing it. For the local news story covering the event, click here.