Day 13 - Lots of driving and some "Big Bear"

Day 13.


The morning started by waking up the lions! We walked in, and Keeno was already up again! Tau was still totally out, and the girls had just lifted their heads. Before letting them outside, we went to check the fence lines of the yards and spread enrichment (rhea eggs!). Once everything checked out, we released them into their separate couple pens. Keeno & Natasha. Tau & Sarabi.
Matt (intern) & I were left there to clean the lion hut, which we did quite fast!

Then we met Angela & Erin (intern) at the Brown Bear hut (where they had awakened the Brown Bears) and we shuffled ourselves around- Matt & Erin staying, and Angela taking me to fill our truck with gas and then head to Black Bears to spread out enrichment (honey & ketchup! but not mixed!)

We realized the truck tire had a leak, so we had to drop it off to maintenance and grab our other truck. Angela had me drive it so that I could practice driving a standard. This is an old donated truck, so it is VERY HARD to reach the pedals and drive- and the driver door doesn't close so it has a slide lock in place! I stalled out a few times in front of guests.. it was quite embarrassing. But Angela said I was doing fine since that truck is actually hard to drive for anyone. :) I drove it to QB (food place) and we washed the "dishes" before heading to LUNCH!

There was no Lion 101 encounter right after lunch, or at 3:30, so we had more time to do our normal chores. Our blue truck was fixed then, so we picked it back up from maintenance, I drove the yellow one back and parked it in the lot. We headed back to QB to pick up diets and midday snacks for the bears (Erin & Matt had been preparing them). Elephants were doing their car wash, which is right outside the exit of QB, so we dropped off some onions for them since the bears don't like onions. :)

We went to the Black Bear exhibit again to throw their food out for them and to drain one of the pools so it could be cleaned and refilled. We've also started throwing floating produce into the pools (apples, pears, corn) so that the bears can "bob" for them. I actually witnessed one of them doing it today- it was so cute and hilarious! ^_^ I couldn't snap a picture in time though, unfortunately.

Angela & I then went to do two encounters in a row with the same group of people- Big Bear and Lion 101. We drove the truck with the gated bed with benches in the middle. Big Bear was first. Angela did the presentation and training and I am paying very good attention so that I can start doing presentations too. I will actually be able to do the training of Big Bears at some point. :) It involves saying "Big Bear!", and clicking a clicker and throwing a donut piece to whatever bear did it. Oso (the smallest Grizzly) kept standing up and clapping his paws together in anticipation for a donut- it was SO ADORABLE! Victor also stood and waved a paw at Angela to let her know he was ready for his donut piece too! CUTIES!! After the training portion, the people are allowed to throw out produce to the bears. We called Russel & Claire over from their napping, and their yard is on the other side of the road, so all bears could get produce tossed to them. I handed out gloves (if they didn't want to touch the fruit) and let them take fruit from my bucket to toss out. I made sure they saved some for when the girls finally lumbered over within throwing distance. All of the bears enjoyed some pears and apples. :)

Next we took the group to do the lion encounter in front of the pens. I distracted one lion while Angela trained the other. After doing that with Tau & Sarabi we went over to the other pen to see if Keeno would come down for some training. Angela said we don't like to force them to come since training should be looked at as fun, so they need to WANT to do it. Keeno was content lying in the shade of his shelter next to his mate, Natasha (who was sleeping). Keeno laid there majestically with his head up, squinting in the cool breeze.

The park was closing then, so we drove back to the Black Bears to put them in their proper yards for the night, then to the Brown Bear hut to put in all of the Brown Bears. I got to open the guillotine doors for them. :) Practice, since Erin got a job and is leaving next week- so I need to start really pulling my own weight!

From there, Matt & I took the yellow truck (he drove so HE could practice driving a standard too!), and we made sure no guests were left on the main road and closed all of the gates! At the last gate is where the rheas and emus hang out and Matt stopped quite a distance away from the gate! So I had to walk pretty close to them to get to it and close it. Two of the emus kind of ran at me, but I was carrying a broom stick and shooed them away! Angela said they wouldn't have done anything but snap from a distance. Still scary!
That was all for today!


TTFN, Alex!


bye for now...