Day 54.
It was Sarah (main Carnivore lady), Valerie (keeper), & I today. We went straight to Lions to quickly let them out. We did walk the fencelines first and put out some Rhea eggs for enrichment. They did some carroling while they waited. When we were letting them out, Keeno rubbed on the door by me. :) Tau was the last to be let out and I operated the closing guillotine. I was holding it open for him and he walked out, but then stopped with his tail tip still under the door! I slowly put it down so it'd touch his tail and he'd move it, but he didn't! I just had to keep waiting until about 5 whole minutes later he moved again! SHEESH! We did a very quick cleaning job after that, then headed to Bears for...
A Brown Bear knock-down! It's time for them to have physicals done (every 3 years). On the drive over to their hut I saw Tibetan Yaks on right, then White Fallow Deer on left, then Sika deer on right, then Rhea on left. haha! The girls (Russel & Claire) needed to go out, so we spread their breakfast quickly- I smeared peanut butter on rocks and logs- then let them out. Russel found one of the peanut butter spots and licked it several times. We did a quick cleaning job of the girls' rooms.
Someone operated a guillotine to separate one boy from the others. It ended up being Mak. My job was to comfort Victor & Oso with berries so they wouldn't get too stressed about being separated (since they are "brother bears"). When the vet team arrived I operated the guillotine that everyone would go out of to get Mak onto the truck bed. The truck was driven into the yard and backed up to the door to be ready. After Mak was darted he didn't make too much noise- he didn't know it was coming. I kept an eye on him as he lost consciousness. He was getting sleepy and didn't know why. I kept telling him it would be okay and he could go to sleep. He wobbled a bit and then sat down, and finally laid down and slowly blinked his eyes, then fell asleep. His mouth was open and his lips looked so cute. The vets put a catheter in and checked his vitals, then moved him onto the truck. Once they drove away, Valerie & I let the other boys into the yard and threw some bread out to them for breakfast. They weren't too interested, and kept pacing around the outside of the hut, sniffing.
We arrived at the clinic after everything was all set up inside with Mak. I got to pet him a bit, hug and kiss his back, and hold his paws. Angela came in for this procedure, and she was measuring his pads and claws to see how much he'd grown since his last physical. The vets were feeling all over to check him. We usually have an encounter to do at 11, but on procedure days we cancel those. BUUUT, Jungle Jamie hadn't heard of the cancellation, so signed up 14 people for a Big Bear! We couldn't do that since one of the Bears was unavailable, but we offered to do a Lion 101. Sarah had me go out with Rayna (also came in just for the Bear procedure) to do it ourselves. Neither of us had ever trained the Lions before, but I'd seen it done several times, so I was okay with it. We picked up the guests, drove out to the Lion loop and Rayna did the presentation while I trained. Tau came up right away, then Sarabi joined us too. They both did very well and so did I! Keeno didn't come down, but looked majestic sitting under the round shade of a tree. :)
When we finished and returned to the clinic, it was almost time to take Mak back to his hut. I waited in the truck bed and helped lift him onto it (holding the stretcher), then I got to ride with him too. I sat a bit squished next to his back, holding onto him to steady myself as we drove bumpily to his hut. I helped to lift him off the truck, but going into the hut the door was too small and many of us couldn't make it through and had to let go of our portion of the stretcher. They handled it though, and got him settled in his room. Angela offered to stay and watch him while Sarah, Valerie & I went to take our lunch breaks. I ate pretty quickly though because I finally got to have a shift watching one of our animals wake up! I brought my book and read aloud so Mak could hear too. When I did this for my dogs, they always seemed to like it- maybe a steady voice soothes them- so I thought it'd be nice for him too. I paused a couple times to go look at his face and call his name to see if he'd move a little. He had been blinking a bit and smacking his lips, and once when I called him he moved his ear and picked up his head a tiny bit. He also kept shifting his back legs every now and then. Mostly he stayed asleep all day. I guess the Bears take a LOT longer than the Lions to come out of anesthesia!
I was given a list of tasks to do all alone, starting at 3 o'clock. First was a Big Bear encounter. I picked up the bucket of donuts & apples from QB, then drove the people out in the giraffe truck. I told the guests all about all of our Brown Bears, and that we had one MIA since he was sleeping in the hut. Usually while we make the introductions the Bears start coming over because they know it's Big Bear time. WELL, they DIDN'T! I called and called them and clicked at them, but nobody made a move to come over. The guests and I laughed about it and talked about how we can't force them to do anything, and they are sometimes lazy, and maybe they weren't in the mood for donuts. :) I was getting desperate and threw a couple donut pieces to them where they were sleeping under their shade structure. They sniffed, but didn't get up. I finally threw one more piece and it landed right next to Victor's head! He ate it and looked at us, then finally meandered over! YAY! But then......... walked away! NOOO! I actually said "NOOOO" too. haha. The people all laughed about it too. Our time was running out so I apologized about not getting a Big Bear out of them, but gave them the bucket of apples to throw out. They threw some to the girls and Russel swam out to eat them. They threw some to the boys and after several apples had landed, they finally got up and ate them! The guests and I talked some more and giggled at how cute Russel was in the water. Then a little girl, about 8, asked if maybe Oso (who was in front of us eating apples) would maybe do a Big Bear now that he'd gotten up. I told her I could try it again once he'd finished his apples. So we waited, I got my bucket of donut chunks, then asked him to do Big Bear............ he didn't. There was one more apple, but I'd gotten it from near the fenceline and decided to ask him for Big Bear with the apple. It WORKED!!!! HAHAHA! The people were happy they finally got to see it. :) Time was out, but I felt bad that we spent the first half doing nothing, so I went over a little and got both boys to do Big Bears for donuts, FINALLY! I think the guests really liked the drama of the whole thing too. :) I returned them to the entrance, then went to check on Mak really quick before doing a Lion 101 encounter. He looked okay and just stayed asleep. He was breathing good tho.
I picked up the guests for the Lion encounter- 2 families who had been on the Big Bear one. :) I love when this happens as I feel like I have some sort of comraderie with them now. I feel more comfortable. I learned that Tau & Sarabi no longer need one or the other distracted since their food aggression with each other had lessened. I had them each do some training tricks while I talked, and noticed that Sarabi was being submissive to Tau! I had gone over to have her do a trick and Tau looked at her, and she ducked and squinted her eyes! I was amazed! I guess he is going to become the dominant one after all- as it should be with Lions! Good boy! He's finally stood up for himself. May help with the breeding too.
Once that ended, I met up with Sarah & Valerie to do a Lion/Bear Feed. It was grandparents and 2 of their grandsons who were teenagers and shy. We walked them over to the Lion hut and let them push meat through the chutes and watch the Lions come in. They got to hear 2 roaring episodes. :) Then we drove out to the Bear hut to let the Bears in and watch them eat. We looked at Mak first, who was still sleeping, and told the guests about what happened to him today and that he was just recovering. We let his 'brothers' in and instead of going right to the food, they sniffed around at all the scents left by the vets and sniffed at the door that Mak was behind. Victor started banging on the door and digging and the ground. He and Oso sniffed and sniffed at the door and tore at the boxes their food was in, but didnt' eat any of it. They were just being destructive to show their feelings of irritation at being separated from Mak. It made me sad for them. And Mak sat up in his room to sniff at the door too. He stood and walked at one point, but was so wobbly that he laid back down to sleep. They will all be together tomorrow though. Poor little Grizzlies.
The girls were let in with no fuss and enjoyed their meals thoroughly! The guests took lots of pictures in front of the rooms and took a long time watching them. They also felt bad for the boys, but we all knew they'd be fine. We said goodnight and headed out to close the gates. On the drive I asked about a baby Eland I'd seen earlier! Valerie said it was born yesterday! Aug 4, 2010. :) Not sure who will name it or when we will find the name out tho. I think I spotted the baby Zebra too. :) Bethany has a list of names narrowed down, so we should find out soon!
I stayed in the Cheetah Lodge until the last car pulled through (saw Hermano (Cheetah) laying in his yard), then went to help bring the Tigers in for dinner and bed. Leah was being affectionate and rubbing on the gates at us. I think they said it's because it's breeding season and she gets lovey-dovey. :)
That was the last thing of the night. WHEW!
Bye for now...
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