Day 49 - Clouds, babies, lots of lion and bear time

Day 49.

This morning it was chilly and cloudy. I enjoyed it since it's usually so hot! A cool, cloudy morning. ahhhh. :) It was all the Carnivore interns (Rayna, Matt, & I) and Valerie. We all went to the Lions together. The couples got to switch pens with each other today! We walked the fencelines and rearranged the toys a bit- I kicked a couple bowling balls to other spots. While the Lions were waiting Tau was talking to me- looking at me and grumbling at me in response to me talking to him. Natasha skipped her meal again, but we were told she may not eat for a few days after her knock-down. She did go outside right away though. :) After they all went out, Matt & I unlocked the Lion drive-thru gates and on the way from there to the Brown Bears, we saw the baby Guanaco! So cute! I heard her name is "Carmella" cuz of her coloring. :) Some names are auctioned off, but other animals are named by the first person to spot the baby. This was the case for the Guanaco baby. Pretty name.

We went into the Brown Bear hut and saw a few cuddly Grizzly Bears who didn't want to get up yet. Oso was using his log toy as a pillow. The girls were already up and pacing around though. We opened the door to let them out and cross through the tunnel onto their island. While waiting for the girls to cross through the tunnel, Mak stood up to look at me (I was upstairs). He leaned against the fence first, but then just stood up on his hind legs. It was so cute. :)

After all the Bears were out, Matt & I stayed to clean the hut. It didn't take too long since by now we are fairly efficient at it! I did the scrubbing, so had a few spare minutes to go out and look at the Bison. They were walking along the road and causing a traffic jam. The ungulate department was called 3 or 4 times to come and move the Bison out of the guests way! Really, if the cars just go really slowly the Bison will move out of the way. That's really all that the ungulates do. Oh well.

Next was to clean Lion hut! Woohoo! I did the spraying this time and we finished really quickly- we surprised Valerie with our speed! We did do a thorough job too. After that we got to take an early lunch (11:30) Matt, Rayna, & I sat together and talked while we ate. It was nice. We went back to the office to meet Valerie once our time was up, but she said there wasn't anything to do yet, so we relaxed in the office for another half hour!! Valerie is just so efficient that we always have extra time to relax. ^_^

It was then time for midday snacks for all of the Bears! They got melons or bloodsickles and the Black Bears also got some cashews to go with it. We also went out to the Lion drive-thru loop and tossed over a couple of bloodsickles for Tau & Sarabi. (Keeno probably wouldn't be interested, and Natasha definitely isn't! She's not food motivated at all. We got to watch the Lions for a while and say hi to them all. Nice to have extra time!

Valerie & Matt went to do a Big Bear encounter and I stayed at the Black Bear area to toss all of their food to them. While we tossed the dog food and nuts, I watched the long pieces twirl around as they flew through the air- it was raining dog food and nuts! Little Girl came out to partake and everyone foraged around for their favorite part- dog food, nuts, produce, meat. While we were driving it was just us 3 girls so we had a little girl talk about Matt who has a crush on Rayna. :) He's done some awkward things around her. haha.

We also went to set up the Brown Bear dinners- the girls got theirs in boxes today with donut crumbs scattered about them. We had to wash dishes after that, but we are fast at this chore now so it wasn't so bad. Then Rayna & I prepared the Lion diets for tonight. We loaded the tote of diets into the truck and met at the front with Valerie and some guests for a Big Bear encounter. It was a pretty large group of about 24 people. I did some talking and answered questions for one end of the group- they seemed interested in my facts. heh. On the drive to take the people back to the entrance, I saw a Sika deer carefully stepping his way through the laying down herd. :)

Then! We relaxed more in the office. Once 5 o'clock rolled around we took a couple of guys into the Lion hut (Lion Feed encounter). We told them facts, let them drop food into the empty rooms, let them observe the Lions being brought in, and waited for Keeno to roar. The other Lions didn't join in with him! Oh well. The two guests were very nice and still loved the experience even though they missed all 4 Lions caroling together.

Last but not least was to put in the Brown Bears. The Grizzly boys have all been so good about coming in right away! Mak even ran to the door! They must have been hungry. :) The girls LOVED their boxes of food. Lots of goodies for them like celery and grapes! They seemed to think every bite was delicious! The boys chowed down a lot too and we left after saying goodnight to the happy Bears.

Bye for now...

P.S. Also spotted today: a newborn zebra! So cute!!