Day 58.
Today was the same group: Angela, Matt, Rayna, & I. We all went to wake up the Lions together first. Today's enrichment was chicken! Tau & Sarabi are okay enough with sharing food now, so they can also have meat chunks hidden throughout their pen. :) So I took their chicken breast bits and found areas to hide them. I used a stick to lift one into a tree. hehe. While we were still in the pens the Lions did some caroling. It's always so cool to hear, no matter if you're in the hut with them where it echoes off the walls or if you are on the other side of the park just listening to the distant sound of them. We let them out and then watched to see if Tau & Sarabi would find any chicken. Sarabi sniffed the ground below the one I'd hidden in the tree. It had fallen there before I put it back into the tree. She didn't realize where it was, but I bet they found it later. We did see Tau stand up onto a tree and reach for another piece I'd put between the trunk split.
It was time to do the Brown Bears next. We went into the yards to clean and throw out breakfast, and also sprayed some perfume for today. I was spraying it in the inner yard for the girls and Rayna was in the outer yard, so I decided to toss the perfume bottles over to her (they were plastic). Well, she missed it and the cap came off when it hit the ground. We found it, but instead of doing that with the second one, I decided to shimmy under the hotwire fence! There was enough room for me and it was actually fun. Angela was scared for me, but the shock wouldn't have been bad anyway. haha. I went to look at the pond cave again. Still secure and Russel had dug out more space inside. I saw Claire in there today too, widening it. Maintenance came to check it out earlier in the morning and decided that they would have to break it down in a couple days. :( I feel bad since they worked so hard on it and Bears love dens, but they will always make another one. We also want to make sure they don't end up digging out of the yard on accident or that a cave crumbles in on them.
When we went in to wake up the Bears, Claire was upside-down with her legs all in the air. haha! So cute! The boys were all cuddling, as usual- little teddy bears. After we let them all out into their yards, Rayna & I stayed to clean. We finished in 40 minutes- a record!
Our next task was something I do not like.. we got 19 live chickens donated for the animals. I will just say that my job was only to hold a lid on a bin until the bodies stopped running around. I am not required to do any more than that and I don't even look at the event happening. I did look while they were alive though, and they were very pretty chickens- some were black & white striped. :)
After that, I solemnly washed some dishes. Angela, Rayna, & I then headed to Brown Bears and then Black Bears to throw out midday enrichments. On today's menu: tater tots! Russel seemed to like them a lot. Claire was busy digging out more of her pond cave. The boys also enjoyed them! Then the Black Bears got tots and cashews, which they liked too. :) Ricky likes everything- haha.
Lunchtime was with some other people out at a Mexican restaurant. It was pretty good! And nice to have an outing together.
After lunch, I had the hardest job of the whole day! You will not believe what I had to do! .............WALK ELLIE! YAAAAY! I walked into the office and Sarah asked if I minded going with Matt to walk Ellie. My eyes got joyfully large and I unhesitatingly said YES! And she said we could take a whole hour! Woohoo! Matt wasn't so into having to hike for an hour, but he enjoyed himself anyway. I was so excited, I walked at a fast, happy, skippy pace. We were told about a trail on a hill, but ended up just at a water tower. I decided to just go to the river instead. We walked down a hill to get to the road that would lead us there- it happened to be full of stickers! They got all in my socks, but I just took those off. Nothing could ruin my happy mood! Once we arrived at the river, Ellie just walked along the shore. I went to set an alarm for when we'd need to head back, and Matt offered to hold the leash while I did. He walked Ellie around a bit, following her back up the path. I knew we had extra time though, so I just sat near the river and waited for them to come back down to it, which they did. I wanted to play in the river with Ellie, but since Matt had the leash, I decided to just enjoy the river myself. I took my shoes off and walked on some rocks that jutted out and went to sit on one, put my feet in the water, and watch it flow. It was very relaxing and peaceful. Matt came out onto the rocks too and sat while Ellie walked in the water for a while. We got to stay that way for some pleasant minutes. My alarm started going off, so I put my shoes back on and called Ellie, and the three of us walked back towards the park. Halfway there Matt gave me the leash again. Ellie & I walked fast and unknowingly left Matt behind. We made it back to her pen and I put her in and said goodbye for now.
Matt was there when I started walking back to the office. He was sent to go pick up apples while I was tasked to pick up guests for a Big Bear. It was just one couple. Matt did the presentation and the talking. I just stood in the back of the truck with the guests and commented on how cute the Bears were. The lady LOVED throwing the apples out to them. Her husband enjoyed it too, she was just more vocal about it. :) I drove them back to the entrance and took a small break before having to pick up more guests for the next encounter- a Lion 101. The same couple was going on it, and another family with 3 small kids. As we drove through "Africa" I spotted the baby Eland!! I pointed it out to the guests and said how lucky they were as usually the adults will hide their babies. I took a few pics, but they were high on the hill, so the baby only looked like a dot in the pics. Oh well. :) I did a bit of the presentation at Lions, but Angela offered up more facts to fill the time.
Matt was there when I started walking back to the office. He was sent to go pick up apples while I was tasked to pick up guests for a Big Bear. It was just one couple. Matt did the presentation and the talking. I just stood in the back of the truck with the guests and commented on how cute the Bears were. The lady LOVED throwing the apples out to them. Her husband enjoyed it too, she was just more vocal about it. :) I drove them back to the entrance and took a small break before having to pick up more guests for the next encounter- a Lion 101. The same couple was going on it, and another family with 3 small kids. As we drove through "Africa" I spotted the baby Eland!! I pointed it out to the guests and said how lucky they were as usually the adults will hide their babies. I took a few pics, but they were high on the hill, so the baby only looked like a dot in the pics. Oh well. :) I did a bit of the presentation at Lions, but Angela offered up more facts to fill the time.
With the encounters finished, we started driving towards QB to do some dishes, but saw a bunch of park staff trying to pull one of the camels out of a ravine! She lays on sand near there and must have rolled down into it! Some guests saw her there and reported it. This was near the Elephant pen, and George could see it and hear the camel noises, so he was stamping around, trumpeting, flapping his big ears, and throwing logs. The Elephant keepers moved him to another part of the yard so he'd calm down. When I arrived, everyone was already set up with ropes and harnesses. She took a while to go on the safest path as she kept resisting the direction everyone was trying to pull her in. She did move a little bit that way, but became so exhausted that she collapsed and sat in the water for a bit. Finally they got a couple harnesses around her abdomen and pulled her gently up the hill by a bulldozer strapped to the harnesses. Once she was on flat ground she quickly got up. The people cautiously took everything off of her and she wandered off down the road- but one harness was still hanging over her back. The Ungulate staff drove out to her and one fed her a couple carrots while the other quickly grabbed the harness. Success! She seemed to calm down quite a bit too. Angela & I passed by her later and she seemed to be perfectly fine. ^_^ Hurray!
It was getting late, so Angela & I quickly went to Lions to let them in and feed them. We said goodnight to the sweet Lions, then went to close gates. Along the way there were some Aoudad in the road! They look like rams. They are elusive and usually hiding in the foresty area, but here they were in the road! I definitely took some pictures of this momentous occasion! haha. We also saw the baby Eland, which Angela had never seen. The view was far and it was laying down, so she could only see that it was a smaller speck than the adults- but still exclaimed how cute it was!
Our last thing to do was help out the Cheetah keeper by opening a water bucket in Topaz's pen. She was hissing at us as we approached, but we didn't have to be too near, and our chore was finished quickly. That was the end of such an eventful work day!
Bye for now...
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