And so it begins...

Entrance to nursery

Before getting to my internship, I was not exactly sure as to what to expect I would be doing on a daily basis. Suffice it to say I was excited to get to work at a zoo! Who wouldn't be? The frequent banter from my friends and family about me being a gratified pooper-scooper did begin to concern me slightly. That would stink, literally. Thankfully not true, well not exactly; the handlers for the herbivores around the zoo do collect all the feces, and it is then taken to the nursery and added to the compost which is then used in a 3:1 soil mixture that all the plants are potted into. So I have, per say, shoveled some of it but only when assisting with some propagation of a Heliconia variety.

'Fire Flame' Heliconia

So far I have really enjoyed getting to work on the Zoo grounds. I’m frequently working in the nursery, secluded in the very back of the zoo. It is a very pleasant place to be, and due to the shade feels like picnic weather all the time despite the weather in Malaysia being a constant of 90F or higher in the middle of the day and at least 60% humidity.

There really hasn't been a dull moment.

On the first day I was toured around the offices in the back by the head of the Education Department as he took me to the Parks and Garden Department (P&G).  We headed to the very back of the buildings, passing an impressive veterinary clinic and animal quarantine area. Then walking by a very large cage labeled "Predator Holding" which I found quite amusing to contain domestic cats (strays found on the property), before heading back into what looked like an industrial garage. We entered the P&G office, and I met the three staff members. Mohammed is the head of the department and has been working there for 20 years! His extent of English is not very much, but he says good morning to me every day, and I politely respond likewise in Malay with a “Selamat Pagi.” We had an agreement that if I would use as much Malay that I know, he would do the same with English. Eza is the second in charge of the department and is directly supervising me. She has been working at the zoo for three years almost directly out of finishing her degrees. Whenever she is not in meetings, I ask her questions about anything I have seen and wondered about. When I follow her on her rounds around the zoo, she will point something out and ask for ideas or my opinion, which has resulted in me being assigned to design the planting around the water feature in the new bamboo exhibit! Ain is the last member of the staff and has only been there for three months. I think she mainly supervises the contractors work throughout the day when Eza is in meetings. I haven’t had the opportunity to talk to her much. The one afternoon where I had the time, I wanted to ask her about the snails in the nursery and if they were a very large problem because they seemed to be everywhere. The conversation more or less consisted of me asking her if she knew what a snail was and then trying to explain what a snail was, first verbally and then drawing one out. I was unsuccessful, and we both shared in a laugh about it. It would be notable that the only time I feel awkward when being in the office is when all four of us are there standing in this 10’x10’ room, and I feel ridiculously tall because they all only reach to my shoulder and I’m only 5’8’’!

After introductions, Eza and Ain took me on a tour around the Zoo so that I could become familiar with the areas so that if they told me “after lunch go over to where the giraffes are,” then I could know what they were talking about. The tour was pretty straight forward, and I really enjoyed looking at the nature in the different exhibits. Eza explained as we went along how it was their aim not only to beautify the park but also to try to make it really feel like the wild. Outside the chimpanzee exhibit she was saying how P&G doesn’t waste much; for example, if they need to cut a tree down, then they will ask the zoology department if they have a need for it in any of the animal exhibits. It seemed a fitting example as the chimpanzees ran to the end of the elevated log closest to us and begin zealously jumping up and down, while shaking a stick! Eza and Ain began to walk away from the barrier, which is about my height, and motioned for me to follow just as the chimp flung the stick at us, striking the top of the barrier! I could tell then that this internship was going to be interesting right then and there.

Tigers

The rest of the day, I spent reading the Standard Operating Procedures and a book from which they select almost all of the flora for the park, while I was being encouraged to take plenty of time to walk around the zoo and to go watch the animal show in the afternoon. I have to say that being in a Zoo when no one else is there is actually quite nice and the animals act completely different without an audience. The lion growled at the tigers through the fence, which was met by the tigers peering around a tree with a kind of “what is his problem” attitude before lying down for a nap. A white female tiger, which had recently had babies, was pacing in front of the water barrier, and throughout the day, the primates, which are located nearest to the office, would burst into a cacophony of sound. During lunch I took the time to go watch them. A new lemur family had been added to the lemur exhibit, and they would burst into a uproar, which would start the siamang next to them to start hollering, followed by the gibbons next to him and finally resulting in the entire population of the macaque monkeys running over to the corner of their exhibit cage to watch them intently!

It was a really fun first day to say the least!

Macaque Monkeys