Cool/Funny things that have happened so far…(Part 1)

Obviously being an intern at a zoo and working there means that I get to see stuff and experience things the average patron does not. This is due to me being behind the scenes or because I’m around when the zoo isn’t open to visitors.  So the random things that have made me laugh have been occurring almost from day one. Here are a few of them.

1) Chimpanzees
The chimps at the zoo are rather feisty individuals. I mentioned in the earlier post about one tossing a stick at us during my first day, and the two males have not given up the pursuit. While doing a variety of tasks over three different days near their enclosure, I have watched them unsuccessfully attempt to throw sticks over the barrier wall at me. It begins with them pacing back in forth in the area closest to me, which is a good 10-15ft from the observation barrier. Once they realize I will not be daunted by this, one will run around in search of a small branch or stick. They will then return back to the same area, stick in hand, and begin alternating between bobbing up and down, and swaying their bodies back and forth. I’m still working, so now they will begin to rip the small side growths off the stick, followed by hitting the stick on the ground while bobbing. At this point the chimp will chuck the stick at me, unsuccessfully making it over the barrier. On the last occurrence of this, the chimp got especially frustrated. He had no more sticks and pounded on his chest with one hand followed by angrily running over to this enrichment barrel hanging from a tree and throwing it as hard as he could before storming away to the back of the enclosure. I felt bad for the little guy, and not acting a little scared by his antics.

2) Hornbill out of its enclosure…?
During the first week I was walking with Eza towards the nursery and I noticed a hornbill sitting on the outside of its enclosure. I pointed it out to Eza and she radioed in asking about it. The response from the Zoology Department was that it is a stray one hanging around the enclosure because it’s mating season. Hornbills apparently mate for life, so there is only one male and female hornbill in each enclosure. I would assume that this specific pair has probably already have become mates for life, but that does not stop the wild male hornbill. I have seen him every day outside this enclosure attempting courtship rituals with the female, to no avail.

3) What’s with the ruckus?
So the zoo recently got a new family of lemurs which were added to the primate area. Randomly throughout the day the lemurs will begin screaming. This then starts the Siamang next to them hollering, followed by the gibbons in the two exhibits next to him to start whooping. The macaque exhibit is 90 degrees to these, and as soon as it starts all 20+ of them run over to the corner of the fence and watch the other primates yelling. They sat there wide eyed and intent like kids watching cartoons in the morning!

4) Peek-a-boo!
One of the days I was at work, before they gave me a set of keys to the office, I came back from the nursery to find the door locked. I sat on a bench for a while and then decided to walk down the road behind the veterinary building. While walking, I hear this tiny monkey yipping at me through the wire window to the room he is being held in quarantine because it is new to the zoo. I started to walk closer so I could take a picture of him, and the closer I get, the louder he screams. Now I’m standing on the curb about 6ft from the window and he freaks out, jumps down and runs to the door across the room. He is hanging their yipping, while watching me over his shoulder. I haven’t gotten a photo of him, so I side step out of the view of the window and hear him stop yipping. I wait about ten seconds and then step back in front of the window. He isn't on the door anymore, and I don’t see him anywhere else in the room, and the next second he jumps back on the window. Seeing me standing there he screams again. We did this a couple more rounds.

5) Whistling 
Ain and I were going around and checking the tags on the trees one day to check which trees were missing them and what trees no longer exist due to construction, and replacing the nails when the tree stated growing around the little metal number tags. This was a pretty mundane task, so I was whistling while we worked. At this point we were near the tiger exhibits, and I commented on how it was funny that in addition to the water barrier, all the big cats have, the white tigers also have electrical fencing on the glass barrier on the visitor side of the water.  The white female tiger at this time is lying down sleeping. As we noted the trees near her enclosure, I began whistling the theme song to the old TV Land show Mr. Ed. As soon as I did this, the female tiger sat up and looked at us. We both laughed at the fact that she was paying attention to me whistling and continued what we were doing, including me whistling. About a minute later, we look over and the tiger is now standing at the edge of the water nearest us, staring at me. Next thing we know, she jumps into the water and starts swimming over to me! The trainers often use whistles to indicate feeding time, so I think she thought I was going to feed her. I stopped whistling and the tiger just sat there in the water halfway to the barrier.