And More Giraffes 

Today was just another day in the life of a giraffe zookeeper.  I learned two things: 1. Always put hay in the feeder before you clean the whole stall 2. Zebras will charge you, but not that often.  

This is the stall where the majority of the herd stays at night.  We clean it every morning until it is spotless.      As you can see, being a zookeeper isn't glamorous, but if you can get past clearing drains with your hands and letting alfalfa cake in your hair, it is AWESOME.  See the woman with her thumb up?  She loves her job because she gets to work with giraffes; plus hippos and penguins.  This cleaning is hardly a setback to her day.  It is amazing the obstacles the zookeepers here at the zoo overcome each day, all for the love of the animals they take care of.  Zookeepers like Nikki and Allison here in the giraffe department are what make the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo what it is.  

This might be a link to the picture above:

This is about 600 lbs of food that the 20 giraffes eat each day.  I know this first hand because I load this lift every day! 

This is some training that was done with Mawimbi today. He is the tallest giraffe of the herd and is a bull.   You can tell when a male giraffe is mature when he gets little bumps on his face, which are calcium deposits.  The stick in her hand is a target stick.  The giraffe is trained to follow the ball and put its nose to it; when he does, they get a treat.  This basic training helps us maneuver the giraffes and is the foundation that is built off of to specifically train them to do things like stretch their neck or soak their feet.  

This is a picture of Khalid.  He is a four year old male that was born with a crooked neck.  He has been trained to receive chiropractic adjustments and to stretch his neck; so in other words, he is super smart.  I wanted to capture the height of these creatures, they make you feel so small when you are near them.  

No hippos tonight but just some frozen milk.  Apparently the fridge got too cold and froze the milk; needless to say, cereal has been interesting.  And on that note I leave you.  Night.  

Good things always happen after eating Chipotle

My evening started with a planned adventure--going to Chipotle; and if you have never had Chipotle, you need to slap that one on your bucket list.  So I was driving back to my housing in the zoo when I saw the night keeper drive by.  She asked if I wanted to follow her around on her night shift and of course I said yes!  The next thing I knew I had my hand in a hippo's mouth, feeding it!  We have two of them here at the zoo; they are referred to as "our girls."

They love their indoor pool and spend about 80% of their day in the water!  They receive daily training as well and on one command, open their extremely large mouths.  Both really liked being pet, but their skin is super slimy.

I also spent the evening preparing diets for the animals, including gorillas and all the birds.  Speaking of birds, I went through the Budgie Buddies exhibit and was shocked at just how many their were.

You can get these sticks with seed on the end and feed them; birds will literally land on you!

I put this one up because it looks like our old family cockatiel Jojo; Jojo was mistaken as a boy that would be able to talk someday--they were wrong, Jojo never peeped a word and turned out to be a female.

A lot of this was prepared for the Colobus monkeys; they get a lot of veggies!  There is a diet recipe for each animal the zoo has.  I helped prepare the Meerkat Diet; they get little meat balls! So here is what Timon from The Lion King eats:

"Slimy, yet satisfying!"

I had an awesome evening.  More giraffes tomorrow.  Looks like I have another reason to eat Chipotle!

Today I was what some might call a "Carny" 

Today I worked at Eagle Lake's 2nd Annual Carnival and what an experience that was! I spent the day stopping kids on a zipline and belaying on the rock wall.  For those of you who don't know, Eagle Lake is the amazing Christian camp near the Springs that I had the privilege of working at last summer.  I got to hang out and catch up with some of the legit kids I had as a counselor during the summer, which was really cool.  Working with me on the zipline were two other awesome Rez counselors from last summer, Tina and Shala! I think the zipline could have possibly changed more lives if we would have had this sign at the end of it:

But anyways, it was a great day to be alive and it is exciting to think about the kids who will get to experience Christ at Eagle Lake this summer!

Ever heard the phrase "leave a sleeping bear lie?"  Well, how about sleeping bears!  These are two Asiatic black bears and are also my neighbors of the night that I would like to share with you.

No giraffes today.  I think I might be having what some would call withdrawals; or it is just fatigue from stopping a gajillion kids on a zipline--I don't know which one it is.  Maybe I will have to stop by the barn tomorrow to see them.  Once again, if you found yourself here, thanks for checking in.  Night.

So giraffes poop...a lot!

Allison, the head giraffe zookeeper, and I spend a good chunk of our morning cleaning up after the giraffes.  When we kick them outside in the morning it is go time in the barn.  There are a total of six stalls that have to be cleaned for them to stay in during the night.  Each stall is sprayed down initially and all the sawdust, hay, poop, and whatever else you may find in there, is cleared.  Want to guess just how big of a mess giraffes make? Don't bother, I am going to tell you.  The giraffes fill a full construction-size dumpster of "their mess" about every two days.  For those of you still sitting there not convinced, trust me, it's a lot!  After this, each stall is then sprayed down until it is impeccable.  Here is a picture of one of the stalls.  Notice how high the walls are! 

  

When the whole process is done, I am convinced you could eat off the floors.  Do you see the hay that is hoisted to the ceiling?  Well cranking that up after being soaked from cleaning results in a "tar and feathering" type of effect.  It feels worth it in the end when you walk into the barn and see the herd laying down in their stall all comfortable and content.  It's like they know they've got me--how could I resist that look?

This is Becky.  She is the oldest giraffe of the herd at 31 years of age! I believe the oldest living giraffe in captivity was 36.  She looks like a record breaker to me.  What is really interesting about Becky is that she has been turning white for some time now.  They think that this is just the result of genetics, probably similar to human hair turning white with age.  

And it is time for Colton's neighbor of the evening.  I don't know what it is with animals sticking their tongues out at me but this is a Pallas cat.  They are found in grasslands of Central Asia and are a threatened species.  

Here is a picture of some enrichment that we set out for the giraffes today.  

This is pvc piping with bucket lids and a plastic ball strung on it.  Scents or liquids are placed on it to make the object exciting.  This one had olive oil dripped over it, and the giraffe can use their tongue to move the lids and the ball.

I am thinking about designing some of my own enrichment for the giraffes.  Allison said that if I come up with an idea we can probably make it happen.  I will keep observing the herd and do some more research before I come up with an idea, but it is definitely something I am excited about.  I'll let you know what I come up with.  

Well I have a couple days off and a carnival to work tomorrow before I get back to it.  I'll keep you posted.  Thanks for stopping by.   

 The Life of a Zookeeper

So today was my second day on the job as a giraffe zookeeper.  To be honest, the first day wore me out so much that I didn't feel like blogging when I turned in.  Oh and I lost my hot water too so I probably wasn't in the right state of mind to write one anyways.  The schedule is intense, but it has been an amazing couple days.  

Tonight I'll talk about one of my jobs: giraffe enrichment.  Enrichment is basically a toy, puzzle, or object that gives the giraffes something to do so they are stimulated and not just standing all day.  There is very little research on enrichment, and a lot of the objects we use were designed by our own zookeeper.  Often we use jugs or pvc piping with holes in them that the giraffes can stick their tongues in to get food.  One puzzle form of this is a pvc pipe that the giraffe must tilt to get the food out of it.  Today we used a flavored block of ice that the giraffes could lick during the day.  We also hung up browse, or branches of trees, for the herd to eat; this simulates the eating habits of a giraffe in the wild.  The enrichment requires a lot of hoisting and climbing to get it to the level of the giraffe!  I am actually interested in the enrichment of the giraffe and will be doing a little research on it throughout my month here.  

Here are a couple pics of what enrichment looks like.  I will get some pics of the enrichment we use soon.

  

I also got to help out with training today, which was awesome.  I helped the keeper train the giraffe to give blood and also to receive chiropractic adjustments! It was so so so cool. The giraffe Kahlid experienced whip lash in his travels from the Oakland Zoo to here, resulting in a crooked neck, so he receives adjustments to realign it--this has been a major success.  

So with only a toaster oven and a microwave here, I have to be a little creative with my meals.  Here is what I ate tonight:

(2 Tuna melts w/ avocado + an avocado/tomato salad) Just call me Guy Fieri.  

More to come.  Night.  

Day 1: "Here's what I think of the new intern"

I started my first day at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo today as an Intern Giraffe Zookeeper.  This zoo has the largest giraffe herd in the nation and has a very successful breeding program.  The subspecies, about to be its own separate species in a few months, of giraffe that I am working with are Reticulated Giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis reticulate).

There are 20 giraffes in the herd and one of my challenges as an intern is to be able to identify each one; this is proving to be difficult as they all look identical to me!  But after spending more time with them, I am starting to be able to tell them apart by their coloring, chest patterns, and personalities.  It is humbling as an identical twin to have to tell them apart! So honestly I cannot tell you which one this is yet!

This is my zoo crib.  I am staying IN the zoo during my month here and I can already tell it's going to be crazy.  First there was an epic battle between me and a bunch of moths who think they can live here too.  We have come to some sort of an agreement, which means I have pretty much given up trying to get rid of them all.  Then during the middle of the night the carbon monoxide alarm went off for about 5 seconds--this scared the crap out of me, I had no idea what was happening.  Lastly there were many sounds all night from the exotic birds and snow leopard that lives right by me.  I haven't explored the zoo at night yet, but that is for sure to come.

This is my neighbor and also one of the birds that kept me up all night.

This is the view outside my window.  You can see the famous Broadmoor Hotel below.

Me feeding one of the giraffes on my first day.  The real work begins tomorrow.  After a tour of the zoo and meeting my Zookeeper Allison I called it a day.  There will be more to come soon and probably a lot of poop scooping stories!