goats......do they really have to poo every few minutes?

Today was another fun filled day at the zoo with animal encounters and my all-time favorite thing......goats.....just kidding.


There were only 2 of the interns today so we were together the whole day.  We did 3 animal encounters with 2 snakes and 1 skink.  


Touching moment of the day:  A little boy and his mom came to the zoo because he had just been released from the hospital for having brain surgery.  The hospital overlooks the zoo and they watched it everyday from the window with his mom promising that they would go to the zoo when he was well.  We met them today in Manatee Springs while we had Star our Ball Python out.  I was touched by the mom keeping her promise to her child and honestly I think I would have gone with them the whole day just to make their experience as amazing as possible.  I really hope their day was amazing!


It is weird to go from a busy weekend to seeing the monday crowd of mothers and strollers.  The crowds are definitely diminished and the day is much quieter for us.  Overall it was a calm day....and then the goat yard happened....


So goats.....they are barnyard animals and I really have never been interested in them....but these kids act like they are seeing a puppy for the first time and want to brush these creatures and hug them.  That usually is fine...but today I think the goats were on steroids or something.  They were crazy and running around jumping up on things.  They had their tongues sticking out which looked to me like they were doing the flehmen response...which usually is done when a female is in heat....but these goats are all.....for lack of a better word......fixed.  They also were in dominance fights and headbutting each other by rearing up on their back legs and pounding each other.  Well add 3 year olds and under into the mix.  Some kids were screaming....some were knocked over....parents were scared.


OVERALL being in the goat yard today was stressful and having to explain the behaviors to parents is interesting to do.....Also having to scoop poo every 3 to 5 minutes for 20 goats/sheep sucks.  Its like I die a little every time I have to scoop up goat poo.  Yes I have a college degree.....but I am scooping goat poo.

PEACOCK!!!!