First thing in the morning I made the enrichment for the outside yards with Kahli's and Francois' food. Then one of the keepers and I went to check the yards and put out enrichment. After putting out the enrichment we took the cat, otter, and panda diets down the hill.
There we met up with the other keeper and the other volunteer where I helped clean the otter pond/river. We had to collect clam shells left by the otters, clean out wood wool in the pond, and bleach the algae. Then we hosed the areas down to make sure the bleach/chlorine that was put in the water the night before would be out of the river/pond. After all of that we found the keeper again and she let us watch the fishing cats while a photographer took pictures, then we went to see the 11 small clawed otters they have.
After watching them for about 5 minutes and hearing the adorable squeaking the keeper and the new volunteer went to spray down the otter pool one more time and I was set up to clean the indoor enclosures for the fishing cats by myself. She was like "I know you havent been trained in this section but I have faith in you plus the other keeper said its so nice to have someone who knows what they are doing"....which is super nice to hear. After cleaning the enclosures I had the keeper check the locks and then I went with her to see that they had worked on cleaning the otter indoor areas. After finishing cleaning the enclosures we played with the otters by putting the water hose on the outside of the enclosure on the floor and letting the water flow on the floor. Then the otters were running around on the floor trying to catch the water in their hands...it was adorable.
After that we went to help out at the demo for sloth bears where i fed mealworms through the tube to Kahli while one of the keepers did training with her. After the training demo with Kahli we went to see if Francois would want to do a demo...turns out he did so the other volunteer fed him mealworms for that. Also I learned a fun fact which is: Baloo from the Jungle Book just happens to be a Sloth Bear.
Then next was lunch followed by the unit meeting and then me and the other volunteer went to a PPE (personal protection equipment) and zoonosis lecture. To say the least I didnt learn much other than they want everyone to get a flu shot.
After we got back from the lecture I helped put together the evening enrichment for the bears and set up the inside enclosures then the day was over.
Sorry I have no pictures but I cant put the non public area pictures online.
Just kidding I found one of Francois at his demo:
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