Red Pandas and Animal Escape Training

Yesterday was another day of volunteering at the national zoo.  

Im not sure if I have explained how my morning goes to get to the zoo, but I get up at 5am and leave the house by 5:45.  I take the 30 mile drive to the national zoo through rush hour traffic, which takes 45-55 minutes and usually get there around 6:30.  I don't have to be there until 7am, but honestly if I left any later it would take much longer to get there.  I park in one of the parking lots and walk across the zoo in complete darkness minus my flashlight....right by the cheetah enclosures where if I flash my light in the enclosure I can usually see the light of eyes staring me down.  Its very odd being up way before the sun, considering the sun doesn't rise until 7:20am.

Ok anyways back to my day...I started by making the morning enrichment for the sloth bears, then I took the food for the cats, otters, and red pandas down the hill to meet the other keeper.  There we checked the fishing cat yard for any problems in the fencing and picked up poo/bones.  Then we shifted out the male fishing cat who has to go through one yard to his own yard on the other side.  Then we shifted out the female and the kittens with her.  After that we went in the clouded leopard enclosure and checked the perimeter while picking up poo/bones in there.  Then we went and gave the male chicken for the morning, she also wanted to show me his training procedures such as giving her his tail and in return he got a ball of meat.  I was actually able to feel his tail and it pretty much made my day! Then we tried to shift him out into the yard, but for some reason he wouldn't come out.  Turns out he started to come out and found more chicken so he had a drumstick sticking out of his mouth when we came to see what he was doing.  We waited until he had finished eating and went to check on the female clouded leopard, who takes more time to get used to people, but eventually she came out of her den and chuffed at us.  Then we shifted out the male into the yard.  Next we measured out the food for the next day for all the animals.  After that we checked the perimeter of the otter yard and checked the water temperature before letting all the otters out for the day.  We then went down to the red panda yard and shifted them in and then fed them before going into the yard and checking the water for chlorine, picking up old bamboo, and picking up poo.  I then exited the yard and watched the keeper train the red pandas named Tate and Shama.  Then we tested the water and got rid of the bamboo.

Here are some training pictures I took:

Tate and the keeper

Tate closest and shama in the back

Tate standing

nom nom nom chewing

Tate standing and chewing, shama chewing

shama chewing...very adorably

wanting more food

watching the keeper

After that we went and cleaned the otter inside enclosures, picked out some bones from the clouded leopard inside enclosure, and cleaned the fishing cat inside enclosure.  Then we went and threw some fish into the otter pool and watched them come running.

Ignore the cookie monster reflection

Then we went and checked on all the animals before going up the sloth bear building.  When we went to check on the clouded leopard he saw the keeper and instantly came and stood on a limb right in front of her and started making noises at her.  He's super cute.  When we got to the building I helped clean one of the enclosures before I helped out with the demo for sloth bears.  We were able to feed Hana and then in the other yard Francois.  Then it was lunch time and the unit meeting.  At 1 pm many of the keepers had to go to what is called code green training so me and the other volunteer went too.  Code Green is for when there is an animal escape.  Well at the training they had set up a plan for if one of the tigers had escaped.  It was very eloborate, and even included bad mistakes from visitors or the random public, such as hitting the tiger with a car and then feeling bad and getting out of the car to see if the tiger is ok.  It was very informative, and they do this lecture training several times a year along with actual training by someone being the escaped animal and running around the zoo and seeing how the staff can deal with the situation.  All zoos have a plan set in place for escaped animals, all have different code names including code houdini (my favorite), escaped animal, code green, and so forth.  After the training I helped make the evening enrichment for the sloth bears and then put the items in the enclosures.  By that time it was time for us to be finished so I went and got my actual volunteer shirt for the zoo.  And drove home in rush hour traffic again.