We then snuck over to the panda house and watched a panda procedure on the male called electro-ejaculation. Warning: the next few sentences may be too graphic for younger readers. So while the panda was sedated they emptied his bladder by putting a catheter tube in his urethra....keep in mind he was fasted and without water since the afternoon before...but they took about 5-6 cups out of him before beginning the procedure as to not get urine in the semen sample. Then the reproductive specialist for the zoo put a cup under the penis while a veterinarian put a very large probe in his anus that was electrically charged to stimulate his prostate to produce semen. People still had to hold his back legs as he kicked...keep in mind he is sedated so it is just his muscles reacting to the stimulation. Then they had microscopes on hand and specialists to look at the semen for a viable sample. It will be frozen for use later since pandas have a extremely low positive natural breeding percentages. I didnt expect that many people to be there when we showed up, but it was all the keepers, vets, vet techs, vet interns, geneticists, the reproductive specialist, people from the chinese embassies, head zoo curators, pr specialist for the zoo, another keeper aide and me. So I would guess around 20-25 people whereas when the sloth bear cub had his first vet exam there may have been 8 people including 2 volunteers.
When I decided I had had enough of the graphic procedure....ok 10 minutes worth I went to see the red panda and help my keeper who had left me there to watch. I helped clean up the storage cabinet for the holding area because the zoo is having an aza accreditation inspection next week and things have to look amazing. So i happened to get a really good picture of Shama the lone red panda:
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| Shama girl |
We then walked up the hill and I went to clean the otter inside enclosures. I also helped record temperatures for the pool and the heat rock in their outside yard. I also checked the yard for any abnormalities such as people throw things in the yard like money, food, trash, other plants...and so forth. After checking and locking everything up the keeper let me shift the otters out to the yard from the inside enclosures for the first time! I then finished the last inside enclosure and washed enrichment items from the day before and the things we took from the red panda storage cabinet because they were not natural enough for outside. All outside yards have to have natural colors such as black, brown, grey, white, and tan according to the head people at the national zoo. When I finished I found the keeper and we went to check the fishing cat yards and collect a fecal sample. We had finished everything down the hill so we went up to sloth bears and then helped I helped out at the demo where we have been having 2 bears in one yard to possibly mate and during the demo Khali decided she didnt want to show up so I sat and waited for her while the other volunteer fed Francois mealworms through the tube going through a fake termite mound. She then decided to show up at the last second and so the keeper gave her 10 seconds to eat as much as she could and she finished the whole bowl of mealworms in about 5 seconds.
After demo was lunch/slurpee break/unit meeting. Then 2 keepers and I wandered around the backwoods looking for sturdy branches to build a brand new otter structure for the yard. I had previously drawn an idea for the structure and the keepers really liked it so we are trying to make it by using super natural wood....in fact branches we cut from trees. While we were searching we walked over to a road next to a gully where there must have been a lot of cottonwood trees because it literally looked like it was snowing from all the balls of fluff floating in the air. It was collecting on the ground in piles. By the time we got back it was time to head home.
Today was my volunteer day at american trail. They have seals, sea lions, river otters, beavers, wolves, ravens, pelicans, and bald eagle. It is a LOT different than asia trail in every sense but I am liking it more and more. We start by prepping fish diets for the seals and sea lions. This takes 2 hours with 2 people working on it. Food prep other places maybe takes 30 minutes. This entails sorting through several types of fish (capelin, herring, mackerel, and butterfish) and even squid. We take out the fish that have problems with them such as holes, gashes, missing parts, or the female capelin. Then we record what was bad and dispose of it. After everything is sorted we do the midday and pm buckets for the day and then pull the fish for the next day. If there is any fish left over we put it all in a few buckets for later in the day. After everything we spray down the sinks, fridge, freezers, floor, and prep table and clean with soap then we try to clean up as much water as we can.
After that we went to help one of the keepers clean the otter yard and hide food around the yard. Then we watched her train the 2 river otters. Other days I had prepared the food for the other animals for the next day. It basically is cutting up vegetables, eggs, meat, and mice. I have only volunteered there for 1/2 days so far but I have been told that in the afternoon you make am buckets and do a feeding for the beavers.
And that is all for now.....I applied for a few jobs recently so I am keeping my fingers crossed. Meanwhile...my dog is adorable:
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| Cone of shame after being spayed last week |
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