Zoo Keeper for a day - too many *pics*
- Thread starter dr2little
- Start date
A deer in the headlights?
This could be why the glazed look. Living right next to these at feeding time would scare the stripes off of any beast
Up close and personal...
The sound in this room was UNREAL. I was standing right in front of those bars and can still FEEL their roars in my chest.
HOME STRETCH...ONLY ONE MORE, I PROMISE!
This could be why the glazed look. Living right next to these at feeding time would scare the stripes off of any beast
Up close and personal...
The sound in this room was UNREAL. I was standing right in front of those bars and can still FEEL their roars in my chest.
HOME STRETCH...ONLY ONE MORE, I PROMISE!
Graphic pics this post!
habitat enrichment - BIG CAT STYLE. The reason the cats were indoors...we were IN their home turf
The power was amazing...and the speed...OMG! The rabit was already dead BTW..
Her "meal" took less than 1 minute to eat
THE END!!!! Please leave the theater single file...take your empty containers with you!
habitat enrichment - BIG CAT STYLE. The reason the cats were indoors...we were IN their home turf
The power was amazing...and the speed...OMG! The rabit was already dead BTW..
Her "meal" took less than 1 minute to eat
THE END!!!! Please leave the theater single file...take your empty containers with you!
I'm a nob when it comes to mult-posts so I'll try to remember the questions....
Aussie and Nicole - Thanks! Yesterday ranked right up there with the best days I've ever spent.
Zoom - That male hippo at 42 is in the top five oldest in North America. There is one that is still living in his early 50's but like this old guy has pretty bad arthritis. As far as how fat is too fat...this gal has put on a bit too much weight lately so she's on the hippo's version of Jenny Craig They've got her on a different hay with less calories and have her up and moving quite a bit.
Toller - I agree. Kakinga, while stunning and very healthy will alway seem sad to me too. I had a good cry last night thinking about all of the animals at the zoo....it's not where they belong and no matter how much a zoo does to improve their habitats, they'll never live the life that was meant for them.
Aussie and Nicole - Thanks! Yesterday ranked right up there with the best days I've ever spent.
Zoom - That male hippo at 42 is in the top five oldest in North America. There is one that is still living in his early 50's but like this old guy has pretty bad arthritis. As far as how fat is too fat...this gal has put on a bit too much weight lately so she's on the hippo's version of Jenny Craig
They've got her on a different hay with less calories and have her up and moving quite a bit. Toller - I agree. Kakinga, while stunning and very healthy will alway seem sad to me too. I had a good cry last night thinking about all of the animals at the zoo....it's not where they belong and no matter how much a zoo does to improve their habitats, they'll never live the life that was meant for them.
I agree Zoom. It's a hard reality that we humans have created for them. It's much more difficult to stomach when you see them up close like that, at least it was for me.
I'm going to take some Docent training and volunteer in animal care after Christmas.
Oh, and Zoom...and anyone else who clicker trains or is interested....I'm posting 4 videos on youtube of the gorilla clicker sessions.
Amazing stuff but another very unnatural event that left me with a lump in my throat...and I've done it before.
I'm going to take some Docent training and volunteer in animal care after Christmas.
Oh, and Zoom...and anyone else who clicker trains or is interested....I'm posting 4 videos on youtube of the gorilla clicker sessions.
Amazing stuff but another very unnatural event that left me with a lump in my throat...and I've done it before.
Fabuous photos Doc. Just beautiful. I agree with you and Zoom about all that. It's a real situation humans have created. But I'm glad you got this experience. And it sounds very cool what you will be doing in the future. Maybe you'll have a bigger calling than you imagined. No better person for the job. Thanks for sharing all those pictures....so nice. Gorillas have always been my favorites. They might not be as sad as they look. I don't know. It may be just a look they have and our projection of what we think they should be doing. They're very intelligent, but our intelligence is much greater and we may be perceiving things differently. They may be quite content when they're given a lovely, large and natural type habitat....especially the ones born here.
You'll have to see the gorilla clicker training videos Carrie. There is a portion where Kakinga is being asked to present his shoulder for a needle (fairly blunt and just pressed lightly on his shoulder) and you can see that he's a bit worried about it.
He tries to offer the back of his wrist instead several times just so he can see how it will feel first. Very child like, sweet and surprisingly vulnerable.
He has a few little temper tantrums when Garth won't go along with the wrist idea, nothing major just an obvious disappointed huff. He eventually does offer his shoulder and looks very pleased with himself for such an act of bravery.
Garth, his keeper, was going a bit quickly and while he was very kind and gentle, you could see where slowing things down would have been a benefit. Garth was concerned about that as well and was really interested in formal clicker information and ideas. The group of trainers that I met have only been clicker training, many self taught, for less than 10 years.
They've made amazing progress with all of the animals that I met. Unfortunately, they're pretty poor quality because they were taken indoors.
He tries to offer the back of his wrist instead several times just so he can see how it will feel first. Very child like, sweet and surprisingly vulnerable.
He has a few little temper tantrums when Garth won't go along with the wrist idea, nothing major just an obvious disappointed huff.
He eventually does offer his shoulder and looks very pleased with himself for such an act of bravery.Garth, his keeper, was going a bit quickly and while he was very kind and gentle, you could see where slowing things down would have been a benefit. Garth was concerned about that as well and was really interested in formal clicker information and ideas. The group of trainers that I met have only been clicker training, many self taught, for less than 10 years.
They've made amazing progress with all of the animals that I met. Unfortunately, they're pretty poor quality because they were taken indoors.
A-w-w-w....poor guy. Well, nobody likes shots, that's for sure. What a sweetie he sounds like...so precious offering his wrist instead. Yes, I hope the videos when you get them up will load properly on my dial up. Some do and sometimes I have trouble.
That's interesting thta Garth wants to learn more about clicker training. Hopefully he can learn to break things down even more maybe, huh. Did he ask you for help in learning?
It's very amazing what progress can be made with all kinds of animals...animals that aren't nearly as bidable as dogs or as designed to work with humans. Can you imagine trying to beat a wild animal that is very large in order to have him do what you want? Makes me think of the idiots out there who think they have to hit their dogs to train them. They just don't open their eyes to look at all that is done with animals a lot harder to train than dogs and a lot more dangerous.
Well, I can't wait to see the video. It better work. If not, I'm going to my daughters in a few weeks. She has high speed.
That's interesting thta Garth wants to learn more about clicker training. Hopefully he can learn to break things down even more maybe, huh. Did he ask you for help in learning?
It's very amazing what progress can be made with all kinds of animals...animals that aren't nearly as bidable as dogs or as designed to work with humans. Can you imagine trying to beat a wild animal that is very large in order to have him do what you want? Makes me think of the idiots out there who think they have to hit their dogs to train them. They just don't open their eyes to look at all that is done with animals a lot harder to train than dogs and a lot more dangerous.
Well, I can't wait to see the video. It better work. If not, I'm going to my daughters in a few weeks. She has high speed.
Those photos are spectacular! What a cool day. I am in love with giraffes, so those are definitely my favorite shots .
Do the bats actually just hang out while you are in there feeding them? They are so cool looking, but I can imagine myself panicking if they started flapping around!
Thanks for sharing the pictures - I can't wait to see the video!
.Do the bats actually just hang out while you are in there feeding them? They are so cool looking, but I can imagine myself panicking if they started flapping around!
Thanks for sharing the pictures - I can't wait to see the video!