Volunteering at the Zoo

For the last few years, I've been volunteering Saturdays at the National Zoo at the Amazonia exhibit.  Though to be honest it was not my favorite part of the zoo when I first started, as Robin and I used to steer clear of the place when wandering the zoo if there were a lot of strollers parked outside.  But I've grown very fond of the variety of creatures in the place, as well as the folks who work and volunteer there.  It's the only place in the zoo where you can see fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals all in one place (and me on Saturday mornings).  Sadly it's closed with the pandemic, and they're not even letting volunteers help out at the exhibit.

A keeper let me feed the roseate spoonbill his fish ration one day
and one of the red footed tortoises was curious, as was one of
the sunbitterns on the log.  The keeper couldn't resist taking a picture.

The keepers are super folks, very committed to and very knowledgable about the critters.  Some of them also are fans of Doctor Who, Star Wars, and assorted comic books so there is much discussion of that as well.  There's even a classical music nerd too.  The other keeper aide volunteers tend to be good natured interesting folk as well.  Some stay a few months, some a few years.   If you're interested in volunteering at the zoo, you can go to the pages on the website about volunteering.

I do an assortment of tasks there and they vary from week to week but the most common are:

• taking temperatures - All the fish tanks' temperatures are noted every morning, to make sure the heaters and thermostats are working in the right range and, sadly, to see if anything died overnight. 

Elecric Eel.  

Face of an arapaima who actually checks you out in the morning.

Two of the arapaimas were hanging out at the bottom one morning while I
was cleaning the glass.  One of the others saw them and nestled in with them.

Catfish

One day all of the large fish and rays congregated at one spot on the bottom.
The keepers were mystified.

• cleaning museum glass - All the glass on the exhibit tanks is cleaned.  During high volume of visitors in summer, the glass is sometimes covered with little hand and nose prints.  I say that I can distinguish the smudges' source: "five year old with pizza grease" or "ten year old suntan lotion" or "three year old runny nose" but I may be imagining things.

Matamata turtles.  I love one trodding on his tankmate's head.

Catfish snacking on worms.

For some reason, I love the alta mira cichlids

Catfish on the glass.  We prepare hanging feeders for the fish
(the hunk of wood with white ties to the right) with veggies.

The head of one of the Brazilian rainbow boas.

Corals in blacklight.

The most popular resident of the coral tanks.
A clownfish that kids always call Nemo.

• watering the forest - There aren't sprinklers in the jungle section so we have to water the trees and plants daily.  Sort of a Zen task, but the animals flying and jumping around make it fun.  Some of the birds sometimes take a bath as I spray them.  Critters in the forest follow, birds then mammals.

Sunbittern

Sunbittern trying to be bad ass one morning.

Roseate Spoonbill working on a new nest. 
When people see one of the spoonbills they inevitably say, "Ooh, a flamingo"
as it is a bird and pink. This obeys the basic rule that all red birds are cardinals,
all blue birds are blue jays, and all orange birds are orioles.

Yellow Rumped Casique, a very chatty bird

Green aracari, inevitably christened a toucan by visitors,
 though it is a member of that family of birds.

Hawk-headed parrot.  Very chatty.

Parrot endearing himself to the keepers by destroying the trees.

Two hawk-headed parrots hanging out.

Ringed teal.

Titi Monkeys - There has been at least one since I've been there.  Henderson is his name.  They tend to be very social animals, so there were attempts to find a female for him to hang out with.  They found one and they were very cute together, but sadly she died.  They found another compatible female at the Bronx Zoo, but then they discovered she had a parasite in her poop, sadly that jumps species (including to her keepers at the zoo), so that didn't work out.

Titi monkeys.

Eventually a female from another zoo was found and joined Henderson.
They get along ok.

Emperor Tamarins - Two brothers came to the Amazonia forest a few months ago.  They have all the energy of a ping pong ball in the lottery drawing.  Taking a picture of one is thus as challenging as taking a picture of the ping pong ball at a Chinese Ping Pong championship.  One day this guy slowed down enough to be photographed.

Almost every time I'm up in the jungle area, a visitor asks "Where is the sloth?"  They are usually disappointed when I tell them I've been volunteering once a week for three years and have seen the sloth less than a half dozen times.  The first time I saw him crawling about (his name is Howie), I didn't have a camera with me.  I have made sure to bring our camera every week since.

There are three-toed sloths and two-toed sloths.  What kind is Howie?

• cleaning cricket tanks - Amazonia keeps crickets to lay eggs and we feed the young ("pinheads") to the frogs and newts.  We clean the tanks daily so the crickets don't have to live in filth and crickets that die off.  We sometimes prepare jars in which fruit flies are cultivated, basically mashed potato mix, yeast, water, and some straw in a mason jars.

Every week they get a shipment of new crickets

I love the tagline.

Sometimes we catch a gecko in one of the cricket tanks 

who couldn't resist the captive crickets, but then it can't get out.

• prepping food for birds and fish - Every day the nutrition division of the zoo drops off food for the birds and mammals in the exhibit and we prepare the food pans to put out for the birds.  For fish we cut up fish gel, essentially fish food jello, to feed the larger fish and clean up worms for their daily real protein.  The volunteers feed the fish when the keepers are busy.

Amazonian river turtle "You have treats for us now?"

Video of the arapinas and pacus getting fed

• feed the red footed tortoises - On Saturdays, we put the tortoises outside if it's warm out or in enclosed space inside with sunlamps to give them vitamin D and feed them.  My first week at Amazonia one of the keepers said, "Ok, grab a tortoise and take her outside."  From that moment, I was hooked.

The three red footed tortoises are female
and every once in a while they lay eggs.
But as there are no males, they are not fertilized.

"Haven't you ever seen a red footed tortoise before?"

"Zoo paparazzi!"

• feed frogs - Gather some pinhead crickets or fruit flies, sprinkle with calcium (for healthy frog bones) and feed the assorted frogs, sometimes mist the tanks so the environment is moist for them, as amphibians breathe through their skins.  The poison dart frog species have a variety of colors.

I like these guys hanging out in a knot of wood.

Not sure what was going on with these guys. Plotting an escape?

My favorites are the strawberry dart frogs.

Occasionally the keepers raise some of the tadpoles. 
Here is one after his metamorphosis,
sitting in a bottle cap.

"Be quiet.  Maybe the keepers won't see us together."

• clean/change the water for newts and frogs - Just like changing the water for your fish tank at home.

Red spotted newt.

African clawed frogs

Barred tiger salamander

• helping feed and clean up the new guinea pigs - Chopping up food and getting dishes for their food and water, sometimes helping clean out their pen and feeding.

The zoo produces a lot of trash, between animal poop, rubber gloves, dead plants, etc. in the exhibits and the trash produced by all the visitors.  It's therefore handy to have trash bags large enough you can put a human body in.

I have put together collections of pictures of other zoo animals.  I tend to wander during my lunch break, figuring I'm at the zoo, I may as well look at other animals.  Plus we tend to visit the zoo often just to see the animals or for events like Woo at the Zoo (a couple talks by animal keepers about animal reproduction on St. Valentine's Day, everyone lubricated with alcohol, it's sorta fun) or Snore and Roar (sleep in tents outside the big cat exhibits, with a couple tours and large feline alarm clocks).  So if you're curious about other critters, I have some pictures of the zoo's assorted cats.  Eventually I'll put up greatest hits of other creatures.

Setting up our tent at a Snore and Roar, before a behind the scenes tour and 
wine and cheese party.  A woman getting married once brought her bridesmaids 
to one of these and made a cool party of it.

Seat in the zoo auditorium with Woo at the Zoo beverage.
Note seat inscription, a tribute to our pets.

A patient at the vet clinic during a tour of the veterinary facility