Zookeeper Tales: Meep Meep!
Jul. 31st, 2010 05:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elionwyrFor the Chuck Jones exhibit, we had, on loan from the Phoenix Zoo, a roadrunner named Rover. It’s a tribute to Mr Jones’ creativity that he extrapolated the colourful, long-limbed, plumed cartoon roadrunner from the drab short bird eyeing me doubtfully from the recesses of his temporary cage.
I was a part time, or “relief” zookeeper. This means that I mostly worked on weekends, holding down the fort while the staff of full time keepers enjoyed time mostly away from the zoo. Ya know, unless I couldn’t find a tortoise or something. We had a group of maybe 6-8 part timers at any given time that shared the weekend schedule, and a better group of people just couldn’t be found, in my not-at-all humble opinion.
..Anyway. The point I’m making is that we were part time staff. We couldn’t make a lot of decisions on our own; nor, generally, were we asked to. Our not-so-simple job was to make sure the collection of exotic animals were cared for over the course of the weekend, the museum educators had what they needed from us for their varied natural history shows and cleaned up after themselves, our volunteers were both learning from us and helping us clean/feed/play with the critters, and that the public had their varied questions answered about our animals.
“Why do you have a zoo in a dinosaur museum?”
“Because the animals are used to educate the public and to act as natural history ambassadors.”
“Can I pet the owl?”
“No.”
“Can I donate my nurse shark to you?”
“HELL no!”
As the Chuck Jones exhibit was being constructed, I was asked by the Exhibits Department to come take a look at the roadrunner area and to tell them what I thought of it.
“You realize I can’t ok it, right? All I can do is tell you what I think.”
“Ok.”
So I took a look. The enclosure was pretty nice, but..I did have a concern. The entire front was made up of a mesh screen, allowing cool air into the enclosure. The only source of heat came from the track lighting up at the top of the mesh screen wall.
I pointed at the exposed light cords. “If I were a desert bird and I was cold, I’d spend most of my time up there.”
“Yeah, yeah…but the rest is ok.”
“Well. Sure. I’m just concerned about warmth.”
My feedback was – to the best of my knowledge – ignored, because (sure enough) Rover spent a large part of his time out of sight of the visitors, tucked up and behind the lights.
When the exhibit closed, Phoenix didn’t necessarily want their bird back, and while Jacquie searched for another home for Rover (and I begged her to let us try to fist-train him), he was put into a temporary home that didn’t come close to the luxury to which he’d grown accustomed. Moping, he stopped eating; and unhappy, he developed a knack for escaping at any opportunity (which fortunately was NOT very often).
At this time, our zoo was still located in the basement of the museum – or as I affectionately called it, “the bowels of the Academy.” Rover was pretty good at zipping down and across the varied hallways, leading me to another realization about Mr Jones’ cartoons: If I were Wile E Coyote? I’d probably hate the roadrunner too.
(I am eternally grateful that no one actually witnessed me chasing that silly bird around the basement…)
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I was a part time, or “relief” zookeeper. This means that I mostly worked on weekends, holding down the fort while the staff of full time keepers enjoyed time mostly away from the zoo. Ya know, unless I couldn’t find a tortoise or something. We had a group of maybe 6-8 part timers at any given time that shared the weekend schedule, and a better group of people just couldn’t be found, in my not-at-all humble opinion.
..Anyway. The point I’m making is that we were part time staff. We couldn’t make a lot of decisions on our own; nor, generally, were we asked to. Our not-so-simple job was to make sure the collection of exotic animals were cared for over the course of the weekend, the museum educators had what they needed from us for their varied natural history shows and cleaned up after themselves, our volunteers were both learning from us and helping us clean/feed/play with the critters, and that the public had their varied questions answered about our animals.
“Why do you have a zoo in a dinosaur museum?”
“Because the animals are used to educate the public and to act as natural history ambassadors.”
“Can I pet the owl?”
“No.”
“Can I donate my nurse shark to you?”
“HELL no!”
As the Chuck Jones exhibit was being constructed, I was asked by the Exhibits Department to come take a look at the roadrunner area and to tell them what I thought of it.
“You realize I can’t ok it, right? All I can do is tell you what I think.”
“Ok.”
So I took a look. The enclosure was pretty nice, but..I did have a concern. The entire front was made up of a mesh screen, allowing cool air into the enclosure. The only source of heat came from the track lighting up at the top of the mesh screen wall.
I pointed at the exposed light cords. “If I were a desert bird and I was cold, I’d spend most of my time up there.”
“Yeah, yeah…but the rest is ok.”
“Well. Sure. I’m just concerned about warmth.”
My feedback was – to the best of my knowledge – ignored, because (sure enough) Rover spent a large part of his time out of sight of the visitors, tucked up and behind the lights.
When the exhibit closed, Phoenix didn’t necessarily want their bird back, and while Jacquie searched for another home for Rover (and I begged her to let us try to fist-train him), he was put into a temporary home that didn’t come close to the luxury to which he’d grown accustomed. Moping, he stopped eating; and unhappy, he developed a knack for escaping at any opportunity (which fortunately was NOT very often).
At this time, our zoo was still located in the basement of the museum – or as I affectionately called it, “the bowels of the Academy.” Rover was pretty good at zipping down and across the varied hallways, leading me to another realization about Mr Jones’ cartoons: If I were Wile E Coyote? I’d probably hate the roadrunner too.
(I am eternally grateful that no one actually witnessed me chasing that silly bird around the basement…)
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Date: 2010-07-31 09:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-31 10:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-31 09:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-31 10:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-31 11:35 pm (UTC)You think maybe he was hallucinogen-assisted? ;-)