A lot has been happening at the zoo for me this month, mostly due to the fact that I am unemployed once again and have time on my hands. It’s also spring time – FINALLY - so all the schools in the state are getting in as many field trips as they can before the end of the school year.
I have done lots of guided tours; sometimes as many as two or three each week, with attendance ranging anywhere from six kids and two adults to 50 kids and 25 adults. Some of these schools are from right here in Anchorage; others have come to us from as far away as the Aleutian Islands. Ages have ranged anywhere from 6 years old on up to their teens.
They have all been fun groups, though. How can they not be fun = they’re at the zoo!
The animals are loving spring. They all seem to be a lot more active now, enjoying the sunshine and taking advantage of all this light. Soon enough we might even start seeing some GREEN around here. I am so ready for that…
Spring does tend to bring out the “love” in some animals. I don’t know for sure of any pregnancies, but there are a few possibilities.
We have taken steps to ensure that we don’t get babies with a few of our animals: the male caribou has been sequestered, as has the male yak. We simply don’t have room for larger herds.
Spring also brings out the need for certain male tigers to assert themselves as being the more dominant male. This means our zoo vet has had a busy month, patching up paws and cleaning up torn ears. It got so bad for a while there that neither boy would go in to the dens at night, thereby forgoing their meals for over a week!
Smitty, the zookeeper in charge of the tigers, was rightfully concerned and made the decision to have them both neutered. This will hopefully stop them from fighting and calm them down considerably.
There have been a couple events at the zoo this month. I’ve already told you about the Easter Egg Hunt in a previous posting. April 18 was National Kids Day, which we coupled with our Earth Day celebration. We had a record attendance of over 3,000 people come to the zoo that day! The line for admittance was crazy; it wrapped all the way around the parking lot. The line for cotton candy was almost the same length. I have to admit it was very draining to work there that day, but I think people had fun.
Coming up for the month of May we have the Kid’s Fun Run, a Bear Aware Day, Migratory Bird Day, and a lot more guided encounters. I will be busy, I’m sure…
Sound like there is lots of fun to be had at the zoo. I should take the kids once school get out.
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