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HANDS ON EXPERIENCE WITH THE ANIMALS
Cleaning, feeding, etc.: On days
when we do this type of work, we leave the house at between 7am and 8am.
The elephants are washed at 9.30 and other
animals from 7.30 onwards. For example, Penguins
are cleaned around 8.00-ish and then we get to feed
them about 9.30 - great fun!
After this, we feed the Sea Lion (and also
the newly arrived baby!!). The staff have a break at 10.00
a.m. and return about
10.30. Now would be a good time to visit the baby spider monkey, feed it
and play with it until lunch at noon. About 1.30 people return from lunch. Then
there is the opportunity to go into the bird aviary
and feed the birds, possibly having
some amazingly coloured parrots land on your shoulder! We leave the zoo
about 3.30pm.
ENRICHMENT PROGRAMMES.
The Director and his assistant directors are very keen to start
enrichment programmes - both enriching the enclosures and the
mental state of the animals. We had
a meeting with the director and his assistant
director general, Mrs Malsinghe to talk about what
animal enclosure they wanted
to enrich (maybe to coincide with a new arrival or simply due to age) and how to
go about it.
Our project was to enrich the enclosure of the porcupines. it started off
with just bare soil and concrete with the porcupines living in a hole in the
ground out of sight! Through talking with the staff,
we ascertained exactly what we needed to do
- we needed to coax them from their burrow by providing shelter and
shade but in a way that makes the animals visible to the public.
Firstly we had to
landscape the entire enclosure. We moved large concrete pipes in which we half
buried, created some hollows in some large tree stumps (that the cyclone
donated!) and manoeuvred them into the enclosure (not
easy when they weigh upwards of half a ton!) We painted
the whole enclosure and planted some palm trees. With the help and co-operation
of the resident carpenters, we created a shelter
between the two tree stumps using logs also donated by the cyclone.
When i returned a few days later to check on any improvements, many of the
porcupines were out in full view of the public, taking refuge in one of the
many shelters we had created. Very very worthwhile.
A typical day would be leaving
home at 8.00 a.m. and arriving about 9.30.
Heading down to
the porcupine enclosure to discuss what we were going to do today and what
equipment and materials would be needed. This needs
patience as many of the staff speak little or no English!
If all else fails find one of the senior staff (who
speak excellent English) -
they will be able to get exactly what you want,
when you want it. Spend the morning finding two large tree stumps
which we then hollow out. Locate a tractor and approx 30 staff to lift the logs
onto the tractor. To get the huge logs down into the enclosure (about 8
feet) we put three huge tyres in and roll the logs up planks and down
onto the tyres. Voila. This takes the strength and
cooperation of at least 15 staff,
so patience is a virtue.
Lunch at 12 and afterwards back to continue with
the next phase of our enclosure enrichment.
It's a continuous and ever changing project which
needs you to think on your feet and co-operate with
each other. It's time-consuming
and it may not seem like you get much done in a
day, but when you look at how life in Sri Lanka is, unhurried,
you really do accomplish quite a
lot!
In my last week or so, I've been helping out on some
of the teaching. Another really interesting experience. I'd be tempted to come
back to do one of the teaching placements in Sri
Lanka! Really rewarding too.
I'd recommend teaching
and the zoo to anyone, especially as we now seem to
have a good rapport with the senior zoo staff.
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