Very Busy

Sorry I have taken so long to post, I have been extremely busy. I have been working almost 13 hour days everyday because I'm working another job besides the zoo. We have also been very busy at the zoo as well. Rainforest Reptiles from Beverly MA is at the zoo this weekend and I will post more about their visit tomorrow. We have even been in the news this week because they brought their rare albino alligator with them. He is one of 30 in the world. Here is a link to the newspaper article from today:
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20090717%2FNEWS11%2F90717028

Well besides that exciting stuff going on, I have been trying to do a lot of enrichment with the animals. Recently I gave our bobcats some catnip in balls of hemp that they played with in their enclosure. I also gave our raccoons paper towel tubes filled with peanut butter and bananas. They LOVED them!

I have also been working with another one of our red-tailed hawks named Zephyr, and it has only been about a week that I have been working with him and he is already coming to my gloved hand for food. Today we put jesses on him so I can start using him for programs too besides using Jasper.

Oh yeah! Last week, a woman who used to take care of Jasper at the rehabilitation center where he came from came to visit. She wanted to see how he was doing. She did not even know that I had been working with him and when she met me I took him out on the glove and she could not believe it. It almost brought her to tears, especially when she was explaining to me how Jasper was going to be put down that week that ZooQuarium accepted to take him in. I am so glad that he didn't have to die, and instead he has become such a great educational animal. Now I know that I want to work with animals like Jasper who do not have a chance at surviving in the wild, but can become animal ambassadors and help teach many people how magnificent they are.

Well I will post more tomorrow along with some pictures of the reptiles from Rainforest Reptiles.