July 15-21 is National Zoo Keeper Week. This is one in a series of blogs written by our keepers sharing a “typical” day. Check back often for new postings!

To begin the day at the San Diego Zoo, I checked our red book (log) to find out what has happened the previous days in my assigned area, called a string, that contains five exhibits and two holding pens. I then went and checked every animal: nine Cuvier’s gazelles, three red-flanked duikers, one southeast crowned duiker, three steenbok, one secretary bird, six scimitar-horned oryx; three Javan banteng (a banteng is pictured above), two European wild boars, and seven Bactrian wapiti, as well as one Siberian musk deer and two lowland anoas in holding.

I have a pregnant Cuvier’s gazelle that is ready to give birth any day now; one of the flanked duikers has lameness, and she holds up her right front leg when she runs; and one of the European wild boars went to the hospital yesterday for a dental and hoof trim, so I wanted to make sure he was doing okay after the anesthesia.

After my checks, I started with the exhibits in which I have to shift off the animals to a back area so they will be out on exhibit when the Zoo opens. The wapiti girls came into the back holding pens for their favorite biscuits. I raked the entire yard because they poop everywhere, changed out all the drinkers, gave fresh hay and grain, brought in mulch for them to play in, and hid ficus around the yard for enrichment. As I let them out, I made sure everyone was doing well.

Then I serviced the banteng exhibit. To do this, I had to shift everyone off the exhibit. I started with the boars. I brought both boars into the back holding and then made up their diets; the male has a special diet because he is getting medication for the next few weeks. I put each boar in a separate holding stall with their respective diet so they can eat in peace and I can know how much each one eats. Then I brought the banteng in. The male comes in first, and I bring him into his own stall, then I put the females together in their own stall so I know they will get all of their food. I raked up the exhibit, changed out the hay, brought in mulch, and hid some food around. By the time I was done with that, all were done with their diets. I let everyone out in reverse order and then I went and cleaned all of the holding pens they were just in.

Next, I serviced two lowland anoas (an anoa is pictured here. They are in holding so they are easy to shift back and forth. They get grain, hay, and browse (usually Acacia). Today I hid some hair from a forest buffalo from another area of the Zoo around their pen. The younger anoa loved it. He went straight for it, ignoring the food. Once he found it, he played with it by throwing it around with his mouth.

After the anoa, I went into the scimitar-horned oryx pen. I tried to bring them in back, but they were stubborn and stayed on exhibit. I did go out with them but I had to be very careful. If the new kids (about two months old) venture over to me, the mothers charge at me. I was charged once while raking the exhibit, but I kept my wheelbarrow in between me and the aggressive mom. I hit my rake on the wheelbarrow to make a noise and she walked away. I put out their food and watched them eat for 30 minutes so I could collect fecal samples from each individual because they will be shipped out soon. Every time they pooped I chased them away, put the poop in a plastic cup, labeled it, and asked my manager to take it up to the hospital.

Then I serviced the Siberian musk deer. He lives alone in a holding pen and he is very flighty, so I was quick. We are doing a taste study with a new grain product, so I measured out the exact consumption for our records. I hid some food around his pen and then left as quickly as I could.

Everything up to this point has taken me about four and half hours, and then I went to lunch (30 minutes). When I got back from lunch, I went into the Cuvier’s gazelle exhibit and noticed the pregnant female was giving birth. She is an experienced mother, so I just left her alone while she was in labor. Since I walked in the exhibit to clean, the entire birthing process took about 40 minutes. The baby lay in the area for about 25 minutes then got up and walked clumsily to a hiding spot where the mother directed it. It tucked and was occasionally visited by curious members of the herd. Tomorrow we will process it with the veterinary technicians. We will take blood to make sure it is nursing, we will determine the sex, and we will give it an ID.

During this time, I got a radio call from my manager that the secretary bird jumped out of her exhibit and was walking down the back road! We called the Bird Department and set up a runway into the musk deer pen to catch it up. We moved the musk deer into a barn so he wouldn’t get scared and the bird keepers came and directed the bird by following it up the road into the holding pen. They went in the holding pen and took the bird. She is moving to the Wild Animal Park, so they permanently took her to their holdings to prepare for her shipment.

At this point I got a radio call from the grounds veterinarian who wanted to see the red-flanked duiker with lameness. There seemed to be no improvement since it was first noted, so I was given some meds for her. I put the meds on her favorite treats and fed them to her while following her around the exhibit until she ate them all. This took me 30 minutes. I quickly serviced the rest of the exhibit.

I had a little time left, so I decided to go give some more enrichment to the banteng and the wapiti. I turned on the sprinkler for the wapiti and they all got up and played in the water. While they were doing this, I went over to the banteng exhibit and called the male over from the front of the exhibit into the moat. He sticks his head through the fence rails for a good scratching. I scratch behind his ears and on his side — he loves this! He comes over just for this; I don’t need to feed him anything. While I did this, I answered questions from our visitors about him.

I checked the rest of my animals for my p.m. check. I went back to my office, filled out my paper work (the red book and keeper report), and then headed back to clock out and change clothes.

Adam Ruble is a keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

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