July 15-21 was National Zoo Keeper Week. This is one in a series of blogs written by San Diego Zoo keepers sharing a “typical” day. Be sure to read Caring for Hoofed Stock!

As National Zoo Keeper Week comes to an end, I would like to share with everyone what a typical work day for a keeper in Tiger River involves. As Marcia brought up in her post, It’s National Zoo Keeper Week, keepers do a lot more than just cleaning and feeding. Here is a brief overview of one of my days.

My day starts at 5:45 a.m. when I walk through the Zoo’s Monkey Trails to get down to the Tiger River team room. Along the way, I pass by the clouded leopard exhibit where I say hello to 5-year-old sisters Dottie and Tevi, who chuff back a greeting and run down from the branches to see me. (Tevi is pictured here.)
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Sukari, our newest okapi calf (see John’s blog, A VERY Welcome Arrival: Okapi Calf), underwent her neonate exam two days after she was born. This involves taking her temperature, drawing a small amount of blood for the lab to look at, weighing, and checking her over carefully to make sure she is in the best state of health. Being a robust young calf, she weighed in at a solid 57.8 pounds (26.2 kilograms), her blood work was described by the attending veterinarian, Dr. Tracy Clippinger, as “fabulous,” and no abnormalities were found.
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On June 8, 2007, two tiny fossa pups were delivered to the Children’s Zoo nursery at the San Diego Zoo. The pair was born just two days earlier to a mother with a dreary record of taking care of her young. It seemed that her pattern of having pups simply “disappear” within the first few weeks of life was destined to repeat itself. On June 6, the day of birth, keepers spotted four pups. Two days later, only the tiny pair remained. These two males were removed and transported to the nursery for hand rearing.
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There is someone new to see at the Wild Animal Park’s Plant Trader gift shop this year. I am pleased to let you know that we have Alex Chitura, a master Shona sculpture artisan on grounds. Alex, born in Rusape, Zimbabwe, is one of Africa’s greatest contributors to the world of contemporary art. We have two of his huge sculptures displayed. One is a 6-ton elephant (pictured) carved from springstone that took two years to complete. The other equally amazing piece is a rhinoceros carved from ironwood, this one taking ONLY one year! He is presently carving a large hippo on site (see image below) and can be seen every day but Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. He has many smaller carvings, welded art, and clay sculptures available for sale as well, in our gift shop and online at shopzoo.com.
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There was a koala named Jackaroo,
Lots of his friends live in the Zoo;
But he lived on St. Bees,
Where he gave loud calls from the trees,
And now he is gone. Boo-hoo!!

Jackaroo was one of our best study subjects in Australia (see blog: Koala Field Project: Meet Jackaroo). I use the word “was” because he is no longer with us. Earlier this year, he pulled a fast one on us and wandered away from his usual range (see blog: Island Koalas Keep Us Guessing). After some extensive efforts, our team managed to locate him quite a distance from his favorite place. But we don’t know why he wandered away. Later he returned to his beloved trees overlooking Homestead Bay (pictured). But the thrill of having him return was followed by sadness when he died soon afterwards.
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Hi again from St. Bees Island, where the rain continues to fall. Despite most of Australia being in the grip of a severe drought, the dry weather seems to have left the Mackay area, and St. Bees Island is green and lush. At present I am planning the rest of the koala research field season, and it’s a pretty exciting time for all involved (see post, Island Koalas Keep Us Guessing). But besides the actual research, there are many aspects to planning my fieldwork. I need to move a lot of equipment and pack plenty of food, make sure our research station is available, organize planes and boats, and make sure the other researchers and volunteers are all set to go.
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How do we predict a birth window for Bai Yun? Shall we use tea leaves, chicken bones, or read it in the stars? No, the latter options may be far-fetched but the first item–leaves–well, there may be something to that! Of course, in the case of giant pandas, we are talking bamboo leaves.
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It’s high time for a “pride progress report” from Lion Camp at the Wild Animal Park. There have been some important changes in the last few months, beginning with Oshana and Izu’s cubs, Abena and Bakari. The girls celebrated their first birthday on May 17 and are becoming very independent young ladies. They have grown quite a bit, too: as of July 7, Abena weighed 88.4 kilograms (194.5 pounds), and Bakari weighed in at 74.8 kilograms (164.5 pounds).
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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.
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July 16 marks the beginning of the first ever National Zoo Keeper Week. Spearheaded by the San Diego chapter of AAZK (American Association of Zoo Keepers), this will be a yearly event focusing on the efforts of all professional zoo keepers in the U.S.
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