Hi guys!
Hope you’ve been really enjoying my posts so far. As some of you may know, this
week is National Zookeeper Week!
This
started in America, with the AAK (American Association of Zookeepers) having an
annual celebration in the third week of July each year! This year it falls
between the 18th and 23rd of July, and is a week
dedicated to zookeepers! The celebration hopes to raise the profile of zoo and
aquarium keepers throughout the year, and recognise all the hard work they do
to look after and conserve many endangered species.
Amur tiger at Leipzig Zoo
Zookeepers
work 365 days a year, working long hours, to care for many incredible species!
Many work on Christmas day and New Year’s Day, but it doesn’t phase them!
Extreme weather conditions are also a battle, but zookeepers power through
because their animals need them! As well as the well known job of picking up
poo, keepers are also great observers, able to notice the slightest change in
an animal. They are nutritionists, constantly changing diets to suit the
species, animal trainers, heavy lifters, gardeners, DIY experts, able to solve
problems, and most of all, hard working.
Lots of
keepers have also published academic papers regarding topics such as behaviour,
enrichment, training, husbandry and diets, among others. These papers help
other collections manage their animals, sharing ideas on what works, and what doesn’t
work, as well as how different individuals of the same species can be so diverse
in personality.
ABWAK logo
Here in the
UK, we have ABWAK (Association of British and Irish Wild Animal Keepers), which
many of UK keepers are members of! It’s great for organising workshops, and as
mentioned in a previous post, holds an annual symposium (gathering of
zookeepers!) All members of ABWAK are also automatic members of the
International Congress of Zookeepers (ICZ), which aims to connect keepers
worldwide. The international sharing of information really benefits all
collections involved, conserving worldwide biodiversity. The ICZ also hold
congress’, with the most recent one being held at Leipzig Zoo last September
(2015). After speaking to those who went, it sounded like an absolutely awesome
event, something I wish I had attended!
ICZ logo
Anyway,
enough of my rambling, Happy National Zookeeper Week to all the keepers out
there!
So, whilst I’m
on work placement at Folly Farm, I thought I would take a visit to the nearby
Manor Wildlife Park! Also known as Anna’s Welsh Zoo, it is the sister zoo to
Peak Wildlife Park in Derbyshire. Parking for the zoo is just next to the zoo
itself, which was incredibly useful! Upon entering, I was happy to find that
they accepted my professional ABWAK card as entry, to which I was very grateful
– I made sure to pop my loose change into donation boxes around the zoo.
The first
exhibit I came across was ‘Wander with the Wallabies’, a Bennett’s wallaby
walkthrough, where I was able to stroke a wallaby! This is encouraged as long
as visitors stay on the path and don’t upset the wallabies whilst doing so. The
walkthrough was large, with many trees, logs and lots of hiding places for the
wallabies! This was my first impression of the zoo and it was great, I was
looking forward to seeing what was next! There were hand washing facilities
outside and many dotted throughout the park encouraging hygiene and stopping
the spread of germs!
Giving a Bennett's wallaby a tickle!
I continued
down the path to ‘Camel Corner’, spotting a group of Bactrian camels enjoying
grazing out on the paddock. Opposite the camels were scimitar horned oryx, rhea
and Przewalski’s horses, all in large paddocks. The signage surrounding the
oryx told the story of how this species was saved from extinction with captive
breeding, and it does really well to promote good zoos. I must say, the signage
was really good! (I think my only comment would be calling common marmosets, ‘white
tufted ear marmosets’!)
I then
walked uphill with the stunning Southern white rhino to my left, in a mixed
species exhibit with Damara zebra and ostrich. Even though it was raining, none
of the animals seemed phased by it and continued grazing! This mixed species
exhibit was huge, sporting many wallows and a large shelter for the animals to
use if they so wished. Again, the signage around the enclosure was really
informative, promoting the work of Save the Rhino International, something I am
hugely passionate about (I have a ‘thick skinned and horny’ sticker in my car!)
Southern White Rhino having a munch on some grass!
The path
down from the rhinos took me to the ‘Valley of the Apes’ where 3 siamang
gibbons were happily playing around in the trees. An island enclosure, sporting
lots of height, long grass and platforms for sunbathing, this enclosure houses
Steve, a siamang gibbon success story. Before Anna Ryder-Richardson bought and
re-established this zoo, Steve lived in an enclosure that was incredibly small
for a siamang (macaws now live happily in there), before being moved to this
spacious enclosure. As a visitor, this exhibit is within woodland habitat, with
a couple of benches where you can sit and watch the siamangs and the native
wildlife in the trees. Leaving the valley of the apes (which again, has amazing
signage), I passed an island which is the home to common marmosets, which I was
unable to spot!
Amazing signage detailing the different primate species!
The path came back round to the oryx, passing tapirs and
llamas, housed next to the beautiful, elusive, female Sumatran tiger, Terima.
Terima is a young Sumatran tiger, arriving at the zoo from France last year,
and she lives in a large enclosure with feeding poles, plants, hideaways, and
it can be split into two if needed. After speaking to one of the keepers, Amy,
I was delighted to hear that Terima has important genes, and that they are
hoping to take on a male Sumatran tiger from Chester Zoo in the hope of forming
a breeding pair, contributing to the EEP for this species. On the day of my
visit, Terima was in her back paddock, slightly off show – apparently she’s a
feisty cat!
Sumatran tiger, Terima
I carried
on through the woodland paths, past the emu (occasionally booming) to ‘meerkat
mountain’. I was lucky enough to catch the meerkats at feeding time, where they
were happily munching on mixed veg. Meerkats are common in zoos, though it is
nice to see how different collections keep them. The ‘African Village’ was next
to see, which was a walkthrough of various chickens, pygmy goats, Cameroon sheep
and kune kune pigs in an fenced off area (pigs can be dangerous!) There was
also a giant rabbit walkthrough nearby, with lots of bunnies having a good
sunbathe!
Meerkat on sentry duty!
My last
stop on my visit was the ‘Lemur walk through’, which was home to ring tailed
lemurs, red fronted lemurs, red bellied lemurs and red ruffed lemurs all living
happily together. Whilst I was there, I spoke to a keeper who was also a
student, studying the behaviour of lemurs in response to various enrichment
devices she had implemented into the enclosure. On this particular day, she was
looking at basket enrichment. Two woven baskets were filled with hay and food,
cable tied together and hung on a rope. The ring tailed lemurs and the red
ruffed lemurs were investigating this enrichment, but didn’t seem to have the
hang of it just yet! As I walked around the enclosure, I spotted a red bellied
lemur baby! It was so small and so cute, bounding around the trees! Though I
have worked with red bellies before, I had never seen a baby one!
Although
not a large zoo, and only taking a couple of hours to get round, I really
enjoyed my visit. It is perfect for a day with young children as it is not a
full day out and is also not too busy. The conservation message throughout the
park is strong and consistent, and really does promote good zoos and ways that
conservation can be done at home. I made sure to grab a magnet from the shop,
to add to my zoo magnet collection, and I will hope to visit again in the
future. If you are in South Wales, definitely add this one to the visit list
(along with Folly Farm!)
I made a video montage of my visit, in case you want a small taster!
