Chessington World Of Adventure - Zoo
19th - 30th September 2012
After spending two weeks at Twycross Zoo I was very excited to start my placement at Chessington. Situated within a theme park, I was really looking forward to seeing how a Zoo with a totally different focus would be run.
Day 1-2 Primates
The monkeys all had extremely varied diets and although they had very strict diet regulations in terms of weights and food groups, you could pick and choose between the types of fruit and veg they were allowed to have. Once the food was prepared, Vionate was sprinkled on the food, which is a vitamin and mineral supplement to ensure they got all their necessary nutrition from their diets,
I was able to get a lot more hands on with the monkey species at Chessington which included; Gentle Lemurs, Ring-tailed Lemurs, Pygmy Marmosets, Red-handed Tamarins and Squirrel Monkeys. I was able to go into the enclosures with the animals whilst cleaning and giving them their food, apart from the Lemurs who had to be shut out for cleaning.
I also got to spend time with the Black Headed Spider Monkeys, feeding and cleaning their enclosures, I particularly liked their enclosure because they had an indoor area totally off view from the public allow the Spider Monkeys their privacy.
Day 3-4 Birds
There are so many different species of Birds at Chessington and each have very different needs and wants. Working on this section could be quite confusing at times with so many different diets to sort and prepare and several of the birds would have supplements or medication. The most important thing to remember, a part from getting it right, was to remove all of the stones and pips from the fruit, particularly from apples as they contain traces of cyanide that can build up in the bird and become toxic.
Feeding the birds of prey was an exhilarating experience and it was amazing to be able to get so close to species such as; Andean Condor, Great Grey Owl and King Vultures. I particularly enjoyed getting to feed the African Ground Hornbills, the female had been hand reared and would enjoy playing catch with her food which mostly consisted of rat pups, chicks and mice.
Having recently moved over from birds from the Presentations section, the Humboldt Penguins were by far my favourite species to work with. Each of the penguins had their own personalities and were a lot of fun to work with. For the majority of the time the penguins would be fed in the water, giving the public the chance to see how fast the Penguins could swim and 'porpoise' through the water. Like the rest of the birds, the penguins diet was lacking in some natural vitamins and minerals, lost when their fish is frozen, and so they would be given vitamin tablets inside their fish and would have to come out onto the shore to be hand fed their pill fish to the keepers could be sure each one had received their fish.
Day 5 & 8 Presentations
The presentations section of the Zoo is the most hands on! The animals from this section are used in animal 'meet and greets' and the Animal Antics show as well as the Sea Lions that perform in the Sea Lion shows through-out the day.
There was a whole variety of animals that could be used in the shows including Macaws, Coatis, Meerkats, Rats and Esmeralda the Binturong.
Every morning their enclosures would be cleaned out and they would get their breakfast. They would then go through some basic training techniques and would practise their animal encounter moves on the willing volunteers (mostly me!!). Depending on how the animals behaved would depend on whether or not they were selected to perform in the days shows. I was truly impressed by the level of training and professionalism the animals showed particularly in the height of the summer holiday with a whole host of children around to distract them from their trainers instructions.
The Sea Lion Show was something to behold, The Zoo has 4 Californian Sea Lions called; Harley, Dante, Ariel and Carla. Harley is the star of the show and a right diva. He liked nothing more than showing off to the audience and could do so many different tricks like saluting, singing, dancing, and jumping up to target a ball. His brother Dante was not so keen on performing but would do more basic tricks mainly used for husbandry like opening his mouth and lifting up his flippers.
I was able to do a meet and greet with Harley to truly appreciate the intelligence and skill of both the Sea Lions and their trainers. They taught me a few basic hand signals and Harley would shake my hand and gave me a Kiss and a hug!! :D
Day 9-10 Children's Zoo/ Wanyama Village
Working in the Children's Zoo was a lot of fun, dealing with both children and animals; the ultimate, hectic combination. All of the animals were extremely friendly, especially if you had food!! The Children's Zoo housed;
African Pygmy Goats (very cute and cuddly and desperate for attention.)
Anglo-Nubian Goats (only babies and into absolutely everything, loving to nibble on anything they could particularly zip tassels! They were about the size of Great Danes!!)
Herdwick Sheep (big softies, but only really your friend when you had a bucket full of food)
There were also; Kunekune Pigs, Giant Rabbits, Guinea Pigs, Chickens, Chipmunks, Golden Pheasants, Skunks, Ferrets, Pole Cats, Muscovy Ducks and Red Squirrels.
First thing the animals are fed and the yard is swept, stables cleaned and fresh bedding replaced. Once the animals had been fed and watered, we would mingle with the public talking to families about the animals. During the day, the duck pond would be cleaned and their sleeping quarters would have to be completely washed out. The chicken and duck eggs would be collected and taken down to the fridge.
While I was working on this section it was necessary to catch up the Red Squirrels and golden pheasants in order to fix a leak in their enclosure roof. This went incredibly smoothly keeping the stress levels for the animals at a minimum.
The Wanyama Village housed the Meerkats, Porcupine, Dwarf Mongoose, Dik Dik and Capybara. The day began by hiding food around the porcupine enclosure to let them forage for their food and display natural behaviours. We then fed the dwarf mongoose and sorted their enclosure, mainly picking up poo and raking the sand. The Meerkats were a lot of fun to work with, in the Village there are two troops. The bachelor group consisted of 3 males; Charlie, Sergei and Pirate (the one eyed Meerkat). Charlie was hand reared and extremely friendly, he would be used as part of the animal encounters, but when cleaning out their enclosure, particularly when raking their sand Charlie just wanted to be picked up and cuddled! He would sit on my shoulder and try to snuggle up in my jumper and would look very disgruntled when you had to put him down.
The main troop of Meerkats is a very large family including two pups; they were wilder and couldn't be handled but responded really well to different enrichment devices.
Day 11 Reptile
The creepy Caves were an experience, with a whole range of Lizards, Snakes, Amphibians and Invertebrates. Although not a massive fan of Creepy Crawlies, I had a lot of fun on this section hand feeding a tortoise cucumber and meeting the Rhinoceros Iguana. In this section, I mostly had to observe the work of the keepers because some of the animals were extremely dangerous and so I could not go into their enclosures.
The keepers were also responsible for the care of the quarantined snakes that had been given to the Zoo after their owners were no longer able to care for them. I was able to see close up how constrictors feed and how small baby tortoises could be.
I was able to be a part of a project raising and releasing Fen Raft Spiders, a very rare species of British spider back into its native habitat in the UK. The spiders themselves were tiny and they had to be fed on individual flies which were equally minute. The spiders were kept individually in test tubes with a layer of cotton wool to ensure there were no diseases spread between them.
Day 12 - Sea Life
The Sea Life Centre at Chessington is quite a recent addition to the park and I had not expected I would get the chance to work there. There are many different species of Sharks, Rays, Fish, Jellyfish and starfish. The smaller tanks needed to be cleaned in the morning before feeding; this involved creating a syphon with a hose which I couldn't for the life of me get a hang of making.
Once the tanks were cleaned the food was sorted for each of the tanks, such as fish food and pellets the sharks were fed with squid and fish.
The staff would give several talks at the larger tanks throughout the day talking about the different species and the plight of the more endangered species. Between these talks and the feedings we would mingle with the public to answer any questions and try to stop people putting their hands or belongings into the tanks.
Part of the day was spent with a group of people on an animal encounter tour. Here they were able to feed the larger sharks and rays from the top of the largest tank by attached pieces of fish and squid to a pole and angling it towards the sharks so they could find their food.
The best part of this placement was meeting Sherlock and Watson, two Meerkat pups that were being hand reared by the keepers because their mother could not look after her entire litter of pups. Every lunch time we were able to take them out into the field and play with them. They were going to be used for animal encounters and so it was critical that they became accustomed to being handled and played with. They were the most gorgeous boys and loved to play in the grass and were learning how to dig and scratch at the ground in the sunshine. They were fed on small pieces of meat and live meal worms several times a day and were growing very quickly. They were so inquizative and were so excited to see everybody whenever they went into the office whether they were going to play with them or not.
I loved this placement and would love to go again and spend time with the keepers because they were a wonderful group of people to work with and had such a wealth of knowledge and experience to tell me about. Chessington was such a fun place to work and I learnt so much about animal management and welfare issues associated with wild animals living in captivity.
After spending two weeks at Twycross Zoo I was very excited to start my placement at Chessington. Situated within a theme park, I was really looking forward to seeing how a Zoo with a totally different focus would be run.
Day 1-2 Primates
The monkeys all had extremely varied diets and although they had very strict diet regulations in terms of weights and food groups, you could pick and choose between the types of fruit and veg they were allowed to have. Once the food was prepared, Vionate was sprinkled on the food, which is a vitamin and mineral supplement to ensure they got all their necessary nutrition from their diets,
I was able to get a lot more hands on with the monkey species at Chessington which included; Gentle Lemurs, Ring-tailed Lemurs, Pygmy Marmosets, Red-handed Tamarins and Squirrel Monkeys. I was able to go into the enclosures with the animals whilst cleaning and giving them their food, apart from the Lemurs who had to be shut out for cleaning.
I also got to spend time with the Black Headed Spider Monkeys, feeding and cleaning their enclosures, I particularly liked their enclosure because they had an indoor area totally off view from the public allow the Spider Monkeys their privacy.
Day 3-4 Birds
There are so many different species of Birds at Chessington and each have very different needs and wants. Working on this section could be quite confusing at times with so many different diets to sort and prepare and several of the birds would have supplements or medication. The most important thing to remember, a part from getting it right, was to remove all of the stones and pips from the fruit, particularly from apples as they contain traces of cyanide that can build up in the bird and become toxic.
Feeding the birds of prey was an exhilarating experience and it was amazing to be able to get so close to species such as; Andean Condor, Great Grey Owl and King Vultures. I particularly enjoyed getting to feed the African Ground Hornbills, the female had been hand reared and would enjoy playing catch with her food which mostly consisted of rat pups, chicks and mice.
Having recently moved over from birds from the Presentations section, the Humboldt Penguins were by far my favourite species to work with. Each of the penguins had their own personalities and were a lot of fun to work with. For the majority of the time the penguins would be fed in the water, giving the public the chance to see how fast the Penguins could swim and 'porpoise' through the water. Like the rest of the birds, the penguins diet was lacking in some natural vitamins and minerals, lost when their fish is frozen, and so they would be given vitamin tablets inside their fish and would have to come out onto the shore to be hand fed their pill fish to the keepers could be sure each one had received their fish.
Day 5 & 8 Presentations
The presentations section of the Zoo is the most hands on! The animals from this section are used in animal 'meet and greets' and the Animal Antics show as well as the Sea Lions that perform in the Sea Lion shows through-out the day.
There was a whole variety of animals that could be used in the shows including Macaws, Coatis, Meerkats, Rats and Esmeralda the Binturong.
Every morning their enclosures would be cleaned out and they would get their breakfast. They would then go through some basic training techniques and would practise their animal encounter moves on the willing volunteers (mostly me!!). Depending on how the animals behaved would depend on whether or not they were selected to perform in the days shows. I was truly impressed by the level of training and professionalism the animals showed particularly in the height of the summer holiday with a whole host of children around to distract them from their trainers instructions.
The Sea Lion Show was something to behold, The Zoo has 4 Californian Sea Lions called; Harley, Dante, Ariel and Carla. Harley is the star of the show and a right diva. He liked nothing more than showing off to the audience and could do so many different tricks like saluting, singing, dancing, and jumping up to target a ball. His brother Dante was not so keen on performing but would do more basic tricks mainly used for husbandry like opening his mouth and lifting up his flippers.
I was able to do a meet and greet with Harley to truly appreciate the intelligence and skill of both the Sea Lions and their trainers. They taught me a few basic hand signals and Harley would shake my hand and gave me a Kiss and a hug!! :D
Day 9-10 Children's Zoo/ Wanyama Village
Working in the Children's Zoo was a lot of fun, dealing with both children and animals; the ultimate, hectic combination. All of the animals were extremely friendly, especially if you had food!! The Children's Zoo housed;
African Pygmy Goats (very cute and cuddly and desperate for attention.)
Anglo-Nubian Goats (only babies and into absolutely everything, loving to nibble on anything they could particularly zip tassels! They were about the size of Great Danes!!)
Herdwick Sheep (big softies, but only really your friend when you had a bucket full of food)
There were also; Kunekune Pigs, Giant Rabbits, Guinea Pigs, Chickens, Chipmunks, Golden Pheasants, Skunks, Ferrets, Pole Cats, Muscovy Ducks and Red Squirrels.
First thing the animals are fed and the yard is swept, stables cleaned and fresh bedding replaced. Once the animals had been fed and watered, we would mingle with the public talking to families about the animals. During the day, the duck pond would be cleaned and their sleeping quarters would have to be completely washed out. The chicken and duck eggs would be collected and taken down to the fridge.
While I was working on this section it was necessary to catch up the Red Squirrels and golden pheasants in order to fix a leak in their enclosure roof. This went incredibly smoothly keeping the stress levels for the animals at a minimum.
The Wanyama Village housed the Meerkats, Porcupine, Dwarf Mongoose, Dik Dik and Capybara. The day began by hiding food around the porcupine enclosure to let them forage for their food and display natural behaviours. We then fed the dwarf mongoose and sorted their enclosure, mainly picking up poo and raking the sand. The Meerkats were a lot of fun to work with, in the Village there are two troops. The bachelor group consisted of 3 males; Charlie, Sergei and Pirate (the one eyed Meerkat). Charlie was hand reared and extremely friendly, he would be used as part of the animal encounters, but when cleaning out their enclosure, particularly when raking their sand Charlie just wanted to be picked up and cuddled! He would sit on my shoulder and try to snuggle up in my jumper and would look very disgruntled when you had to put him down.
The main troop of Meerkats is a very large family including two pups; they were wilder and couldn't be handled but responded really well to different enrichment devices.
Day 11 Reptile
The creepy Caves were an experience, with a whole range of Lizards, Snakes, Amphibians and Invertebrates. Although not a massive fan of Creepy Crawlies, I had a lot of fun on this section hand feeding a tortoise cucumber and meeting the Rhinoceros Iguana. In this section, I mostly had to observe the work of the keepers because some of the animals were extremely dangerous and so I could not go into their enclosures.
The keepers were also responsible for the care of the quarantined snakes that had been given to the Zoo after their owners were no longer able to care for them. I was able to see close up how constrictors feed and how small baby tortoises could be.
I was able to be a part of a project raising and releasing Fen Raft Spiders, a very rare species of British spider back into its native habitat in the UK. The spiders themselves were tiny and they had to be fed on individual flies which were equally minute. The spiders were kept individually in test tubes with a layer of cotton wool to ensure there were no diseases spread between them.
Day 12 - Sea Life
The Sea Life Centre at Chessington is quite a recent addition to the park and I had not expected I would get the chance to work there. There are many different species of Sharks, Rays, Fish, Jellyfish and starfish. The smaller tanks needed to be cleaned in the morning before feeding; this involved creating a syphon with a hose which I couldn't for the life of me get a hang of making.
Once the tanks were cleaned the food was sorted for each of the tanks, such as fish food and pellets the sharks were fed with squid and fish.
The staff would give several talks at the larger tanks throughout the day talking about the different species and the plight of the more endangered species. Between these talks and the feedings we would mingle with the public to answer any questions and try to stop people putting their hands or belongings into the tanks.
Part of the day was spent with a group of people on an animal encounter tour. Here they were able to feed the larger sharks and rays from the top of the largest tank by attached pieces of fish and squid to a pole and angling it towards the sharks so they could find their food.
The best part of this placement was meeting Sherlock and Watson, two Meerkat pups that were being hand reared by the keepers because their mother could not look after her entire litter of pups. Every lunch time we were able to take them out into the field and play with them. They were going to be used for animal encounters and so it was critical that they became accustomed to being handled and played with. They were the most gorgeous boys and loved to play in the grass and were learning how to dig and scratch at the ground in the sunshine. They were fed on small pieces of meat and live meal worms several times a day and were growing very quickly. They were so inquizative and were so excited to see everybody whenever they went into the office whether they were going to play with them or not.
I loved this placement and would love to go again and spend time with the keepers because they were a wonderful group of people to work with and had such a wealth of knowledge and experience to tell me about. Chessington was such a fun place to work and I learnt so much about animal management and welfare issues associated with wild animals living in captivity.