What Kind of Animal Are You?

Future veterinarian

Feb 112012

A young girl and her mother asked if they could stay after closing to watch keepers feed the mountain lions on a day when the animals received freshly-killed rats in addition to their normal diet. The girl was considering a career as a veterinarian and they felt that this might be an educational experience for her.

After explaining to the visitors what they could expect, the keepers presented the mountain lions with their meals. The cats ignored the feline diet and went directly for the rats. The mother and daughter, fascinated, looked on. The larger of the two cats quickly scooped a rat into his mouth and crunched down on it. He gave the mangled body a vigorous shake, flinging the entrails through the cage front and into the public area, missing the young girl’s face by a matter of inches. She let out a startled squeal and turned a little pale, but she didn’t lose her nerve. She stuck it out until the mountain lions finished.

To this day those keepers wonder if that plucky little girl ever became a veterinarian.

Carnivores

What a way to go!

Feb 112012

An adult male gorilla, who had been kept alone for many years after some excessively aggressive mating encounters, was in a cage next to two newly-arrived females. Keepers and the curator, seeing signs of interest on both sides, decided to risk a potentially dangerous introduction.

Apparently the risk was well taken for the introduction went very well and the animals almost immediately began copulating. (Over the years the reported number of copulations has ranged from simply amazing all the way up to astronomical.)

At the conclusion of all of this frantic activity the male took a few steps away from the females and collapsed face down in the water trough. The startled keepers rushed into the cage, ignoring the presence of the females, and pulled his face out of the water. They were too late. He was quite dead.

A necropsy showed that the gorilla had died of a massive heart attack and had probably been dead before he hit the floor.

Editor’s Note:
Several versions of this story have made the rounds over the years. This one is the most graphic. A more likely true version relates that the gorilla was simply found dead in his cage some time later. Whichever it was, it should be mentioned that at least one of the females became pregnant as a result.

Primates

Hey, you can’t park that camel there!

Feb 112012

Keepers were working in a large stall with two newly-arrived, energetic, young Bactrian camels. The camels were frisking around the stall, bouncing around in that characteristic rolling camel gait. One of the keepers, whose foot was extremely sore from a recent injury, didn’t notice that one of the youngsters was frolicking in his direction until it tromped soundly on his sore foot. He let out a loud yell and, reacting instinctively, lashed out and punched the animal on the side of the head. The camel dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes and lay still.

The keepers first thought, quite naturally, was that the animal was dead, and after a moment of shock, they rushed to its side. Its breathing, however, was normal, and in a minute or two it recovered enough to lift its head and look around. Not long after that, to the keepers’ relief, the camel got to its feet — a little groggy but otherwise apparently none the worse for the wear.

Hoofstock

Just turn them loose then

Feb 112012

A zoo librarian took a call one day from a woman who was obviously upset about something but seemed to be a little embarrassed to talk about it. The woman hemmed and hawed for a while and then blurted out that one of the polar bears was “having its period.” The librarian calmly asked her how she knew this, and the woman replied that she had seen them mating. She said that it was disgusting and that the zoo should do something about it, such as locking them up when they were going to mate.

The librarian explained to her that they had no way of knowing exactly when that might occur and the woman said that in that case the zoo should turn the bears loose in the forest preserve. The librarian, now realizing the sort of person she was dealing with, asked the woman if she really thought that it would be a good idea to turn mating polar bears loose in the forest preserve.

The woman responded that something had to be done as her children had seen it and she was appalled. The librarian tried to explain that it was a perfectly natural occurrence, and that perhaps she could use it as a learning example for the children. She also added, a little sarcastically, that people did “it” as well.

“Well,” the woman replied rather huffily, “not on the center mall at the zoo!”

The librarian, her patience at an end, replied, “Obviously, you have never been here on a crowded Sunday,” and hung up.

Phone Calls

Watch where you step!

Feb 112012

A relatively new bird keeper was preparing to clean the free-flight area and had been warned to be careful of the black-and-white plovers that were sitting on eggs. She set her bucket down just inside the railing and climbed carefully into the exhibit. The plovers immediately began flapping around and vocalizing excitedly. From their reaction, the keeper knew that the nest had to be nearby but she couldn’t find it.

The birds were growing more agitated by the minute but the keeper was reluctant to move until she knew where the nest was for fear of stepping on it. Finally, the birds’ distress reached the point that she had to do something. She decided to move slowly away, placing each foot carefully.
When she picked up the bucket she discovered why she had been unable to find the nest. Underneath the bucket was the remains of the plovers’ nest and its clutch of eggs—all smashed.

Birds

They live in the water, right??

Feb 112012

A keeper hosing a large, outdoor exhibit heard a visitor call, “Hey, buddy!”

The keeper shut the hose off and turned around. The visitor, a college age male, called out, “Where’s the fish?”

Not really sure what the man was referring to the keeper replied, “Which fish?”

“Any of them. Penguins, walruses, dolphins.”

“You haven’t named any fish yet!” called back the keeper, a little sarcastically, feeling that he could be a bit rude to someone who used “Hey, buddy!” to call to a stranger.

“Uh-the penguins.”

“The penguins are right over there in the aquatic bird house,” replied the keeper, emphasizing the word “bird.”

If the man noticed the sarcasm at all he gave no indication of it. He called back “OK, thanks!” and headed off to find his “fish.”

The Great Unwashed

Misidentified & Mispronounced – by zoo staff, docents, etc.

Feb 112012

“Sand cats are becoming extinct because camels step on them”

“Nyani is the baboon word for Swahili.”

(This line, or rather the correct, inverted form, was spoken as the train passed by Nyani restaurant, named for its proximity to the baboon exhibit. For a while, some of the narrators were following it facetiously with: “And speaking of baboons, that building on your right is the administration building.” This came to an abrupt stop one day when the director walked out of the back door just in time to hear that line and see an entire trainload of people turn to look at him.)

“An ostrich lays a thirty-pound egg and can run up to four miles an hour.”

“Pygmo hippy” (pygmy hippo)

“Black-faced gay kangaroo” (gray)

“Great paranoid mountain dog” (Great Pyrenees)

And last, but not least, was the keeper who reported on his daily log that two female eland had been fighting and one had gotten “poked in the virginia.”

Misidentified & Mispronounced

Misidentified & Mispronounced – by visitors

Feb 112012

African buffalo
Water buffalo, bull

African wild dog
Hyena

Antelope
Cantaloupe, deer

Binturong
Bink-a-bonk

Budgerigar (parakeet)
Green bat

Caracal
Mountain lion

Chimpanzee
Cheetah, chipmunk

Collared peccary
Wild boar, wild pig, guinea pig, porcupine, colored peccary, Colorado peccary, baby elephant

Coatimundi
Raccoon, anteater, hyena, condominium

Colobus monkey
Skunk

Dik-dik
Baby deer

Emu
Ostrich

Hyrax
Groundhog

Keeper
Great American hoser

Muntjac
Baby deer

Okapi
Hyena, zebra

Prairie dog
Groundhog

Serval
Cervix

Skunk
Ferret

Spiny echidna
Spiny enchilada

Tamarin
Tambourine, baby monkey

Tapir
Anteater

Tasmanian devil
Transylvanian devil, transmission devil

Toco toucan
Taco toucan, Froot Loops bird

Touraco
Taco

Wombat
Tapir

Young gorilla
Chimpanzee, chipmunk

Young swan (cygnet)
Coronet

Misidentified & Mispronounced

That’s a big raccoon!

Feb 112012

Keepers in the children’s zoo were attempting to catch a nighttime marauder that was killing their chickens and waterfowl. One keeper in particular was determined to get the animal, suspected to be a large raccoon. When live traps near the bird areas failed to catch it he spent several nights in the zoo with a shotgun. That was no more successful.

Then one morning a live trap at the other end of the children’s zoo was found sprung but empty. The keeper figured that his hunt would soon be successful. The next few mornings, however, gave the same result: the trap was sprung and the bait was gone, but the trap was empty. Each day the keeper became more excited—a raccoon that could reach the bait in the large live trap but still stick out far enough to prevent the trap door from closing must be a giant. And he was going to catch it!

He was rather disappointed a few nights later when another keeper got a look at the “monster raccoon.” One of the working dogs, a border collie, jumped out of the dog yard, wriggled his head and shoulders into the live trap, and cleaned up the meat in the live trap. Then, his evening snack finished, he nonchalantly returned to his enclosure.

Editors Note:
The keepers didn’t think that the border collie was responsible for killing the birds, only that he figured out a way to get an extra midnight snack. The “killer raccoon” was never caught although the night-time killings stopped soon after.

Children's Zoo

Forest fire

Feb 112012

The staff of a small zoo situated on a wooded mountain had its worst nightmare become reality one day: a raging forest fire. The fire was too close, and the wind was unpredictable, so the decision was made to evacuate the zoo.

Game wardens and animal control officers from surrounding counties came to lend assistance. Volunteers came to hose the fence lines around the zoo. Farmers, pet shop owners, and veterinarians, called offering shelter for the animals. The zoo director was busy answering phone calls and determining what to remove from the building.

Animal control officers assisted the maintenance man with loading a hawk, several owls and vultures, and a turkey. The two keepers captured and loaded the squirrel and spider monkeys. Lizards, bobcats, and a coatimundi were loaded into the zoo van and whisked away to the veterinarian’s office. The keepers’ cars were soon filled with various small mammals and reptiles. All that remained to be loaded were a pair of mountain lions, several muntjacs, and a 2O-foot-long python.

The veterinarian and the head keeper were preparing to tranquilize the two mountain lions when the fire chief informed them that the fire had been brought under control. Zoo staff were reluctant to believe him at first, for thick smoke was still drifting through the zoo. But, as it turned out, he was correct and they began returning the animals to their exhibits.

By that evening, the zoo had returned more or less to normal. The only reminders of the day’s events were the scent of burned wood and brush in the air and the fire truck parked at the end of the service road keeping a watch for stray sparks. Zoo staff, exhausted from a grueling thirteen hour day, adjourned to a local restaurant to unwind.

The fire, which had burned thirty acres, had come within eighty yards of the zoo before being brought under control. And in its path, the dedicated zoo staff had managed to evacuate three-quarters of the animal collection in less than forty-five minutes with no injuries to either the animals or themselves.

MIscellaneous

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