wildarisafari

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Video 1- dholes

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College inspired me to think differently. It's like no other time in your life.--Larisa Oleynik

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/inspired.html

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Day 44

My last day at the Minnesota Zoo… how the time has gone by so fast… I’ve treasured every day so far and I knew that by starting out this morning like any other I would look at everything as my last chance to accomplish whatever I set out to do. I started out my day like any other and walked to the dhole exhibit. Yet again, to my dismay, they were not outside. Luckily I ran into Ben the keeper once again and after a chat he let me know that they are brainstorming ideas as to how they were going to help the dholes stay out of the holding area.

After having no luck with the dholes I went to the bears to observe them for a while. While I observed Kenai for the last time, I kept thinking about how much we three interns have contributed towards the large study of the bears over the last 6 years. It still amazes me that we have been a part of something larger than just ourselves and this summer that we had here. I can’t wait to see if this data will be used in a study in the future!

I walked to the kitchen and prepared my last diets and I admired how well I have literally memorized the perfect amounts of each helping. It’s hard to believe that I no longer have to remember to make the food for the PA animals after today… I’ll miss it. On my way back to the offices I ran into Ben once more and he informed me that they were going to temporarily close the door to the holding area for the dholes to observe how they reacted. I planned on going back to the exhibit later, and sure enough they were outside, just lying under trees! It seems as though their primary objective was for rest and didn’t particularly want to be active. They didn’t seem any different in behavior, which is good, but it’s nice to see that they are ok without being in holding in an entire day.

Once I finished lunch later in the afternoon, I was called by Mary and Carey to do some enrichment with Rio the screech owl! We walked down to the PA area and I was able to handle Rio one more time. I worked on proper hand and arm formation for holding raptors on my glove and I’m very pleased to have learned a skill like that. We placed Rio in a travel crate and brought him up to the Minnesota Trail. There, Carey held Rio on her glove while guests came up and observed him. They asked various questions and we also provided facts about screech owls. It was awesome to be involved with the BITE program like this with real animal encounters! We went back down to the PA area to place Rio back into his holding area and also to feed him. I was able to help feed him as well. What a wonderful way to end my time with the PA area!

We went back to the offices and there Carey and Mary wanted to work with Hedwig with his training. We brought him into a large conference room to work with him on some technical and also basic training. We worked on stepping up, flights and picking up a ball! They hope to eventually work with Hedwig in public if/when he learns more training. I’m sad that I won’t be here for the remainder of his training time, but I hope to eventually see the results!

The last thing I did for the day was to upload the rest of my data from my Palm Pilot and work on the Documents. I also took a few more pictures of some animals from around the zoo (above). To top everything off, I finally completed my Suspended Holes Feeder!!! (above) I’m so impressed with this completed project and I’m so happy that the keepers will actually use it.

These experiences have done more for me than I can possibly give credit to. I have gained experiences in handling animals, making/suggesting enrichment for several animals, and simply learning an incredibly copious amount of animal knowledge! I cannot believe how much I’ve developed as a person and animal lover after working at the zoo, and I know now that I definitely wish to work with exotic species for veterinary medicine! What an unforgettable and incredible experience as a Behavior Management Program intern at the Minnesota Zoo!!!

Hours: 10                    Total Hours: 326

"This is the moment that contains all moments."--CS Lewis

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Day 43

Another beautiful day at the Minnesota Zoo to start off and also a Tuesday on which I am the only intern in my department—I had a lot to do. As I strolled into the zoo I had a feeling that the dholes were once again going to be out of view and that I needed to stop Ben the keeper when he was doing his morning routine to talk to him. Like always, I collected my walkie-talkie, stopwatch, Palm Pilot and keys and headed out to the dholes.

When I arrived at dholes, to my amazement I was correct, and none of the dholes were in view. After waiting about 15 minutes I called Ben on the radio for him to come down and talk. We chatted about the change in behavior of the dholes and talked about how the sound-effect box could be less loud or other options. We discussed other ways of how and why the dholes are seeking to be in holding more often when it would actually be cooler in temperature for them to be outside. I guess we will see how things go later!

Because I wasn’t able to do much with the dholes I took a walk and headed over to observe the bears. As I was observing Sadie, our female, nothing too interesting occurred—not surprisingly. She lay in the sand pit most of the time sleeping and occasionally raising her head to look at the guests through the window. After an hour had passed I concluded my observations and walked over to the kitchen to prepare diets.

After diets were complete I headed over to the dholes just one last time to check to see if the afternoon would prove different from this morning. I walked to the exhibit and yet again, no dholes. Disappointed, I walked backed to the offices to work on my independent project, the “Suspended Holes Feeder.” I talked to Christine a while and collected some of the items I needed—some PVC pipe, chain, whiffle ball, C-clamps, and a half sphere of plastic. I took the items and worked on them outside with the drill and Dremel. So far things are looking great!

Later in the afternoon I went over to the bear exhibit once again to observe them. I spent an hour watching Haines, which once again proved to be quite uneventful. The hour is never wasted and it’s actually quite fun watching the bears even if they are sleeping. After bear observation was done, I was called by Mary to do some moose enrichment. I walked over to the moose with Mary and met her at the Isolation Barn. Outside of the Barn Mary and I grabbed up some pieces of willow branches and headed down to the moose exhibit. There we saw Kathy and Lilly, the female moose. Mary and I showed the guests how we feed browse to the moose and they loved it!

Mary asked me to assist her in doing some otter training on the Minnesota Trail. I walked with her and as she was training the otter I was on the trail helping guests move past her or watch her train. I assisted in answering the guests’ questions and watched as Mary target trained the otter. Once otter training was complete Mary and I headed over to the PA area to clean the porcupine holding area. When Mary and I finished cleaning we immediately headed over to the wild boar exhibit to train them—what a busy day so far.

We trained a few of the boars today, mostly with target training and sending without shapes. I was able to document the session on my Palm Pilot. Still even after doing this for quite some time I’ve found the training for the boar to be really interesting. The last thing that I did for the day was to go back to the office in order to upload my data from bear observations and boar data. After data was complete I took my Suspended Holes Feeder outside and actually finished it! The holes were drilled into the PVC pipe and all of the items were placed onto the chain. I’m so happy that this project was finished! Overall, what an amazing day at the zoo filled with events and education! Above are some pictures of some random animals from around the zoo!

Hours: 10                    Total Hours: 316

“A goal is a dream with a deadline.”—Napoleon Hill

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Day 42

Today was my last day of shadowing, and today I was at Aquariums!

I started the day by shadowing one of the interns named Andrea, and we checked the temperatures of the tanks in the main holding area which contains numerous tanks of fish, sharks, clams, etc. We used a temperature gun which was very interesting to me considering I had never used one. Afterwards we fed all of the animals in said area. We fed them brine shrimp among other types of shrimp and other small bits of food. Once we fed the baby sharks, various fish, leafy sea dragon and others Andrea and I made brine shrimp in the incubator. We mixed in the brine eggs and water and with an aerator, stuck it inside the incubator to use two days later. Very cool! After that, Andrea had to go shadow another area of the zoo so from then on I was with Kim, another intern at Aquariums.

Kim and I headed over to Discovery Bay to feed vitamins and fish to the estuary sharks and rays. We cut up a few capelin and other small fish in the marine mammal kitchen in order to place the vitamins inside of them. With a target pole we stuck the fish pieces with vitamins into the estuary and proceeded to feed the sharks and rays. It was so cool to be that close to them and see them eat! Some of the fish are so colorful and I had to take a snapshot of one before I left (above).

We then went to the other tanks around in Discovery Bay and fed the other fish with gel. The gel is consisted of mostly algae and plant-based material. We continued to find the classroom that has an aquarium and fed the fish inside of there as well. Lastly we went back to Discovery Bay and cleaned the windows of all of the tanks right before all of the guests arrived. Kim and I went back to the main aquarium area afterward in order to prep for the next duty.

The first thing to do back in Aquariums was to find one of the keepers, Christoph, and assist in giving one of the large rays some needed medicine. Kim and Christoph got into their wet suits and went into the ray tank. I helped with giving the medicine to them when the ray was ready. It was so cool to see how the animals in the Aquarium are treated when they need medicine!

After ray feeding, Kim and I headed towards the lake fish on the Minnesota trail to feed them. Half of the feed was worms for the smaller fish such as the crappies or walleye; the other fish like the northern or muskies were given some smaller fish. It was cool to see how many places the Aquarium department works in. Kim and I then went to the coral reef to do a spotted dive.

The spotted dive was interesting, even if it was the third time I’d seen it. Christoph was the diver today and it was so cute watching the kids ask questions to him even if some of them were repeated. It is so awesome that the divers do this daily! Once we shut off the microphones we had another task to do, and thus we headed towards the Asian fish on the Tropics trail. We fed them quickly and were on our way.

The next thing that we did was head back over to the main Aquarium in Discovery Bay for shark feeding! I didn’t directly feed the sharks, but I was able to feed some tarpon fish and some grouper. We have several sharks at the zoo, such as leopard and white tip sharks. The keepers fed the fish that Kim and I prepared such as cut up capelin, herring, and squid. After a while the fish in the shark tank were fed and given their vitamins and Kim and I returned to the Aquarium main holding area.

Once we cleaned the clam holding we went around to the tanks from earlier today and fed their PM diets. We finished feeding all of the fish in Discovery Bay, shark holding and tropic fish holding. Later in the afternoon Kim and I headed over to the Grizzly exhibit in order to feed them some of the trout from the trout tank! Kim and I grabbed some of the nets that were kept in a closet and proceeded to fish out three trout from the tank—it was so much fun! We watched the bears fish for a while and it was one of the most fun things I did all day!

After returning to the Aquarium area Kim helped me enrich the brine shrimp in the incubators. We talked about what we had done for the day and about what other things that the interns do at the Aquarium! I loved my day at the Aquarium and I’m so happy that I was able to learn how to care for fish and other animals that reside in the Aquarium. Sweet!

Hours: 10                    Total Hours: 306

"Because there's nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it's sent away."--Sarah Kay

[wildarisafari]

Day 41

Back to the zoo on Sunday. Today marks the last week that I will be at the zoo. It’s bittersweet… I love working here but I know that all good things must come to the end. Knowing that it was my last week, I figured I would spend another day trying to see a lot of the zoo. Kelsey and I are working together for the last day today, so we are going to try to make the best of it!

As we arrived to the zoo, we headed out to the dholes to see how they were doing. Because it was sprinkling with a little rain, we didn’t expect anything because of the weather, and sure enough the dholes were all in holding avoiding the rain. Disappointed, we decided to head up to the bear roof to observe our favorite grizzlies.

When we got onto the bear roof the weather actually cleared up quite a bit and was actually sunny with a little bit of overcast. We enjoyed observing Kenai, Sadie and Haines like usual and weren’t that stunned to see that they were sleeping for much of their time. It has been such an amazing time being able to get the chance to see the different personalities of the bears and see how they are actually so different among each other. After an hour of observing, Kelsey and I then headed down to the kitchen to complete our diets.

Diets were finished up within no time, and while we were down there I had the idea of making large popsicles for the wild boar. I called up Bridget to see if it was possible to give some to the boar today, and she actually said it was a perfect idea and that we should go ahead and make the enrichment for them. I suggested that we should have 3 popsicles total, and that at least one of them should be made with vegetables. For the popsicles (above) we had one with corn, peas, sweet potato, green beans and other veggies. In another, we had pineapple and cantaloupe and the last one had papaya and apples. We filled the small buckets with water and we left the soon to be popsicles in the large freezer for later. Lastly, we also finished making the rest of the Olympic Ring popsicles! They look awesome! (above).

Kelsey and I returned to the offices and started working on data again. The process continues slowly because of the individual codes that must be put in, but we know that it’s still very important to the progression of the observational data collection.

Later in the afternoon, we decided to walk the zoo and look at the different trails again. This took a while, and we knew that we had a little time before we had to do anything this afternoon. We met up with Bridget later on, and she actually had Kelsey and I do some more pronghorn training! We went with Laurel, Lisa and Bridget onto the pronghorn exhibit and began to work with the animals. Laurel focused on one pronghorn in particular while Bridget was target training a few of the gazelle and pronghorn from afar. Kelsey and I record the training and sometimes assist as well! It was so much fun and I loved this experience!

After training pronghorn Bridget had Kelsey and I retrieve the popsicles from across the zoo. We met up with Bridget at the boar exhibit and crushed the popsicles before throwing them into the exhibit. The boars absolutely loved them! They had never had pineapple before, so they were a little wary of it at first, but they definitely loved foraging for the pieces of food in the ice! Many guests stopped by to ask questions and in response Bridget, Kelsey and I answered all of them about enrichment, food choice and general boar questions. This was so much fun to teach guests about what we do at the zoo and how we try to enrich the lives of the animals at the zoo!

To end the day, Kelsey and I checked out the dholes one last time to see if they were going to be out. It actually surprised me to see that they were nowhere in sight considering that the weather was quite perfect for them. This was the last time I was going to stand for this, and I knew something was off. The next time I saw Ben the dhole keeper I was going to tell him just how much their behavior has been changing throughout this last month. Even though we had some disappointment at the dholes, Kelsey and I left the zoo that day still feeling very much accomplished at what we had done for the day. I can’t believe we can create some of these awesome ideas that can be used in public. I can’t wait for the rest of this week!

Hours: 10                    Total Hours: 296

"Life's most persisent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"--Martin Luther King Jr.

[wildarisafari]

Day 40

Today was my day at Zoomobile! Zoomobile is run from inside the zoo and has two main jobs: going across the state of Minnesota and “bringing to zoo to you!” by bringing animals into schools and other facilities to talk about animal conservation and other interesting facts; as well as taking animals out to the public at the zoo and having them touch them or just learn facts about them too. Today, my day with Zoomobile was going to be a little different.

When I arrived at Zoomobile, I met up with Chris and Donnie, two of the keepers who work with Zoomobile. I became familiar with some of the animals they have there, including a number of skinks, snakes, tortoises, parrots, insects, raptors, rabbits, a fennec fox and various lizards. It was so fantastic to see how many animals they work with. After I helped Chris load up the Zoomobile van, she told me that we were on our way to the Northwestern Abbott Children’s Hospital! We gathered the animals in their carriers and headed out.

On the way Chris and I chatted about other things that Zoomobile does as well as other animal-related topics like her schooling and how she ended up working at the zoo. It’s so interesting how similar interests can lead to working at the zoo or other areas.

We arrived at the hospital with plenty of time and we went up to the ward where we were going to talk to the kids. Chris told me that they visit the hospital once per month in different wards so the kids can have something to smile about—which is just so amazing to me. We walked up to the play room and set up all of our gear and animals.

Once all of the kids were settled down, Chris started out by bring out our Great Horned Owl, Annie (above). The kids were so fascinated by the facts that Chris was talking about and I just loved how even though they were going through so much that they still enjoyed seeing the animals. We proceeded to bring out a Mexican Red-Kneed Tarantula, Chinchilla, Hedgehog and a Guinea Pig. They all loved the visit so much and I was so blessed to have helped with this day of joy for these kids!

Chris and I left the hospital feeling good about the joy we can provide for the kids at the hospital and continued to drive back to the zoo. Once we unloaded all of the animals at the Zoomobile, I was able to hang out with Donnie and he allowed me to handle a few of the animals in the back. I held two different skinks, as well as a larger Solomon Island skink like Dink in the PA area, a tortoise named Luna and a couple of species of snakes. I loved spending my afternoon there!

I’m so happy that I was able to go to a children’s hospital and show how animals can truly make their day a little happier. This was by far one of the most memorable days of shadowing at the zoo. This internship rocks!

Hours: 10                    Total Hours: 286

"It's never too late to have a happy childhood."--Tom Robbins

[wildarisafari]

Day 39

What an awesome way to celebrate my birthday—at the zoo! I love being able to come to one of my favorite places on my birthday! When I came to the zoo this morning I decided to walk out to the dholes and do some observations. I was able to observe for an hour (without much action) and proceeded down to the kitchen like always.

I finished up diets relatively quick this morning and instead of leaving right away I decided I would stick around and design more enrichment for our animals. I thought that I would make more popsicles, but this time for Igor! I thought it would be interesting to see if he would like them, so I used one of the animal-designated ice cube trays and placed mealworms in half of them and raisins in the other half, filled them with water and placed them in the freezer. I really hope that Igor will enjoy them!

By this time in the afternoon I was able to have my lunch break and for today I met up with one of my good friends Melanie who works at the zoo. She and I went to Kenya last year for a Biodiversity and Wildlife Safari, so it was great to reminisce about the trip. We talked about what I do at the zoo and what she does in the Education Program. It was awesome being able to catch up with a good friend and just talk about the zoo and how we are both so set on helping animals and people.

After lunch I headed back over to the kitchen to do some more enrichment. I actually worked on finishing the Olympic Rings that we were so close to finishing. We are going to be making just clear rings in order to use edible spray paint or other coloring to make it black in color. I really wish I was still here when they were going to use them!

I returned to the office afterwards in order to work on more data. The documents are coming along nicely and I’m glad to have been a part in making them. It wasn’t too long after that when I heard that bear training was going to commence. This usually happens around 1 in the afternoon, and sometimes we do other training after that. I walked over to the bear exhibit and watched the bear training along with some of the keepers. After bear training completed I met up with Mary and she told me that boar training was going to be done immediately.

Mary and I along with Eric gathered the treats for the boars and began to do our training. We are still recording all of the trials and correct/incorrect trials to see how the boars are performing on a day-to-day or even month-to-month basis. Boar training is always so fun to be a part of because occasionally I can interpret for the keepers to the guests and answer many of their questions. I always love their reactions when they see just how smart they can be!

Once boar training was finished, Mary asked me to follow her to the river otter exhibit on the Minnesota Trail for more training. I had never been to otter training so this was going to be very fun. I was asked by Christine to video tape the session so with camera in hand, Mary and I went over to otter. The otter was being trained for target training, where Mary would be on the trail where guests can walk and the otter would stay in her exhibit. Mary would target through the window and another keeper and/or intern would be on top of the exhibit tossing down reinforcement like fish whenever she performed the correct action. (above) Mary would run from one part of exhibit to the next, which was great for the otter because half of the exhibit is her water/pond and the other is land. Target training for the otter provides an excellent source of enrichment because it stimulates her mind and gives her great exercise too.

Otter training ended well and immediately once Mary completed her session she suggested that we go into the porcupine area in PA to see if we could enrich them. I suggested that we use the popsicles that Kelsey and I made for their enrichment, so Mary and I grabbed some before we went over to their area. Mary went into the area where our two African Crested porcupines were and she gave the popsicles to them. Lo and behold, they loved them! They absolutely devoured the flower and melon popsicles and didn’t hesitate to stop before every bit was gone. I was elated to see that we made something they loved so much! While we were doing enrichment and training, Mary wanted to head over to Igor’s area to do some training with him, so we grabbed what we needed and headed over to Igor.

The last thing that I did with Mary today was observe her training with Igor. Because I had the video camera from earlier, I was told to do some recording while she was with him. Igor knows how to mimic so many sounds, ring a bell, get into his crate, perch up onto a specific branch and go onto the trainer’s glove when asked. It’s part of our job as interns to help document the animals’ progress especially for training. After a while in training, Mary concluded and session and went on to record notes for his performance. Although that ended my time with the keepers for the day, I went back to the offices for a little more computer work.

I finished the day by doing a little more with our bear and dhole documents as well as investigating how to finish my Suspended Holes Feeder—which is so close to becoming a real project for me to start building! What an awesome way to spend my birthday at the Minnesota Zoo!

Hours: 10                    Total Hours: 276

"Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be."--Khalil Gibran

[wildarisafari]

Day 38

Mondays are always great to be at the zoo because compared to Sundays there are obviously a little less amount of people at the zoo and things are just a little calmer. With this in mind, Kelsey I headed over towards dholes to see if they were up. Luckily, were able to observe the dholes for a little bit (I did Piri in particular), but for an entire half hour she was only in view for a total of four minutes. We are trying to figure out why the dholes are become less and less in view, but we will keep track of this behavior.

Because today was Monday we were able to help Lisa with some interpretation for our North American porcupines. She goes into the exhibit for some target training time with the male while the female gets her own treats too (above). She is a little more trained, so that’s why Lisa is focusing on the male. While she’s in there, I was able to interpret what she was doing and why to the guests that would stop by. It’s so fun to be able to help out with interpretation for guests and learning about how to care and enrich our animals.

After the porcupines we walked over to our bald eagle exhibit for interpretation there as well. There, Lisa was able to join us on the trail side so all three of us were able to talk to the guests about the eagle and her diet that we gave her (above). I learned that there are actually 59 species of eagle and that the bald eagle isn’t even the largest species in Minnesota! It was really fun to see the eagle’s behaviors and meticulous detail she takes in eating her food. What a cool experience!

Kelsey and I went down to the kitchen after eagle interpretation in order to make diets like usual. The process has become second nature now, and I’m fairly certain that I know where everything is in the kitchen—finally! We stayed longer in the kitchen to do some more enrichment for some of the animals. Kelsey suggested we use some of the edible flowers that we take from the Enrichment Garden with some fruit in the kitchen to make popsicles. We diced some of the fruit up and decided to make them into heart shapes, just for fun (above). We can’t wait for the African Crested porcupines will like them!

We returned to the offices for some time and reported our data and worked on our Dhole Data All document. The document takes quite some time to do because there are codes that need to be put in and it will continue to change the total data when new information is added. We worked on organizing our bear, dhole and wild boar data for while until we decided to start doing something a little more creative.

We looked around the office and saw that we still had a lot of paper mache materials left so we thought it would be nice to spend some time outside and make more paper mache for other animals. We had given one to Igor our pied crow and he loved it! We were able to make two more large paper maches of different shapes in order to give them away. They can be filled with treats, can be painted or be used for something else creative. Lisa found us outside just after we completed our projects and said that she had something for us to do, and that it involved Rio our screech owl.

We went down to the PA area and there we had to spend some time with Rio. The BITE girls wanted me to gain some experience in handling birds, so today I was given the chance to hold Rio on my glove! He is only about 142g or so and weighs close to nothing. Lisa and Mary helped me with some hand and arm techniques for how to properly hold birds. This was such a huge thing for me and I loved getting to be so close to Rio! I can’t wait until he becomes more comfortable around people and especially around the public.

After Rio’s area was clean and was placed back, Mary, Lisa, Kelsey and I headed towards wild boar for training. We gathered our things that we needed like Palm Pilots, reinforcement and a video camera to document the session. We were able to train with 4 of the pigs today and it seems like many of them are making good progress. It’s been so awesome to learn skills and training techniques for animals, which will definitely be something that I’ll take with me when I leave.

With some time to spare after training completed, Kelsey and I walked back over to the kitchen and continued some of the enrichment that I started a couple of days ago. I began making popsicles in the shapes and colors of the Olympic rings in the spirit of the 2012 London games, and Kelsey helped me make more of them in various sizes. I won’t be here when they will probably use them because they will want them all completed and also to be used on a weekend day where more people will be here, but that’s ok. I’m still glad to help!

The last thing that we did today was get back to the offices and compile our data for boars and work on their data sheet. This is a good project for us because we are the first interns to work on boar training with the keepers and this is somewhat of another independent project that was thought up by one of our BITE girls. I’m so glad to help out in the ways that I am and again, today felt like a major success with everything that was accomplished.

Hours: 10                    Total Hours: 266

"There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something."--Henry Ford

[wildarisafari]

Day 37

Early in the morning from when I left my house until about noon today, it was pouring rain. The weather lately has seemed really bipolar, with heat waves followed by deluges of rain. It makes me think how this affects the animals at the zoo. I arrived on time like usual and before I knew it I was starting my day.

Christine and I met up right away before doing anything today and she informed me about some new procedures going on with our Program Animals. As of now, the reptiles aren't going to be held by interns and will only be held by our BITE staff. This saddened me, but I understand that new protocol is new protocol and it of course is for the better. I understand now that I won't be holding Humperdink or Nyoka anymore and that my time with them is done. Looking back on my experiences with them I can't believe I've learned so much about handling, care and husbandry for snakes and lizards! I'm so blessed to have worked with both of them for as long as I was able to.

After Christine and I finished talking Kelsey had arrived and we went out to dholes despite the rain... and to no real surprise, the dholes were in holding avoiding the rain. Now, the rain was lightening up but not by much. We went to the kitchen to fix our diets for the PA animals and finish up in that area. Now that we aren't holding Nyoka and Dink anymore, our time at the PA area is a little shorter than normal. Still, we watered the garden and walked back to the offices.

While in the office I began to talk to Christine about my "suspended holes feeder" idea--the enrichment tool that I've been developing. She talked about some of the items that were available in the craft room and possibly a few other items that we needed to purchase. Kelsey and I then looked into more ideas online for enrichment as usual and began to write some things down for possible future ideas. We were just about done with our lunches when Bridget came bustling in saying that today was World Tiger Conservation Day, we were going to give some enrichment to our tigers!

Luckily, a few weeks ago I and the other interns painted a few boxes, and I added some designs like a tiger face and one that was red, white and blue (left over from 4th of July, but perfect for the London 2012 Olympics!). We took the boxes and placed a piece of frozen deer hide in each of them. We brushed up on our tiger facts (which helped me learn so much about tigers! There are 6 subspecies and 3 subspecies that are already extinct.) and headed out to Whirl, one of our females that was in the Tiger Base Camp exhibit. When we arrived, Bridget shook the box and called out Whirl's name and to my amazement, she ran right over to the bridge! Lisa threw the box over the edge, and Whirl began to play and sniff the box looking for her treat! (above) All of the guests were incredibly interested and I was very proud to have helped with this enrichment. With one more box, we walked over to the Tiger Lair on the opposite side of the zoo where our male Molniy (pronounced MOLE-nee) was. Fun fact: he is the father of our baby cub! Here at this exhibit was the moment where I came in handy. We needed to throw the other box with the deer hide over his moat and have it land on the grass. After a huge overhand throw, it landed perfectly! Sadly, however, Molniy didn’t see it land… the plan of attack was to retrieve a decoy box and throw it in simply so he could see it. Kelsey returned from the offices after a while and once again, I threw the box in. This time, Molniy came sprinting over and the crowd watching went wild with excitement! He quickly picked up the decoy box and began ripping pieces off while lying down under a tree—leaving the other box untouched! He fervently enjoyed just ripping up the cardboard anyway, and proceeded to stand in front of everyone to see (above). We didn’t have time to watch him go after the next box with the actual treat inside, but nonetheless he had fun and that’s what our goal was!

Bridget, Lisa, Kelsey and I were asked by Laurel from Northern Trail to help with pronghorn training again. We headed up to pronghorn and then went to work helping out give treats (leaf-eater biscuits, etc) to the gazelle and pronghorn. We interns don’t have to do much other than record with a camera what Laurel and Bridget are doing while Lisa interprets for the guests. We are documenting what the BITE girls are doing for documentation and progress. The training went well, and from what I can tell some of the pronghorn are really starting to make strides. I really hope that sometime when I return to the zoo I can see just how much work they’ve accomplished.

Lastly, we split up for the last part of the day and Kelsey went back with Lisa while I stayed with Laurel and Bridget to meet up with Stacy, another Northern Trail keeper. We spent the last part of the day interpreting moose and caribou, where we handled a moose rack and also fed browse to the moose so people could watch us and touch/pick up the antlers. Guests love to have interactions, so the more we can provide the better! We also gave some information on prairie dogs as well. What an awesome way to end the day at the zoo.

Hours: 10                    Total Hours: 256

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."--Helen Keller

[wildarisafari]

Day 36

What a wonderful day to be at the zoo! Taryn was back with me today which is always good because working with someone else always helps projects go faster and helps pass the time in a fun way as well. This morning was another indicator of how hot it was going to be today. Taryn and I had our suspicions about the dholes this morning because of the heat, but we decided to head out there like usual anyway. Not surprisingly, the dholes were not in sight and therefore couldn't be observed. They remained in holding the entire time, partially because I believe they had just been fed and that they wouldn't want to go back out onto exhibit if it was cooler in their holding area. After facing the fact that dholes were a no go, Taryn suggested that we observed the bears. We collected our things and headed to Grizzly Coast.

Taryn and I arrived at the bear exhibit and started our observations promptly. It was really interesting being at bears this early this morning due to the fact that we've been so used to going out to dholes in the morning. We watched as Kenai and Haines wrestled in the pool (above) all morning. It's great to see that guests who come out early can see them active like this. Overall it was a successful observation and we ended it right about when the keepers were doing morning training. We were able to watch the training session and then move onto preparing diets and do our morning routine.

We made the diets in no time and we proceeded to hold Dink and Nyoka as well. The morning routine is great to have because we are able to complete so much within a window of time and it helps that we can do it all at once because the PA area and kitchen are across the zoo. We finished up and went back to our offices.

We took some time to look up more enrichment items, especially those for birds on BusyBeaks.com. The site has many great ideas for bird enrichment and we were able to think of some ideas for Hedwig and Igor. Not long after we jotted down a few ideas, I felt like it would be a good idea to check on the dholes to see if we would have any better luck with them considering this morning. I walked out to the exhibit with some hope only to find that there was no activity whatsoever. The adults were most likely in holding as none of them were in sight and their sensitivity to heat. I returned to the office empty handed.

The next task that was given to us was a quick cut of a carpet. A specific brand of carpet by Christine’s office is specifically used for cages for lizards, snakes and other reptiles. We measured the carpet to Christine’s wants and then cut the pieces. We wanted to make sure that the measurements were absolutely correct in order for the carpet to fit in the cages. Seeing as we didn’t have any other requests for us to do for the afternoon, Taryn and I stayed in and continued to load data from this morning.

Later on in the afternoon, we were called by Mary and Carey in order to feed the sand boa. Typically Nyoka is given her dead mouse in another container and she will eat the mouse after it is left inside. Today, Carey wanted to try to feed the boa with a pair of forceps to make it seem like the mouse is “more alive”. We were able to place Nyoka in another box and with the help of a small opening Carey dangled the mouse in front of her. Within a few minutes, Nyoka lunged at the mouse, sunk her teeth in, and quickly knotted up and spun around her catch. She continued to constrict it trying to “kill” the already dead mouse. After a while, we watched her uncoil and proceed to slowly devour the mouse. We took pictures for Christine because we hope to have her out in public to have guests watch this too.

After Nyoka was completely finished with her mouse, I returned her to her cage and let her digest. She has to be left alone for a day now to allow complete digestion. I finished up locking the rooms and then walked up to the boar exhibit to meet Mary and Taryn, who had left just minutes before. We then went into boar training upon arrival, and both Taryn and I had the chance to train with Mary while the other was taking notes. This was the second time that we have taken data with the sheets that Mary made, and we will soon make an electronic version of it to use on our Palms. During our training, one of the boars had a small limp in his back left foot, and our veterinary staff visited to check on him. The vets were able to determine by looking at him that he didn’t have any noticeable swelling or irritation, so they believe he might have a small injury but would monitor his health as well. We concluded our time at the boar and decided to check on the dholes.

When we arrived at the dholes, we sat and waited for the dholes to emerge from holding but once again, nothing. In addition, the “bark box”, a box where guests can press buttons to hear the barks and whistles of the dholes, has been turned back on. We are monitoring the affects that this is having on the dholes and after about 20 minutes or so, we left without any data.

The last thing that Taryn and I did for the day was to return to the offices to compile more data. As mentioned before, we are continuing to reform and make the data more like the bears where we can actually see the percentages of time spent doing certain activities and time spent in certain areas. With meticulous calculations and computing we are definitely making headway! I’m so happy that we were able to accomplish so much today. Can’t wait for next week!

Hours: 10                    Total Hours: 246

"Goals help you channel your energy into action."--Les Brown

[wildarisafari]

Day 35

For the first time in what seems like weeks, the clouds rolled over Minnesota and rained on us. I enjoyed seeing some rain on my way to work despite knowing that I'd be working in it. We needed it!

As I started to observe the dholes, it came as no shock to see that all 7 of them were playing and trotting around the exhibit. The best time to see the dholes is in slightly cooler summer weather and minimal heat. It was awesome being able to see them all out! After another hour of great data I then walked to do my usual morning routine.

Today I was able to snap a picture of the diets that I usually make (above)--I just simple forget to most days because I'm so focused on work! As you can see, the diets consist of whole, natural foods that are approved and tasty for the animals. I find it a great part of my day being able to care for the animals like this. I proceeded to hold Dink and Nyoka and had successful times with both of them. The Enrichment Garden obviously didn't need watering, so I completed my time at the PA area and headed back to the offices.

When I arrived to the offices, Christine presented me with a new task--take the data of the dholes and compare the data as a whole, just like the bear data. This task proves to be extremely time consuming and tedious--a perfect job for me on a rainy day.

Boar training started later in the afternoon and once again I was asked to help and of course I was ready to jump at the opportunity. The training is still going smoothly and so far it seems to me that the females are really catching on--not to say that the males aren't, but I think the two girls are actually doing the best. We are going to be starting an XCEL file soon for the 6 boars and their data. Once the training completed I decided to take my chances to check on the dholes again. However, to my absolute surprise, no dholes. The lack of seeing them causes me to have slight anxiety, causing me to wonder if they ever come out during the day and if I'm just missing the opportune moments. Too much rain, too much heat--what am I missing? I will continue to try to figure it out, of course.

Thinking of something that I could accomplish without doubt I walked to the PA area. I held the boa and the skink again and just as I was about done, Carey and Mary came down to work with the porcupines to train with them. I was able to stay and watch, and it was great to see that they are also making progress. They are learning to target train and I can see that they are definitely catching on.

Mary and Carey completed the training with the porcupines and after Mary had to leave, I followed Carey to Igor's holding to watch her train him too. Carey had Igor practicing perching, ringing his bell, and "gloving up" (when he perches onto the handler's glove). Igor is amazingly smart, and it's interesting to see how he will train differently with each keeper. I was amazed to watch how training has worked with different species and Igor is a perfect example of how smart they can be.

By this time of the day, it was nearly time to go and my last task was to close down the office that has Hedwig inside (above). It was great to talk to him for a while and hear him repeat some words such as "I love you" or "bye bye!". He's another example of pure intelligence and I can't wait to see what he's capable of too. I shut off his music and his lights and closed the door. The best part of this day is that although work was done, I stayed afterward for the Intern Picnic!

The intern picnic was a great time filled with free food, trivia and networking and most of all, great weather! I'm definitely thankful for days like these that make me proud to intern here!

Hours: 10                    Total Hours: 236

"Every day is a good day to be alive, whether the sun's shining or not."--Marty Robbins

[wildarisafari]

A little blurb about how much the Johnson Scholarship has assisted me in accomplishing everything I do at the Minnesota Zoo! I wouldn't have been able to without their help! Thank you!

[wildarisafari]

Day 34

Just when I thought that the days couldn't seem warmer at the zoo, the entire day consisted of hot, humid and windless weather. Still, the day proved to be fun and filled with activities, even if they came with the price of sweat.

With expectation fulfilled I watched the dhole exhibit become silent after AM diets were given, and Piri, the dhole I was observing, was only in view 3 minutes out of the hour that I was there. I know I should have simply ended the observation early, but I wanted to prove to myself that the heat really did push the dholes to seek shade and hide from the public eye. Satisfied with my theory--despite my data full of "out of view's"--I left to work on morning tasks.

Today I decided to try something new in some of the animals' diets. Some of the diets call for mixed veggies or fruit and have a long, approved list of said foods. Usually, I provide Igor with apple, pear, banana or berry pieces, but today I tried to work with something new. I gave him sliced up melon--something that I sought out to try in his diet. I hope that I will find out tomorrow if he likes it!

Holding Nyoka and Humperdink turned out to be fantastic. In fact, today was the best day I've ever had with Dink. He doesn't seem to lunge at me whatsoever anymore, and I think he's finally realized that we aren't trying to hurt him but rather just provide him some enrichment by holding him. We hope to have the Program Animals out in public, as mentioned before, so this is a great sign to see that they are both getting accustomed to people.

I walked back in the rain--which was in fact lightening up--to the offices to complete adding data. After some time, my data was loaded into the large file and I looked for other tasks to do around the office. I found a piece of paper that Taryn and Kelsey and I had written on very early in the internship that had many of our original questions on it. I decided to take these "FAQs" and create an official document and print it off.

By the time that afternoon rolled around, the weather had actually cleared up quite a bit and was only slightly overcast. I was called to observe the bear training just because we were going to do boar training afterward and I always love watching bear training.

While Mary and Erick performed our boar training, I was doing double duty by taking notes on the boars, as I've done before, but also provided boar interpretation. Many guests ask questions while we train the boars and I feel helpful when I can multitask and answer their questions and take notes at the same time. The boar training went very well and before I knew it 4 boars had been through training and we were done. I wasn't needed for any particular project, so for the first time in a long time I decided to do some things on my own--which is another plus about this internship, independence!

After I ate lunch with some time to spare, I got up and started to tour around the zoo. I began with the Northern Trail and walked the entire route. I passed the takin, prairie dogs, Asian wild horses, camels, all the way back to the dholes and moose and caribou that I pass every day. I loved taking the tour in a slight brisk walk, only pausing to answer guest questions. The sun was again beating down and I sought to tour somewhere inside, so my next stop was across the plaza to the PA area to hold our reptiles again.

Quickly, I watered the garden and returned inside to hold Nyoka and Dink. The holding was successful and done without faltering, and with enough time to spare in the afternoon once again, I left the PA area to tour another part of the zoo, this time inside to avoid the humid, thick air.

While in Discovery Bay, I was alarmed by the sheer amount of people--rather, I wasn't surprised that amount of people were inside because of the heat, but I wasn't prepared. I was also surprised that I was actually asked many questions about sea animals. I was asked about lionfish, stingray and cuttlefish facts--something I definitely had not had practice in for a while! Still, I knew enough facts to satisfy guest questions and was genuinely thanked. It was a nice change to my day, and I even snapped a picture of one of my favorite marine animals, the leafy sea dragon (above).

I was later called on the radio by Lisa and Mary to meet them in the PA area once again to help them with our porcupines. Buttercup (Princess) and Rous needed weighing again and the BITE girls wanted some help. I came along and observed them do some training, and it's been observed that Buttercup now seems a little more dominant than Rous! It's interesting how things have changed since we first got them. We weighed the porcupines and talked for a while and I noticed for the first time a way to tell the two apart other than their ear notches--Buttercup seems to have white whiskers at times and Rous has all black. A small victory for our team for sure.

One of the last things that I did with the BITE girls today was head over to Animal Health to look at the baby beaver. When we arrived at her holding, it was a great treat to see her not only out, but she was swimming in her pool. She is adorable and I can't wait until our program has her to take care of her. Sadly, I don't think I'll still be here interning before she arrives, but I would rather have the hope that she's coming just for fun. Mary is definitely in love with the young beaver and I hope I can return to the zoo sometime to see the beaver after she's become more comfortable around people too.

The keepers headed out for the day, and I continued my day by checking on the dholes--which again, proved to be desolate--working on data and thinking of other enrichment. My draft of my enrichment tool is almost complete and I hope to give it to Christine soon. My day ended on a very successful note and I'm glad to have a little enrichment and change of pace to my day too.

Hours: 10                    Total Hours: 226

"Do the best you can in every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time. No one learns more about a problem than the person at the bottom."--Sandra Day O'Connor

[wildarisafari]

Day 33

Another hot and muggy day to start off the week! Heading out to dholes in the morning after a weekend of being away always gets me happy, but I can't imagine how the dholes feel being in this heat every day. I imagined that they were going to be very sluggish. When I arrived, the adults were pretty active to my surprise and the pups were even more so. I believe it had to do with the fact that Ben, one of our keepers, was cleaning the area outside of the fence. The dholes are very curious and will follow the keepers around the exhibit trying to get a better view/smell, etc. The hour went well and I was off to do my other morning duties.

As I was just about completed with my diets, Mary approached me and said that she was planning on moving Rio, the screech owl, across the zoo in a carrier to be placed in the offices with us for some environmental enrichment. She needed some help to move him as I'm sure guests would be curious to see a live animal being moved across the zoo--and we didn't want Rio to become outrageously scared. Rio was easily loaded up into his crate and then Mary and I were on our way. As we parted the crowd like the Red Sea, we successfully made it to the offices without any mishaps. Rio was allowed to come out of his crate--as he was held with a small tether to Mary's glove--and surprisingly he seemed to be perfectly content! He even met Hedwig and didn't seem to even care if he was present or not. This outcome was much better than suspected and we were extremely pleased with how he handled being moved and the sounds of guests and the office workers.

We spent some time in the office, just allowing Rio to become accustomed to the atmosphere, and while this was happening I decided to go ahead and load data onto the computer. Nearly 20 minutes passed before Mary suggested that we take him back to the PA area. He did amazingly well and I hope we get a change to bring him out again soon. Before we went back, I was called by Lisa to bring a mirror down to the PA area. Mirrors provide a type of enrichment for the animal who is receiving it simply because they are trying to mimic the presence of another animal. Some animals could care less if they receive a mirror for enrichment, others find it fascinating or sometimes a little intimidating. Either way, mirrors are a great way to stimulate the minds of captive animals. We proceeded to carry Rio back through the plaza and down to his holding area in PA. While I was down in the area, I finally finished my morning routine--a little later than normal, but for a worthy cause--by holding Nyoka and Dink. Again, while I was performing my normal tasks, a new one came into sight that seemed to be perfect for what I was feeling.

Lisa asked me to meet her in the LT holding area where she was in the process of cleaning Igor's holding space. She then asked me to think of an enrichment idea for him! I had free range of any of his toys among other sources of paper and tools (above) to make whatever I wanted for him. I decided to use one hard ball that could be opened in half and one other whiffle-type ball that was more malleable to start. I took pieces of torn newspaper and within them placed pieces of his diet (fruit, veggies, etc) inside. Those pieces of paper with food were then placed into the balls, and then the balls were placed inside of a large paper bag, folded over. I asked Lisa if he would be able to find the food, and she said without a doubt, yes! I was thrilled to have made an enrichment item off the top of my head, and I love being able to help out the BITE keepers when I can!

Once I returned to the offices the next item on my To-Do List was to create the "Herp Calendar" for August. The calendar has the days on which Dink and Nyoka receive their enrichment. Nyoka only receives enrichment twice per week and Dink, three times per week. The enrichment can be environmental, food, sensory, manipulation, etc. This didn't take very long, as I already had an idea of what to put down for these individuals.

Shortly after my calendar was complete, I was called by Bridget to help with some training and interpretation on the Northern Trail. I grabbed my things and met her up at the pronghorn barn. There, I met with another woman named Laurel as well as Bridget. We then walked out into the pronghorn exhibit to begin our training! My job was to record the target and petting training with a video camera as well as take pictures to document the event. After training, Bridget and Laurel talked to the guests who were watching the training and were interested in finding out more information. I felt so incredibly lucky to have been feeding and petting pronghorn and goitered gazelle! They have been brought up to know that humans are their caretakers and are actually overly affectionate, as I found out after I was surrounded by nearly seven or so pronghorn and gazelles within minutes of being handed some leaf-eater biscuits. The interaction was an amazing opportunity and I felt so happy that I could help.

In addition to the pronghorn training, we three girls then trekked over to the moose exhibit where moose training and interpretation was going to begin. There we met up with another Northern Trail keeper, Stacy, and began our work. Laurel and Stacy began to feed Steve and Anders a few willow branches as their browse and occasionally practicing the "feeling" of pressure on their sides (as mentioned in other blogs for their purpose). Bridget had a pair of massive moose antlers for the guests to feel and lift up, which are perfect attention-grabbers for people of all ages! I continued to record the training and was glad to have helped for that event as well.

Finally, the last thing that I did for the day was to observe the dholes. This has been the first time in a long time that I had been able to observe the dholes in the evening, as they have not been exhibiting much activity later in the day from the heat. I was able to collect some data and answer a few questions as always--but I admit that by the time the hour was complete I was definitely worn out from the heat--as I'm sure most of the animals are too. Once again, a busy and educational day for me during my internship!

Hours: 10                    Total Hours: 216

"Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can, there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did."--Sarah Caldwell

[wildarisafari]

Day 32

This morning Taryn and I noticed that the weather was a little cloudier than it had been the last couple of days, and that it was overcast. I had a feeling that it was going to rain, but at least the weather was cooler and therefore our hopes of seeing the dholes today seemed promising. We headed out to dholes like usual and thankfully we were both granted our wish of having great observations. All of the adults seemed to be out and about. After the hour observation was over we headed to the kitchen and finished diets within a short time.

Taryn and I then went to hold the "herps" (herpetological species, aka: Nyoka and Dink). The handling still has its days, and the boa and skink never react the same every time we hold them. All in all the handling this morning went smoothly. After handling was complete we met up with Christine in the hallway while on our way to the enrichment garden. Christine told us that it was actually raining outside so instead of watering the garden we decided to just head back to the offices.

We decided to allow the rain to stop for a while until we went back outside, but in the meantime we began to work on cleaning up the MZG log with the enrichment items as well as talk with the Macaque Interns to see what they are doing. Their internship consists of observing the Japanese Snow Monkeys/ Macaques at the zoo and documenting their behavior as individuals. They are great at determining who is who, which is impressive considering there are about 20 monkeys! By the time that the rain had eased up a little, Taryn and I went outside to observe the bears. The bears were active but not as energetic as other times. They weren't sleeping, but they seemed to be content lying down and trying to stay cool for the majority of the time.

Seeing as the day was nearly over for the keepers and how we need to hold the reptiles before the day is over, we then trekked our way over the PA area to hold them. Holding was brief but effective and the keepers bid us good bye as they left. For the majority of the time we had left, Taryn and I thought it would be interesting to go around the Minnesota and Tropics Trails just to tour and see what we could find. We were able to see some of the animals that are normally inactive during the morning and afternoon become very active in the evening like the binturong and the tapir. We then went onto the Minnesota Trail, where there it began to rain a little heavier. There, we saw most of the animals become very active as they finally cooled off after a hot last few days. One of my favorites to see up and active was the cougar (above). Nearly all of the animals--grey wolves, wolverine, lynx--were looking forward to the rain. What a treat to see them not sleeping!

As we returned to the offices after our short tour, we pondered a while whether or not to check on the dholes to see if they were active or not. To our dismay, the rain must not excite the dholes as much as the other animals because when we arrived to the exhibit, nothing moved and not a dhole was found in sight. Arriving back at the offices empty handed, we finished the day by brainstorming ideas about enrichment toys and gadgets that we could possibly design for some of the PA animals. I'm currently working on some sort of hanging device... we shall see if my conceptualization becomes reality.

Hours: 10                    Total Hours: 206

"How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life."--Marcus Aurelius

[wildarisafari]

Day 31

Another hot day at the Minnesota Zoo. Today was another day where I worked alone, so I thought I would get started early in the day and get going to see how the dholes were. The adults were once again not that active this morning and were actually out of view in the holding area for the majority of the time. I as able to observe for an hour before heading to the kitchen.

While I was making diets I was called on the radio by Carey that moose training was going to happen near 11AM, which is about the time I was going to complete my duties in the kitchen and PA area. As it happened, I ended up finishing the diets in time but then immediately went to the moose exhibit across the zoo.

Moose training began and Mary and Carey came to the exhibit each holding a handful of willow branches for browse. The moose adore the browse and will eventually be incorporated as reinforcement. The purpose of moose training, like other training completed around the zoo, is used for husbandry purposes. The moose are being trained to hopefully perform voluntary blood draws and other medical check-ups. I was able to help out by providing the public with information if Mary and Carey were both busy interpreting for other guests. It's great to be out in public educating guests. I hope to do it again for the BITE keepers.

Because I didn't handle Dink and Nyoka after diets like usual, I went back to the PA area and held them both. Dink is finally starting to get the hang of getting held regularly and doesn't seem to lunge at the handler at all. I really hope that we can get these two out into public sometime before I'm done here!

By this time in the afternoon, I went back to the offices to work on data compilation again. This didn't take very long, so shortly after that was completed, I headed outside in order to observe the bears. Today I observed Haines, the "alpha" bear of the grizzlies. He's the largest of the three and also the darkest--therefore he's the most noticable (above). Today the bears mostly spent their time near the water, which isn't a surprise due to the heat, and socialized with each other. It's not uncommon to see Haines and Kenai "fight playing" in the pool together!

Shortly after bear observation was done I was asked to work with boar training with Mary and Eric (other Eric, not Erick!). This time was slightly different, as my job was to record the boar training on a log, not video record. The record consisted of Trial, Shape, Correct Shape Side, and Correct/Incorrect as well as Notes. This way, we can see just how well the boars are learning--or not!--with the training. Mary wishes to create some sort of graph with this information to see the progress of the boars. Everything looked great for recording and I think that the progress report should go well.

At the end of the day I went out to the dholes in hopes of seeing them out again. Alas, the heat had taken its toll on most of the animals at the zoo and especially on the dholes. I stood at the exhibit for nearly 20 minutes simply in hopes of seeing any activity whatsoever, but nothing occurred and not one dhole was seen. This was the last item on my To-Do List, so after the dholes were a no go I seemed to be finished with the day. Hopefully the weather will clear up and become slightly more bearable later this month! Still, what another great day.

Hours: 10                    Total Hours: 196

"What part soever you take upon you, play that as well as you can and make the best of it."--Thomas More