Also known as the petting zoo.
It was very similar to being in Kansas again, meeting up with some friends at their farm. Only I had to clean out the stalls instead of just playing with the animals.
And the stalls were for 5 guinea pigs.
Yes, the 5 guinea pigs had two stalls big enough for a horse each. That's a lot of mulch and saw dust to move and replace for 5 guinea pigs. They were very happy when it was all done. Yesterday was more physical than any other day so far at Lone Pine and I won't be able to walk upright tomorrow. :)
I had a goat escape the fenced enclosure. Luckily, he escaped into the barnyard where the children could pet him so it wasn't that large of a crisis. He actually spent the rest of the day happily prancing around the barnyard in front of all of the animals still locked up.
The other goats were especially ticked at the unfairness of it all. The sheep were somewhat annoyed but didn't vocalize quite as much as the goats.
I took the Shetland ponies for a walk around the pasture on leads. The kangaroos weren't exactly sure about them. Of course the ponies wanted to stop at every blade of grass and eat.
There are 2 giant hogs, Oink and Doris, who received fresh fruit rinds and lettuce. They were also treated to the old mulch out of the guinea pig stalls and were very happy. Both of them stood right under where I had to toss it and they were covered it eucalyptus when I was done. Oink absolutely loves eucalyptus branches and for a treat, she gets 3 or 4 of them to go make a bed out of. It is fun to watch here take them into her stall and arrange just so.
Before the Birds of Prey show, we needed to lock up the fully grown chickens in the barnyard (to avoid distractions for the raptors) and close the barnyard and pasture because that is the birds demonstration area. We were also responsible for keeping people out of the pasture during the show. Part of the time I was on my own because the Sea Eagle doesn't like men in general and also doesn't like the barn keeper I was working with yesterday. She had to go inside when Eiluca was flying to avoid an attack.
Another fun filled day with more hands on animal encounters than any other so far. :)
Monday, May 27, 2013
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Mammals...Oh My
Last Monday was Mammal Group Day on my work schedule. I had a blast!
I started the day freshening one half of the Dingo enclosure and came extraordinarily close to wearing a Golden Orb spider for decoration. At first I was sure it was 2 foot in diameter but after backing up, realized it was more like 4 inches. That's what happens when working in the foliage. While the Dingos are wild animals, they seem a lot like great big cuddle puppies. Samson has learned how to open the door to his enclosure. And no, I didn't find that out the hard way. He tried but it was locked. Lone Pine has 3 dingos: a white senior at 11 years old and 2 pups about 3 years old.
Then it was time to wake up the Platypus and listen to him run through his labyrinth of PVC pipes and watch him jump into his tank. He sleeps in a wooden box on a little blanket. He eats yabbies (really big crayfish) during the day and when the keeper tossed some in the tank, it was a swimming frenzy. VERY happy platypus. (Don't worry, the yabbies are farmed - not from the wild.) I also fed the yabbies...they get protein pellets.
Next it was off to the feed shed to fix the daily fruit salad for the flying foxes (bats). We spend a lot of time prepping animal food!
Fifteen or so large bats eat a LOT of fruit salad. I cut up a dish tub full of fruit that included pears, oranges, bananas, mango, rock melon (cantaloupe), honey dew melon, grapes, apples, kiwi and guava plus other fruit. It looked pretty tasty except for the serving container. Once again, quality control told me I needed to change the size of the bites. They needed to be flying fox mouth size and I was making it a little too big. Who knew?
After finishing the fruit salad, I made the dishes up for the wombats. They like corn, carrots, sweet potato, hay, oats, kangaroo food and some other grains. They also like perfect apples (with no bad spots) cut into quarters.
Then I was off to the wombat enclosures to help freshen up their areas. Apparently, it was feisty wombat Monday. No moving from enclosure to enclosure easily and Boris was very loudly telling everyone what he thought of the entire process.
Back to the dingo enclosure to finish the other side...they look at you with such intelligent eyes.
The mornings fly by.
After my lunch, it was back to the feeding shed where I had the pleasure of mixing the shredded carrots into the raw meat and making "meatballs" for the Tazzie Devils. As with some kids, keepers have to hide the veggies or they won't eat them.
Off to feed the animals!
First up was the timid little possum. We had to coax it out of it's log burrow with a piece of broccoli. It had flowers for a treat.
On to the Dingos! They get a mix of mince (ground meat) and dingo bikkies (biscuits). They are properly trained to sit by a hand command and wait for their food to be put down. I had one behind me and didn't realize he was sitting, waiting patiently for his food until the other one already had his.
We took 10 bowls of food for delivery to the 5 wombats. My job was to keep the bush turkeys out of the wombat food as we went to each enclosure and to warn the keeper if the wombat was up and heading toward her. From my limited research, looks like wombats love corn on the cob.
Wombat Phil was exceptionally uncooperative and actually went into a different enclosure where he wasn't supposed to be (who left the gate unlocked???). The off limits enclosure did not have any animals in it but did have a "deadly" watering can and rake. Phil immediately attacked the gardening tools. I happened to be standing at the fence right above watching the show and the keeper told me to be careful because Phil could actually jump high enough to reach me. I backed up to avoid a claw encounter. The keeper was finally able to get Phil back to his pen by using the offending rake and having him chase it.
Next, we fed the sugar gliders, Tasmanian Devils and the bats. The sugar gliders are very timid but did come out for food. The devils wanted to be hand fed their meat but the keeper tossed the mixture into various locations in the enclosure making sure they had to work for it.
The bat food was initially left on the floor and the hungry foxes started to climb down to it, but before they could reach it, the keeper finished feeding the devils and hung the buckets from the roof. Climbing back up the cage wall, one bat promptly "walked" upside-down across the top of the cage toward the fruit salad, stopping first to check out the keepers hair. Then he (?) went to the bucket and dug out a piece of banana. He rolled it around in his mouth like he was checking the texture. I now have an idea of the size of a bats' mouth. :) While flying foxes make a shrill, chalk board grating type of noise, it is really uncomfortable listening to it when you are only 10 feet away from the argument.
Another wonderful day at Lone Pine. You should visit!
I started the day freshening one half of the Dingo enclosure and came extraordinarily close to wearing a Golden Orb spider for decoration. At first I was sure it was 2 foot in diameter but after backing up, realized it was more like 4 inches. That's what happens when working in the foliage. While the Dingos are wild animals, they seem a lot like great big cuddle puppies. Samson has learned how to open the door to his enclosure. And no, I didn't find that out the hard way. He tried but it was locked. Lone Pine has 3 dingos: a white senior at 11 years old and 2 pups about 3 years old.
Then it was time to wake up the Platypus and listen to him run through his labyrinth of PVC pipes and watch him jump into his tank. He sleeps in a wooden box on a little blanket. He eats yabbies (really big crayfish) during the day and when the keeper tossed some in the tank, it was a swimming frenzy. VERY happy platypus. (Don't worry, the yabbies are farmed - not from the wild.) I also fed the yabbies...they get protein pellets.
Next it was off to the feed shed to fix the daily fruit salad for the flying foxes (bats). We spend a lot of time prepping animal food!
Fifteen or so large bats eat a LOT of fruit salad. I cut up a dish tub full of fruit that included pears, oranges, bananas, mango, rock melon (cantaloupe), honey dew melon, grapes, apples, kiwi and guava plus other fruit. It looked pretty tasty except for the serving container. Once again, quality control told me I needed to change the size of the bites. They needed to be flying fox mouth size and I was making it a little too big. Who knew?
After finishing the fruit salad, I made the dishes up for the wombats. They like corn, carrots, sweet potato, hay, oats, kangaroo food and some other grains. They also like perfect apples (with no bad spots) cut into quarters.
Then I was off to the wombat enclosures to help freshen up their areas. Apparently, it was feisty wombat Monday. No moving from enclosure to enclosure easily and Boris was very loudly telling everyone what he thought of the entire process.
Back to the dingo enclosure to finish the other side...they look at you with such intelligent eyes.
The mornings fly by.
After my lunch, it was back to the feeding shed where I had the pleasure of mixing the shredded carrots into the raw meat and making "meatballs" for the Tazzie Devils. As with some kids, keepers have to hide the veggies or they won't eat them.
Off to feed the animals!
First up was the timid little possum. We had to coax it out of it's log burrow with a piece of broccoli. It had flowers for a treat.
On to the Dingos! They get a mix of mince (ground meat) and dingo bikkies (biscuits). They are properly trained to sit by a hand command and wait for their food to be put down. I had one behind me and didn't realize he was sitting, waiting patiently for his food until the other one already had his.
We took 10 bowls of food for delivery to the 5 wombats. My job was to keep the bush turkeys out of the wombat food as we went to each enclosure and to warn the keeper if the wombat was up and heading toward her. From my limited research, looks like wombats love corn on the cob.
Wombat Phil was exceptionally uncooperative and actually went into a different enclosure where he wasn't supposed to be (who left the gate unlocked???). The off limits enclosure did not have any animals in it but did have a "deadly" watering can and rake. Phil immediately attacked the gardening tools. I happened to be standing at the fence right above watching the show and the keeper told me to be careful because Phil could actually jump high enough to reach me. I backed up to avoid a claw encounter. The keeper was finally able to get Phil back to his pen by using the offending rake and having him chase it.
Next, we fed the sugar gliders, Tasmanian Devils and the bats. The sugar gliders are very timid but did come out for food. The devils wanted to be hand fed their meat but the keeper tossed the mixture into various locations in the enclosure making sure they had to work for it.
The bat food was initially left on the floor and the hungry foxes started to climb down to it, but before they could reach it, the keeper finished feeding the devils and hung the buckets from the roof. Climbing back up the cage wall, one bat promptly "walked" upside-down across the top of the cage toward the fruit salad, stopping first to check out the keepers hair. Then he (?) went to the bucket and dug out a piece of banana. He rolled it around in his mouth like he was checking the texture. I now have an idea of the size of a bats' mouth. :) While flying foxes make a shrill, chalk board grating type of noise, it is really uncomfortable listening to it when you are only 10 feet away from the argument.
Another wonderful day at Lone Pine. You should visit!
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
To Moore...
The loss and devastation breaks my heart.
For those that lost loved ones, although I wish it did, nothing I can write will help ease your time.
For those that lost homes, schools, faith...I can only hope you find some of your treasured pictures, heirlooms, that which is most important to you.
Our thoughts and prayers are with you.
For those that lost loved ones, although I wish it did, nothing I can write will help ease your time.
For those that lost homes, schools, faith...I can only hope you find some of your treasured pictures, heirlooms, that which is most important to you.
Our thoughts and prayers are with you.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
AH...the beautiful birds!
Monday at Lone Pine, I was assigned to work with the birds. I had the opportunity to get in several different aviaries with:
Princess parrots
Lorikeets
Rose crowned fruit doves
Electus Parrot
Pheasant Coucal
Tawny Frogmouth
and the Major Mitchell Cockatoos.
There is nothing like going in and out of an aviary hoping the birds don't choose that moment to make a break for it. And as an FYI, apparently aviary doors are shorter than a standard door. This may not mean much, but for someone who had NEVER had to duck for an opening, I banged my head more times than I care to count. And I successfully banged it HARD.
In some of the enclosures we switched out the mulch and some just scruffed the mulch up a bit. One cheeky cockatoo talks non-stop when you are working near him. Of course, I chattered right back at him. The electus parrot was excruciatingly loud when he was displeased with the work.
I also changed their seed boxes at which they came flying down to the fresh seeds. BTW - sunflower seeds are very popular and sulphur crested cockatoos can be coaxed into a small holding pen with them. :) At one point, the Pheasant appeared to be nesting in his seed box. Or at least hiding in it...protecting the seeds from anyone else! Most of the birds get a mix of parrot feed, finch feed and parrot training mix plus their fresh fruits and veggies.
Which brings us to the feed shed.
One building is dedicated to prepping daily meals for the animals (except the koalas who get branches). I had the pleasure of mixing up emu food. They like corn, peas, pears, carrots, sweet potato, apples, beetroot leaves (no stems) and lettuce along with some kangaroo feed pellets. At first I cut the potato too small...then too large. Picky birds.
Then I got to feed the emus. Nothing like standing at the feed box dumping in their food when they come charging over. (Emus are big.)
Of course, the Sanctuary goes through a lot of bowls in a day and the dirty ones have to be washed. I was waiting for the next assignment and decided to go see if the stack of dirty dishes had started up again. Then I found all of the mice that had been prepped for dinner. I opted to go back outside and just watch the koala joey who was starting to explore on his own. Yes - a perfect day for joey pictures and I didn't have my camera.
On the second food run, we took fresh veggies AND some mouse parts. I had some pine branches of some type for bird treats and a co-volunteer was carrying the box of bowls and the keeper said to be on the lookout for the kookaburra. There is one who has no qualms about swooping down out of the sky and taking a mouse part. No incidents this time.
The pheasant was at the door waiting on his mouse chunks....so excited...pacing. Just like a little kid with ice cream. The tawny frogmouth took his third of a mouse and proceeded to smack it around as if to kill it. Fascinating and yet disgusting to watch.
As I was sitting on the couch Monday evening, reviewing the day, a question came to mind: How many snakes live in the mulch pile I was digging around in? Luckily, that didn't come to mind until I was well into my glass of wine.
Once again, a wonderful day at the Sanctuary. Who wouldn't love working there???
Princess parrots
Lorikeets
Rose crowned fruit doves
Electus Parrot
Pheasant Coucal
Tawny Frogmouth
and the Major Mitchell Cockatoos.
There is nothing like going in and out of an aviary hoping the birds don't choose that moment to make a break for it. And as an FYI, apparently aviary doors are shorter than a standard door. This may not mean much, but for someone who had NEVER had to duck for an opening, I banged my head more times than I care to count. And I successfully banged it HARD.
In some of the enclosures we switched out the mulch and some just scruffed the mulch up a bit. One cheeky cockatoo talks non-stop when you are working near him. Of course, I chattered right back at him. The electus parrot was excruciatingly loud when he was displeased with the work.
I also changed their seed boxes at which they came flying down to the fresh seeds. BTW - sunflower seeds are very popular and sulphur crested cockatoos can be coaxed into a small holding pen with them. :) At one point, the Pheasant appeared to be nesting in his seed box. Or at least hiding in it...protecting the seeds from anyone else! Most of the birds get a mix of parrot feed, finch feed and parrot training mix plus their fresh fruits and veggies.
Which brings us to the feed shed.
One building is dedicated to prepping daily meals for the animals (except the koalas who get branches). I had the pleasure of mixing up emu food. They like corn, peas, pears, carrots, sweet potato, apples, beetroot leaves (no stems) and lettuce along with some kangaroo feed pellets. At first I cut the potato too small...then too large. Picky birds.
Then I got to feed the emus. Nothing like standing at the feed box dumping in their food when they come charging over. (Emus are big.)
Of course, the Sanctuary goes through a lot of bowls in a day and the dirty ones have to be washed. I was waiting for the next assignment and decided to go see if the stack of dirty dishes had started up again. Then I found all of the mice that had been prepped for dinner. I opted to go back outside and just watch the koala joey who was starting to explore on his own. Yes - a perfect day for joey pictures and I didn't have my camera.
On the second food run, we took fresh veggies AND some mouse parts. I had some pine branches of some type for bird treats and a co-volunteer was carrying the box of bowls and the keeper said to be on the lookout for the kookaburra. There is one who has no qualms about swooping down out of the sky and taking a mouse part. No incidents this time.
The pheasant was at the door waiting on his mouse chunks....so excited...pacing. Just like a little kid with ice cream. The tawny frogmouth took his third of a mouse and proceeded to smack it around as if to kill it. Fascinating and yet disgusting to watch.
As I was sitting on the couch Monday evening, reviewing the day, a question came to mind: How many snakes live in the mulch pile I was digging around in? Luckily, that didn't come to mind until I was well into my glass of wine.
Once again, a wonderful day at the Sanctuary. Who wouldn't love working there???
Wednesday, May 08, 2013
First day with the Koalas!
Monday I started my Australia career...
I volunteered at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and had a GREAT time. I washed LOTS of koala perches, changed out their eucalyptus and watched the little guys and girls run around. I can tell you they move pretty fast and, as with all animals, they each have their own personality.
Hugo did laps around his pen and stood at our feet while we cleaned. It was almost like he wanted to be picked up and held. I met another young lady that has a joey in her pouch getting ready to emerge any day now. One enclosure came with the warning, they get a little touchy, don't be surprised if they take a swipe at you.
In another enclosure, when filling the water containers, it was feeding time. They love fresh eucalyptus and understand when it is coming. Two of them came running to the door and were waiting...severely disappointed when all I had was water.
I hope to one day graduate to working with the koalas in the picture area. While that does come with working directly with the public, I could hold them during the day. I did get a chance to hold one Monday that was throwing a tantrum and didn't want to be held by anyone. It didn't work out and he he had to go back to his tree.
The only down side to this adventure so far has been the physical labor - 26 years at a desk job has taken it's toll. I am just getting over being sore. :P
I was right next to so many precious animals Monday it was amazing. Can't wait until next week!
I volunteered at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and had a GREAT time. I washed LOTS of koala perches, changed out their eucalyptus and watched the little guys and girls run around. I can tell you they move pretty fast and, as with all animals, they each have their own personality.
Hugo did laps around his pen and stood at our feet while we cleaned. It was almost like he wanted to be picked up and held. I met another young lady that has a joey in her pouch getting ready to emerge any day now. One enclosure came with the warning, they get a little touchy, don't be surprised if they take a swipe at you.
In another enclosure, when filling the water containers, it was feeding time. They love fresh eucalyptus and understand when it is coming. Two of them came running to the door and were waiting...severely disappointed when all I had was water.
I hope to one day graduate to working with the koalas in the picture area. While that does come with working directly with the public, I could hold them during the day. I did get a chance to hold one Monday that was throwing a tantrum and didn't want to be held by anyone. It didn't work out and he he had to go back to his tree.
The only down side to this adventure so far has been the physical labor - 26 years at a desk job has taken it's toll. I am just getting over being sore. :P
I was right next to so many precious animals Monday it was amazing. Can't wait until next week!
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