We met with Craig, a Elephant Keeper, at Elephant Island. We waited about 5 minutes as they prepared to released the elephants for the day. At night we bring the elephants into their night house, just like we also do with the giraffes, lions, and rhino. Then every morning as the guest enter the park we released them for the day. It is neat to watch them being released because they all seem to hurry out to find all sorts of treats waiting for them, mainly fresh fruits, veggies and hay (their main diet). Craig told us a little bit about the elephants and then answered our questions. One interesting fact is elephants loose their teeth just like us. But unlike us, after they loose their final set of teeth, they wont be able to eat anymore (which leads to starvation). I guess there is no one making elephant dentures out there! Craig brough with him a real elephant tusk, which is where Ivory is from. Most of us had never touched real ivory, as it is illegal to possess.


We all headed out to the the Flamingo area to do some flamingo gazing. While we were there, Heather, a bird keeper, met with us to tell us all about them. At Lion Country we have two types of flaminogs-- the Caribbean and the Chilian (which is a lighter color). Their diet consists of these fishy pellets which provides all the nutrients they need, including the stuff that makes their feathers bright pink. We learned that they have never been hunted for their feathers becasue after they have been plucked they start to loose their bright pink color.


Our day started off bright and early at the Commissary, where we put together the day food for the tortoises and the Brazilian tapirs. It was a sort of relay race, as we split into two teams and were assigned which items to put in. Later in the day we went to the Tortoise Talk, where Aaron, an education assistant, told us all about the Aldabra Tortoise. And then we got to see Redman eat the food we prepared for him. He didnt seem to like the potatoes, but loved everything else!


Animal Theatre day is always a lot of fun! Our days starts off with chores, as all keepers must do. We split up into boys and girls. They girls help clean out Cici's, the sulphur crested cockatoo, cage and then cleaned out Clymber's, a prehensile tailed skink, day and night cage and gave him his food. The boy were busy too. They cleaned out Casper's, the umbrella crested cockatoo, cage and gave her food for the day. Then they helped Aaron with some of his other duties. We all met up about an hour later to reherse for the 1pm animal theatre show. It was really crowded and the audience loved seeing us help. We all got to say a few things about the animals and then Kathy, an education assistant, elaborated on the animals. We were fortunate enough to work with a Blue Front Amazon Parrot and a Chinchilla.


On Africa Day, we got to take the van out on the preserve to check out all the animals from Africa. Some of the kids were amazed at all the animals who call Africa home. Some of our favorites were the elephant, wildbeast (or gnu), eland, ostrich, and waterbuck. I answered all the questions they had about the habitats in Africa and also tons of questions regarding the various animals. We got two big treats during our drive. First one happened early on in our trip, when one of the ostriches decided to come over and start pecking at our windows. You'd think they would learn by now that they aren't getting any food. And the second treat was seeing all the babies. There are tons of wildbest and waterbuck babies...and one special baby rhino!