After a few more weeks of zoo-ing, I seem to find myself within the Zookeeper circle of trust. This means that I am finally being trained up to complete one of the rounds by myself, so would no longer need to be supervised 100% of the time!
So obviously I am not being trained to go in with the tigers by myself… I am doing the birds! The majority of this round is fairly easy going, involving chopping up fruit for the pheasants, feeding peanuts to the parrots, picking up owl pellets and scrubbing the duck pond. The only tricky bit is being able to pluck up the courage to go in with Hector the grumpy Bengal Eagle Owl alone, when he is hissing and lunging at you. That takes courage (and a bucket as a shield) that I am still very much working on! The only other thing that really concerns me is what if I miss someone? No water for that owl that day. I guess the answer to that concern is to not forget anyone. Problem solved.
The other new piece of news that I would like to share with you all is that it’s that time of year when there are baby animals EVERYWHERE. We have another litter of meerkats (that female is a baby machine), wallaby joeys, dove chicks and there are eggs everywhere I look. Last week I went into the staff room and there was a little pen with two pheasant chicks and 2 ducklings that were just so gorgeous. Which makes what happened next quite unfortunate… The ducklings and chicks were put into a pen in the pony field overnight and when they came back the next day, neither of the chicks had heads. It’s like something from a horror movie. No-one really knows what happened! Then, the next day, one of the ducklings got taken by a magpie. Which means that now, we don’t let Pip, the last duckling, out of our sight! One of my jobs this week was to take him down to the field and keep an eye on him for an hour. I can definitely think of worse jobs than playing with a duckling in the sunshine.
I’ve also discovered that Tapir absolutely love having their bellies rubbed. If you rub them hard enough and in the right places, they will roll over onto their backs with their legs in the air, just like a dog. It kind of makes you forget that they are technically classed in the dangerous animal category and have the same classification as a tiger. I took the opportunity this week of taking some rather glorious animal selfies.
Animal Selfies with Pip the duckling and Shana the Tapir
Animal of the week – the Bengal Eagle Owl (Bubo bengalensis)
The Bengal Eagle Owl (also known as the Indian Eagle Owl) is a large species of horned owl, that is light beige in colour with brown marks over the feathers. It also has a white patch on the upper chest and a tuft on the head. They are mainly found on the Indian sub-continent and up to the Himalayas.
They are usually found in pairs (which is true at Dartmoor zoo!) and inhabit areas of hilly and rocky scrub and light forests. They mainly feed on rodents, but will also consume small birds towards winter. They are mostly nocturnal and will usually hunt from a perch, but will also often make low foraging flights. When they catch their prey, they will tend to tear it up into smaller pieces rather than swallow it whole.
The breeding season takes place from February to April, and they will have a nest of a shallow scrape on the floor, usually on a cliff, rock ledge or river bank. The female will lay 2-4 small, white eggs and will incubate them for roughly a month before they hatch.
Hector the grumpy Eagle Owl
Zookeeper Tash 