My Zoo Experience
During my blog experience, I was able to interview a zoologist named Robin English from Seneca Park Zoo with my fellow bloggers Morgan and Keyli. Some of the things I found out were very interesting.
These are the questions that we asked, Dr. Robin English and her fascinating asnwers:
Q: “What do you do as a zoo keeper?”
A: “I take care of the animals. I clean, I feed, I provide enrichment for them. I make sure they are taken care of the best that we can do. My role as a zoo keeper now is not quite as extensive as if you would to go out and talk to a zoo keeper. Being in the animal hospital a lot of what I see animal wise are things that come and go. We get quarantine animals in here, we do get some sick animals, we get some animals that just need a place to go.”
Cool fact: Zoologists get to work with every animal in the zoo, but zoo keepers work only with one specific animal.
Informational fact: You can do vet school online!
Fun fact: Under a waterfall in Syracuse, there is a small snail that you can’t find anywhere else!
Q: “What was it like working with the new lion cubs?”
A: “It was wonderful! It was a wonderful experience. It was great that it was a successful experience. A lot of times things like that can go the opposite direction……..” “For our part in it, it was not like taking a kitten home and playing with it. We were very hands off. They were bottle- fed for a short period of time. Once we were done with that, they kind of played with each other and did their own thing. We didn’t really interact with them. The reason for that is that we don’t want them to think they are humans; we want them to think they are lions.”
Cool fact: Sometimes the mama animal doesn’t accept their cubs.
Q: “Have you ever gotten bitten?”
A: “oh yeah. I’ve been bitten by birds nothing major….. Mostly birds. I did get bit by a meerkat once. We don’t really get too close for that. One of the lion cubs did bite me, and that wasn’t fun. But mostly just birds.”
Cool fact: The new lion cubs at Seneca Park Zoo are named Savannah and Tibariahs.
Cool fact: Every animal knows the barrier between humans and them. So if you cross their barrier you can never know what will happen.
I think that being a zooilogist is the best science there is. It’s just like being a doctor except your working on wild animals. I learned a ton of new things that I never knew before. This experience made me want to be a zoologist even more. I hope one day I’ll be able to work in the animal hospital just like Dr. Robin!
Posted: Thursday, August 22nd, 2013 @ 4:54 pm
Categories: Asking Questions and Defining Problems, Being Scientific, Cross Cutting Concepts, Disciplinary Core Ideas, Life Sciences, Stability and Change Patterns, Systems and Systems Models.
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