Today Patrick, one of our volunteers, and I went into Baloo and Raji’s enclosure to hand feed them their PM diet. They loooove the fruit so they eat that up right away. Then when the fruit’s all gone they’ll go for the monkey chow. They save the veggies like string beans and broccoli for last like some picky eaters I know!
Check out the video!
After the holidays, the animals appear to have as much energy left as us humans. I went to visit some of them and they had the right idea of how to spend the day.
Baloo
Flick
Arlo
Today, I went to give the animals a few extra treats after we finished feeding everyone. I figured I would just give one or two treats and then leave it at that. I didn’t realize however that treats could also be considered behavioral enrichment in more ways than one.
I gave out fig newtons to the Kinkajous and they had no problem munching them down. I decided to give the Coatis and Binturongs some graham crackers and that’s where the problem began. I have given them graham crackers on multiple occasions but maybe it had been a while because it looked like they forgot how to eat them. I realize graham crackers are one of the longer crackers but it was quite a sight to see.
Chloe, took the longest to try and maneuver the treat into a position that worked for her and Baloo had to try quite a few different head positions himself to get the cracker down. Luckily, I got a little on video so we can all laugh at them. Even though they look kind of ridiculous, they are still adorable as ever.
Check out the videos!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJyomNE1EV0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_911QnkuA64
Happy Halloween!
Our animals had a great month! To celebrate one of our favorite holidays; the animals dug into jack-o-lanterns, we made some special appearances at parties all around the San Diego, all this in addition to popping up on a halloween themed episode of Bonnie Hunt. Our very own Raji the Binturong dazzled not only her presenter, Nick Baker of Nick Baker’s Weird Creatures, but Bonnie, the kids and all of the viewers. She graciously shared the stage with some of our other animal friends to make this spooky holiday simply go wild!
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Well, Maybe it’s the Binturong, Woodchuck, & Siberian Lynx Days of Summer… All of the animals are spending their remaining warm days relaxing like our Binturong Baloo, running & playing in the exercise yard like Tiani our Lynx, or just packing on the pounds for winter like Roland our Woodchuck. Nights are getting cooler, so many of the animals are getting out in the warm sun early & enjoying their new grasses, like our alligator Cajun.
Get up early & catch San Diego Living (channel 6) at 9am, Big Tommy, our giant African Tortoise, Maizy our Albino Boa, & our fluffy chinchilla Spice will be headlining! We will be promoting our Golf Fundraiser, Safari Scramble on Oct. 24th.
As summer continues on the animals are restless and in search of shade. While I walked around today I noticed just how restless the animals were and snapped some cute pictures in the meantime.
Baloo, a Binturong, laying in his hammock.
Murphy and Roland our two Groundhogs trying to stay cool on the ground.
Tator Tot, a Porcupine, cuddling up to an ice bottle.
Here’s a short random video of Sitka being silly. He’s trying to find all of the left over crumbs from his treats.
The hot days continue as summer draws on causing the animals to take a carefree attitude. As I walk around the facility I see animal after animal sprawled out trying the bare the heat. Most tend to take the sleeping route and in the process give us a great opportunity to catch them at their cutest.
Baloo one of our Binturongs
Addy and Bindy are Wallabies relaxing in the shade
Chloe hanging out in her hammock
On days like today we try and keep them cooled down by offering them exciting treats such as Popsicles. Here’s two of our Kinkajous Maya and Kiki enjoying their Popsicles.
Here’s a cute video to check out too.
Today I went with Wendy, a ZooKeeper at WW, to a couple shows in Costa Mesa. Interns and Volunteers are often brought along to events to help with heavy lifting and animal holding. For this event we brought Siri (serval), Sleepy (opossum), Puff (bearded dragon), Baba (ball python), Soy (hedgehog), cockroaches, and Flick (Fennec Fox). Siri hasn’t been to a show in a while and we certainly don’t want this superstar to get rusty. The best part of this event for me was being able to handle and 
show all of the animals, except Siri!
I held Flick for the first time. He is so adorable, and has such soft fur. When he is in his crate, and you open it, he lays on his back and whimpers, giving you his submissive greeting. He needs to be held securely under his chest and bottom. Sometimes when he felt a little scared he snuggled in my neck! Soooo cute!
The second show was with a small group of 5 year olds. This was a great situation to show Siri. We took her out before the show to get her used to the room. She loved the woven mats that the kids were going to sit on! She was sliding across them and playing with them. It was so funny. We’ll have to get her some of those mats to play with.
Before the show she jumped up on the table on command, and was behaving very well. During the show she didn’t jump on the table, but she did let Wendy pick her up. She ate her meat on the table and played with a toy. She is definitely still bringing her A game.
-Casai
We did it, Hooray.
All our animals that made the trip to LA yesterday will be on the Bonnie Hunt show today. It airs at 2pm in San Diego on NBC. If you want to watch the episode but are not sure when or where check out bonniehunt.com.
Forrest, the Kinkajou; Tinkerbell, the opossum, and Raji, the binturong, are all scheduled to make an appearance, along with a baby Zebra and bear cub. Oh so cute.
Last time Bonnie Hunt had animals on her show a baby squirrel got lost in her shirt. I wonder what they will get up to this time.
Brandon McMillan, the host of “Night” on Animal planet, will be the lovely animal expert and keep your eyes peeled for some of our Zookeepers, when they make their quick appearances during the exchanges.
Private Tour for Staff and Volunteers
This Sunday the Gang hosted a Fantastic Holiday Party as a thank you for all the staff, volunteers, and their families. The food was fabulous and the day turned out to be beautiful, even though it was fore-casted to rain.
After filling our bellies with food, Kim and Jackie gave all of us a great up close and personal tour. Each animal has their own story and to hear it from the people who know them best, is always so exciting.
Above is a picture of the group as they are mesmerized by Raji the Binturong. She loves her grapes but on that particular day she seemed to forget that she is a tree dweller and for some reason wasn’t willing to climb the branch for some treats. Sometimes they have their days and there is nothing you can do about it. That is the joy of working with animals.
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