Paige Pimental

Audubon Zoo Hospital Internship

Week 5 7/13- 7/18
I didnt think it could get any hotter down here, but I was wrong. The
heat index the past few days has been 102-104 degrees before lunch time so
weve been taking it easy with outside projects and doing as much as we can
in the early morning. One of our newest animals into quarantine; two water
dragons needed blood samples taken on Monday. I was thrilled to hold the
little dragons for this and amazed that the tech could get enough blood from
these 50gram reptiles. To make the blood draw even more difficult, there was
some hushhush yet frantic calls going over the radio for the vet to head
immediately over to the orangutan building. The tech doing the draw was the
lead tech of the day so she was a little hesitant to keep going on the draw
until she knew what was up, but just as we finished my supervisor rushed in
announcing that we needed to get to the Siaming exhibit immediately. The
other intern and I had to secure the water dragons before heading over and
arrived to find out that the female siaming had fainted on exhibit but was
already back inside holding and stable. Im not sure if they figured out what
exactly was the cause since the next two days were my days off, but I would
have loved to be present for an examination on such a cool animal. Across
the boardwalk from them are the colobus monkeys so we took the time to
see if they would bring out the new baby, and they did! It looked like a little
alien with huge dark eyes on an all white fuzzy body. Pictures just dont do
justice for their hair, I never knew how bushy their tails really were or how
long their side hairs are when they swing and jump.
Another hot day meant we got to go on a little fieldtrip after lunch; to
the elephant barn. Which is a literal stones throw from the hospital but since
the part time hospital keeper still hadnt really seen them in all her months
there, we got a little tour. Since only two of the three handlers were back
from lunch we werent allowed past the yellow line to feed or touch them,
but I was awe struck enough just being that close. We got to talk to the
keeper for a while about what each elephant likes best for enrichment; one
likes to stomp on watermelons while the picks it up whole. They eat 150lbs.
of hay a day, and I thought feeding my rabbit was expensive! One of them
had a fire hose spraying throw her part of the barn and the keeper says she
likes to wash her hay off first, and sure enough she was holding a chunk of
hay of rinsing it through the jet of water before eating it: coolest thing I had
seen in a while, I could have watched all day like it was a movie. For inside
projects we often look up enrichment ideas, diseases that quarantine animals
are checked for, new animals the zoo is getting, but with it being so hot the
other intern and I were looking up the signs of heat stress in our quarantine
animals and some of our collection animals. Contractors had been in and out
of the office all day running fiberoptic wires through the ceiling and more so
distracting us by trying to talk about movies and current events. They were
in the last room to do when we heard a crash and a yell for help; we run to

the room to find the man hanging from the pipes in the ceiling because his
ladder fell. We quickly propped it back open and he was alright besides a
spasm in his back he said, but we find it kind of ironic to have saved a
human in an animal hospital
The last part of the days is night time enrichment for the Wolf Guenons,
which I love making. We get tons of boxes through the pharmacy and there
were some odd shaped ones so I brought those along. I usually just make it
up on the fly since we dont have the most time; I was wrapping peanuts in
kind of heavy packing paper and twisting them through a triangular-ish
shaped box, shredding newspaper to stick inside the toilet paper rolls which I
also twist in paper (the guenons LOVE ripping paper). The part time keeper
Kaitie saw all my creations and called me the Enrichment Queen! My favorite
part is watching them rip it open like a kid on Christmas, Pierre always looks
so disappointed when its a sensory box inside of filled with food.
The highlight of my week had to be getting to watch a blue iguana
surgery to remove her stuck eggs. I hadnt seen the iguana before she was
prepped; I came in right before the doctor was about the open her, and so I
wasnt sure how big she was. I was told there were five eggs inside from
what they saw on the x-ray and she was supposed to lay these eggs two
weeks ago. The head reptile keeper was there and quite a funny guy; he
made sure the vet knew not to spay her, shes apparently a valuable animal
to the species. It took a lot to get through her tough skin but once inside the
doctor pulled out the first egg which had to be as big as a goose egg! I was
amazed. It was definitely a bad egg, you could smell it. After just one egg out
she could already breathe better, after the three on the right side were out
she looked deflated. The left side had the other two and apparently one
looked like it was in good enough shape to be dissected. The five eggs in
total weighed 317 grams; Im not sure how much she weighed but she
looked very deflated in recovery. I had never watched anything more than
cat or dog surgery and even though it kind of all looks similar on the inside I
cant wait to work with exotics; theres so much more to learn about their
functions, health issues, recovery processes, I could go on and on!