Week 2 - do you work here?

I was lucky that my second Sunday was another dry and sunny day. This week I found the same nicely-fitting overalls as last week, but was a bit perturbed to find someone else's (clean) tissues in the pocket, and some of those plastic gloves that make your hands sweat.

Mucking out

The day started by sharing mucking out duties with young volunteers Alex and Jake. Both are in college and have been volunteering a few months, so they were dab hands at mucking out. First we got spades and black bags and headed for the wallabies. There are 4 wallabies, one has a baby; they seemed quite docile and unperturbed by our presence. I was quite struck by how pleasant their hut was: a concrete floor, wooden sides, lots of straw, food and a salt lick. Mucking out involves moving all the used bedding and droppings into the centre of the hut floor, and then spading it into black bags. I soon realised that it wasn't as easy as it looked, but luckily, Jake and Alex were experts. They got lots of straw on their spades, and into the bag. When I tried it, I found it hard work to even get the spade in the heap of straw, and then I found that all the straw fell off my spade, so I ended up with a tiny girly amount of straw to put in the bag. At that rate, it would have taken a long time to clear the hut, so I am glad Jake and Alex were more efficient. We took turns in holding the bag and using the spades. I suppose I must give myself time to learn new skills!  Once all the bedding has been bagged up, we have to fetch new straw from a hut, and spread it out across the floor. That was quite fun, making the wallabies' new bed, but I sneezed a lot when bits of straw filled the air... Alex fetched a trolley and the lads took the black bags back to the skip. 

More muck

Our next task was to muck out the sitatunga; their hut was quite smelly. I was trying to joke and chat to the lads, but I think they're a bit shy, or prefer to concentrate on the job in hand... Everyone is nice enough but I suppose teenage lads aren't known as the chattiest of people.

Boisterous ram

After a break, we were asked to muck out the mouflon sheep. I saw one of the rangers raising his eyebrows, and I'd already heard rumours about this sheep... Sure enough, as soon as we started on the hut, the ram took an unwelcome interest in our activity. The exact opposite of the sitatunga, instead of running away in fright, the ram ran towards us. Luckily Jake and I were in the hut, shovelling straw, but Alex got charged by the ram a couple of times - he fended him off, but I think the ram must have knocked him. The ram started tearing the black bags with his hooves. But he was mostly interested in eating the fresh hay and straw that was waiting to go in the hut. Realising we had to look after our own safety as well as complete the job, we decided to inform Neil, the ranger on reception, who had no problems about coming back with us and watching the ram until we had finished. He knows the ram can be quite boisterous, and said that one of the ewes is pregnant. Neil said we'd done a good job and held the ram back by the horns until we'd all got outside the gate. It is nice to receive praise from the staff; it's very encouraging.

Raking

We waited a bit before our next activity, as the rangers were in a meeting. The other volunteers seemed happy to sit about after our lunch hour as well, but - call me keen - I was eager to get on with another job. I thought,  I can sit around any day of the week. I'm there to learn and do things. From this week the Nature Centre opens every day; so the manager, Les, wanted the place looking tidy. I quite enjoyed raking the leaves up (even though there are leaves everywhere once you start looking!) as it is really satisfying to see a visible difference when you have completed a task. I am enjoying that part of it already. I don't really get the same kind of satisfaction at work in the week.

Moonlighting

Whilst I was queuing for chips in the café, I bumped into one of the students I work with. She did a double take once she saw I was wearing overalls, and said "Do you work here!?" Another woman asked me this as well, so that she could report something:

"There's a meerkat in with the lemurs!" 

I did my best to be professional; I went over to check and sure enough, there was a meerkat in with the lemurs. I said I'd report it immediately and so I went to reception, knocked on the staff door, and popped my head round. The manager thought I was very polite. They knew about the meerkat already so he told me to go back and tell the woman that they would come and sort it out. I'm glad he told me that, as I perhaps would not have thought to return to her to update her on the situation. She was still there; a crowd had gathered (it was a very busy day), and she was glad to be updated.
Someone else asked me if there was any food available - I started directing him confidently to the café, but it turned out he meant food to feed the animals. That isn't something which is available there.

Iguana watch

After a little more leaf-raking, Adam came along and said he needed "two people to dig a hole" and "one person to iguana watch."  I thought the two lads might be better at digging the hole, and he could see I fancied iguana watch, so I followed him with anticipation to find out just what this entailed... Adam brought out "Trigger", a rhinocerous iguana, from behind the scenes (not on display to the public). He was a fine looking iguana, with a body a foot long, and a tail of equal length. Trigger was placed on a strip of grass about 2 foot wide which runs in front of the ocelot enclosure. In front of this are metal railings, so you cannot get up close to the enclosure. Trigger was being given some fresh air and sunlight on this patch of grass, and Adam needed me to watch him to make sure he did not go under the railings and escape. I was excited at having this responsibility, and glad to be trusted with it on just my second day. 

Adam went off to help the manager; I was left with Trigger. Pretty soon a crowd of people had gathered at the railings and were asking all about him, intrigued and excited to see the iguana out and about. The kids thought it was a dinosaur or a crocodile, but lots of them knew that he is a big lizard. I enjoyed talking to the public, telling them that it was a rhinocerous iguana, and that he was 10 years old. Carefully repeating what Adam had said about how his previous owner had brought him here, I pointed out how some of the skin on his back had got burnt by the UV lamps, but Adam had treated it with cream and it got better. They asked about what iguanas eat; luckily I was able to hazard my best guess, later confirmed by Adam, that it is mostly vegetation and small insects. Sometimes small mice.  Iguanas can live to 30-40 years - 10 more than I imagined. There is some information on iguanas here.

I was with the iguana for about 30 mins and there was lots of interest from people in that time. One of them thought that Trigger wasn't real because he was as still as a statue at one point! He was enjoying eating the daisies. He kept moving along the grass, and although he was ambling, I think he could go faster if he wanted to... He did get close to the railings a couple of times, and so, as shown, I had to lift him gently and turn him in another direction, by putting my hands under his body. His tummy was soft and lovely; he was quite a solid creature; I enjoyed lifting him. I'm not sure he enjoyed it, as his back legs scrabbled each time and his toes scratched my arm. He has a very long back toe on both back feet.

Adam popped back and asked me to guide the iguana back near the door as he'd come and put it back shortly. I somehow managed to coax Trigger back towards the end of the grass. Whilst I was waiting, a woman was telling me in a heated manner about a man who'd had an argument with her, but I had to focus on the iguana and so I directed her to reception. 

Adam returned to collect Trigger. He was appreciative and he kindly answered all my questions on Trigger, who was put back into his heated house.

I really enjoyed iguana-watching and the next day all I could think about was the iguana; he made a real impact on me, watching him close-to and actually being privileged enough to touch him. It feels nice that although the bulk of any job with animals will be mucking out, I am already being given the chance to see different animals and to be trusted with their care.