Week 12

I discovered that both Ariane and Alex were not coming in - I think they both have exams - so this left just me, as Amy has now moved to Wednesday.  I spent the day helping Kate, so it was back to the newly done "small mammals" house, to help out there. I was to give them all clean water, make the substrate (bedding/flooring) look nice, and clean the inside and outside glass of the tanks on display.  The behind-the-scenes rodents have now all moved across from the schoolroom to the small mammals, and this is much better than the temporary place they had before. The smaller mice had new homes. After I had realised I had a leaky bucket of water, and taken it back, I soon replenished the water and moved on to the animals on  display.

It proved much harder than I thought to clean the glass inside the tanks- each has a hatch that you can open at the back, but it was not easy to reach across with the squeegee to the front - sometimes bits of twig got in the way, and other times I was worried about letting the rodent jump out and escape. There is the added fun of the public watching you, and most times I felt I had made the glass worse than before I started.

The funniest thing was when I got to the tenrecs- the madagascan hedgehogs. There are several of them, and I  was confident they were not going to escape, as they were sitting quietly, so I opened the hatch, reached across, and cleaned the glass easily. I withdrew my hand, and began to close the hatch door. Only when it started to swing shut, I realised with horror, that it had a small shelf on the inside, and on that shelf there was a tenrec! I had swung it out over the floor, cleaned the glass and swung it back in before realising! The poor thing. This really gave me a funny turn, and I had to be really careful with the rest of them. Even lovely Pippa, the ground squirrel, looked keen to escape, so I had to give her glass a miss.

On the outside, it was much easier to clean, and I could see where I needed to go back and clean the inside...I saw the Gambian pouched rat - we are not allowed to open this rat's hatch, as it is half blind and might bite. It was quite big, and looked like it could barely see.

At lunchtime, I had a look at the coatis - they really are fast becoming a favourite of mine. They are so appealing and were quite active, so I watched them running around and up and down the trees.

In the afternoon, I was cleaning the glass in the invertebrate house. I have not been in here as a volunteer, and I was a bit freaked out by the size of the salmon pink tarantula.(Apparently, she can be a bit grumpy!) I told myself not to be daft, as it was behind glass, and was not going to "get me!" so I cleaned the glass (there are also cockroaches, a smaller tarantula, giant snails, and more!) I had to clean it very gently so as not to disturb the creatures, or dislodge the tank.

I also had to do the squirrel enclosure, where luckily half of it is sheltered, as it absolutely bucketed down!

The new tortoises and lemurs have not arrived yet.

Week 11

Week 11 was baking hot and Colin had the good sense to say we could wrap the top of our overalls round our waist; I spent the entire day cleaning out stables and enclosures.
First of all, Toby and I cleared out the pygmy goats' bedding - they are quite calm and let you get on with it, while they go and eat grass. I found that their straw had loads of bits in it, and the whole thing made me sneeze for ages. After we'd finished, we found Neil, to ask for a new task, and I mentioned that I thought I had a straw allergy. Not ideal when you're volunteering there, but perhaps there is a face mask for next time.
After our break, I was expecting Toby to come back and join me in the sheep paddock - the usual thing of clearing up the poop with a couple of short handled shovels. Not a bad job, but it gets so hot in the sun that I was tempted to join the sheep in the shady corner. Toby never appeared, and I learned later that he only does 2 hours in the morning - surely it is hardly worth coming  in for, but that is not to say that he doesn't work hard when he is there.
A baby blue tit had fallen out of its nest or tree, and was on the ground by the sheep pen. A visitor asked me about what to do with it, and I realised that as a worker, the public expects you to know what to do with all animals. I thought that you are supposed to leave baby birds  alone, so that their parent can come back to them. When humans touch them, I believe it can put them off. Anyway, I later saw a man lift it up and throw it back into the tree, which seemed to work, so what do I know.
More stables followed, with Ariane and I cleaning out the mouflon hut - luckily the ram is next door, and we got to see the 2 lambs, who are growing fast and a gorgeous caramel colour.
Later that day, we went to investigate what Alex was doing with Colin and the others. They were preparing a small hut near the ibis, for the promised new arrivals of giant tortoises and mouse lemurs. Apparently the latter are nocturnal, so it is debatable how much of them the public will see...