Category — General Zoo

If you want to get a good look at the wallaby babies, head to the nursery first thing in the morning. Traffic in the Children’s Zoo is usually pretty light during the 9am – 10am hour, so you’re likely to get an unobstructed view of Don and Tom through the nursery window. You’ll probably also see a person in the exhibit holding, feeding, petting or playing with the boys. When I’m that person, I hear so many visitors say “I want her job!”

The time that the volunteers, staff and keepers spend in the nursery with Don and Tom is indeed enviable, fun, energizing, rewarding and important! In the video below, Thane Maynard explains why it takes a village to raise these Zoo wallabies!

Cat Canyon construction is coming along nicely. I got the chance to check out the site yesterday afternoon. It helps to be able to visualize where we will be able to place our interpretive elements, e.g. signs, interactives. We wrapped up the design and layout of the signage this week and will be sending that out to production very soon. Now the interpretive team will move on to tweaking some of the interactives planned for the tiger exhibit and planning out the audio elements. I also need to put together an interpretive guide for our staff and volunteers, which provides background information they need to be able to talk to visitors about the cats and the exhibit. Our Education Department is putting together the curriculum for programs and classes, including summer camp, that will incorporate the new exhibit, too. It’s all coming together and we’re getting very excited to be able to showcase tigers and snow leopards again by the end of June!

When I arrived in the nursery this morning to “walla-babysit,” Don & Tom were having a snack (carrots, apples, kale.)  I put on a smock and sat down on the floor to wait patiently for them to finish and notice the inviting pouch on my lap!  It took about two minutes for them to hop over to me.  Tom jumped into the pouch head first and rolled out of it and down my legs.  He must have enjoyed that, because he did it a few more times before he got settled.  Don, just like last week, wanted to snuggle and give me kisses.  If I stopped petting him, he would nudge my hand with his nose until I gave him more attention.

Don (left) & Tom (right)

Don & Tom are 8-month-old, male wallabies.  They have the same father but different mothers, so they are half brothers.  If you look closely, you can see that Tom’s face is lighter than Don’s.  That’s how we tell them apart.  Don is Dark.

The highlight of my “shift” today was when nursery keeper Rhonda Preston, who spends lots of time with the boys, joined us to give them a bottle.  I could try to describe that heartwarming scene, but I’ll let this photo tell the story!

Rhonda feeding Don.