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*Fairy Godmother blew sweet kisses at me*
I went for a 2 day 1 night zoo crash course camp yesterday and just finished camp today at 6 plus. It was an eye-opener for me and I am very happy to be able to join this special camp with my sister. There are is one more animal in my list for favourites. Before, I love the elephants and now I got more to add... slow loris (cute innocent eyes which make you wanna give it a BIG hugz).
haha.. but i'm super exhausted now to blog down the details, shall elaborate the next time.
Crucial thing now: to pack my bag for tomorrow! First day of school.
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4-5 Aug 2007
This is the second time I am going to the zoo this year. My sister's friend ask for people to join this zoo facilitator camp targeting adults who would like to work in the zoo part-time to help education the young. I spontaneously agreed to join once my sister asked me. Being chosen or not at the end is not very important la. So far no new from the department and I guess I wasn't selected to be a facilitator. Importantly it's the experience that counts. Getting close to the animals... going behind-the-scenes not once but twice... fully guided Night Safari tour... staff lunches at Ulu Ulu Restuarant... sleeping under the stars.
Places I have been and things I have encountered...
1) Fragile forest Behind-the-scenes
Instead of going into the biodome, we went to the place where they breed the invertebrates. Invertebrates are pretty short-lived and they have to be bred in order to have constant supplies for display. Got to touch the rhino beetle, stick insect, tree nymph caterpillar, hissing spiders... not only getting to see the adult insects but also their youngs (larvae and pupae). There are also the arachnids and myriapods. Arachnids refer to a group of invertebrates with 8 legs such as scorpion and spiders. Myriapods are invertebrates with many many legs and many segments along their body such as millipede and centipede.
Interesting fact: How to tell millipede apart from centipede? For millipede, each segment of its body has 2 pairs of legs while centipede has only 1 pair of legs.
There is a special enclosure where the butterfly are able to fly freely roaming from flowers to flowers and mate with one another. Way to catch a butterfly is to use your second and third fingers and use it like a scissors to hold the wings of butterfly. Cannot be too violent if not the powder on their wings may fall and their wing patterns will be destroyed. I was sad when I see butterflies floating on the water in the drain, wanted to save those which are still moving but the facilators advised us not to. Why... because these butterfly were dying and too weak to fly away from the water, if they are still strong, they would be able to fly away from the water to free themselves.
2) Reptile House Behind-the-scenes
Do you know that the world's most venomous snake is the Taipan? Heehee~ Before entering the reptile house, you will see many things outside. There are cages with big fat white rats bred to be the snakes' meal. Before the rats are given to the snakes, they are euthanasized so that they die a peaceful and stress-free death. There are cages without much shade for sick reptiles or molting reptiles. This is to allow them to have some sun-tan to make them feel better.
Behind the scenes... some reptiles are placed there and they are kept in tanks with heating strips the top of their tanks and also there UV lamp in their tanks. The place is non-airconditioned because snakes don't like places which are too dry. Got to touch the molts of snakes, touch a white snake, have a closer look at the anti-venom... I don't know that each anti-venom is unique. So when bitten it's best to take a photo or at least try to remember the look of the snake so that when you are sent to the hospital, the doctors can apply the correct anti-venom. And the hospital to go to in Singapore is Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
Interesting facts: How do you know if the snake wants to molt its skin? Its eye will turn cloudy due to growth of old skin covering its eyes. It would rub its nose against some surface to try creating an opening for the shedding of old skin.
Horses are injected with venom to produce antibodies to the venom and anti-venom is made by extracting the antibodies from the horses' blood.
3) Animal Hospital
This is where new animals and sick animals go for checkups/surgery and perhaps to be warded. There is a showroom which is opened to public where you can find out some facts about the animal hospital. If you are lucky, you may catch some work in action in the treatment and surgery rooms from the glass windows.
We went to the post-mortem room where all the dead animals would go.. for either visual inspection or autopsy. There is a chiller room and the freezer room to store the dead animals. I saw crocodiles and buffalo heads in these rooms.
4) Kitchen
A place where the food is stored and cooked. The store room is not a sweet-smelling place to be in. Got discovery there, orang utans drink milo for breakfast with ah meng having one cup for her own while the other orang utans share the other cup. What privilege for a superstar ah!
5) Dentition
We get to see and feel the skull of animals such as cheetah, girraffe... their teeth are so different due to different eating habits! I love the elephant tooth! It's so so huge and it's surprising to know that elephants only have 4 teeth and throughout their lives, they can have up to 6 sets of teeth. Can't imagine the elephant's tooth falling on my head. Ouch~