A Day at the zoo

After a busy day with Benjamin, I was heading to what I thought was going to be just a little short planning meeting with another teacher for the Tuesday - Thursday Zoo School class. Imagine my surprise-and horror-to find that instead of talking about reptiles I was going to go play with them! We all know that I have great respect for the animal kingdom, so much so that I allow them lots and lots of their own space and vow never to knowingly invade theirs-personal or otherwise! So the first thing one does when entering the relatively small room that houses a variety of amphibians and reptiles is you put each shoe in a bucket of disinfectant-while it is still on your foot. This is to insure that nothing from the outside gets in as apparently these are rather delicate little creatures. In the center of the room (remember how it is not such a very big space) was a black vat of sorts as I was leaning over to see what little creature might be hiding beneath the rocks, water, and debris looking stuff-I was physically pulled back and informed that this is not the cayman's regular little habitat. It is their temporary lodging while renovations are underway on their larger more spacious home over there in the corner. These little caymans are in the crocodile family-really just smaller versions of the one that chased Captain Hook all over creation. Just ask Ben, he will tell you all about it. One is advised to keep a certain distance as they have a tendency to jump up-as in the direction of your face or any other body part that is conveniently located where they can snap it up. After much discussion about washing-no soap when handling amphibians or snakes. Use all the soap you want when handling salamanders. When handling any animal with shoulders one picks said creature up just behind the shoulder blades. Salamanders actually have very sweet faces. On their cages are numbers-when one is signing them out you do not use their goofy name given them by their handler like Speedy the turtle or Tony the salamander. There are numbers and they are code for the gender of the species and the number of little guys and gals in the cage-actually guys and gals are separated, no coed dorms at the SA Zoo. The only animal that didn't totally freak me out was the turtle-he wasn't squishy or slimy or icky in any way. There are these giant, centenarian zen turtles in the tiny tot area that are truly amazing! Those guys know some major stuff! I am told that they brought in a female over the weekend and that it is quite scary to be walking by as the two old boys rape the new addition. Rape is the word used by the person doing my animal handling training. I do not know if that is a scientific reference or just her projection. Will have to get back to you on that next week. The snake is all slithery and forever sticking her tongue out at you. She is extremely long and you can be holding one end of her and she somehow manages to stay fairly erect in midair. Quite fascinating. I hope I get better at this. Today was not particularly stellar. This is too long a post so maybe there should be a word limit for those of us who simply do not know whent to quit! I am a better Ben handler than reptile person. To be continued...