There are many joys to being an animal keeper, but as with any job it also has its downfalls. Pesky little bugs and bloodsuckers would be one of those downfalls. When working outside in the summer, we obviously deal with an onslaught of these critters. We become fantastic meals for mosquitoes, ticks and chiggers while we are diligently doing our jobs and not paying attention to what might be joining us as we work. I am known to have aRead more
Posts tagged: #keepers
QuikPost: Farewell
I’ve never been good with big goodbyes but here goes. I’m leaving my post at the Museum to head south and work for Epcot’s “The Seas with Nemo and Friends” (part of this little place you might of heard of, Walt Disney World). I’ll be working as an Aquatics Research Associate with the Animal Research Team, assisting with experiments involving the residents of the 5.7 million gallon salt water aquarium at The Seas. I’m excited about working with marine organismsRead more
Big Word of the Month: Fimicolous
My wife Sandy, also a lover of big science words, passed along this month’s feature. Fimicolous is an adjective formed from Latin roots that mean “to inhabit dung” and is used to describe organisms that live in, on, and with animal waste. As animal keepers we spend a lot of time dealing with poop and you might be amazed at all the living things that utilize poop. Perhaps most famous are the dung beetles, a group of scarab beetles thatRead more
Meet your new roommate
You may have heard about our newest addition to the farmyard, Auggie the pig. He is a cutie! Originally, he had been living elsewhere on grounds while he was in quarantine (which just means he is kept away from the other animals while we monitor him to make sure he is healthy). Once he was ready to move to his permanent home in the farmyard, it was time to introduce him to his new roommate, Miss Piggy. We decided toRead more
What are you talking about!?
I have often thought of the types of things we (the keepers) say on a daily basis that sound completely normal to us, but would probably sound quite bizarre out of context to another person. The topics of our conversations are obviously very relevant to our jobs, but many of our random one-liner sentences are kind of funny and/or disturbing when heard by themselves! I asked the keepers to help me out by keeping a list of these one-liners asRead more
QuikPost: Ready for the Dark
They’re looking pretty cheery for a dark cold morning in the building. The Keepers from left to right: Kristen, Larry, Katy, Marilyn. At 6 PM last night the power to the building was turned off as expected for the upgrade. Everything went well and the generators were refilled with gas at 9 PM and 2 AM so they were still running this AM when the day started. Our freezers are cold and our reptiles are warm so we’re in prettyRead more