Sunday, June 16, 2013

tiger rat snakes

So on Friday, the 14th, I was helping out full clean out a display. This display was a different experience since the zoo let me get my hands dirty in a display that contains animals that are not as friendly. The animal I had to clean their display for were the tiger rat snakes. Sorry that I do not have a picture, but here is a picture of what they look like on Google. Ironically after finding this photo, this photo was uploaded from somebody who took this shot from the Omaha Zoo! How ironic, eh?!
Aren't these guys so cute?! I love the way their prints look. A fun fact about these guys is that they can almost reach to be as long as 10 feet long! Also, as aggressive as they are, they used to be known to be completely nonvenomous, but recent studies shown that they have a very small amount of venom. Either way, one should always still be careful around any animal no matter how cute they are. ALL animals can be very unpredictable when you least expect it.

Anyways, while I was cleaning out the tiger rat snakes' display, this brought a lot of attention from the people on the other side of the display window. While some people thought I was really cool cleaning in a small room with these snakes, there were really big tough guys who couldn't handle watching me perform my tasks. They were pacing back and forth barely able to watch me while they bring their friends over to show them their disbelief. This made me feel really cool since only so many few people get this kind of opportunity. However, I had to keep all of that distraction behind me since my main concern was being able to get my job cleaning their display done all while watching the snakes instead of what I was doing or any other distractions. Even though the snakes seemed a bit threatening from time to time, I had to be patient working around them by stopping whatever I was cleaning and back off. When the snakes were ready for me to proceed cleaning again, I stepped back in the display still keeping an eye on them. After a patient amount of time cleaning, I was able to finish cleaning out their display. After exiting their backdoor to the snakes, I had the audience who was watching me asking all of these questions and how I am ever able to have the guts to get in with all these kinds of animals with ease.

To me, this makes me reflect on the whole summer and how I get to work on these amazing animals. I feel really blessed to be here and how much of an opportunity it is to be able to say that I get to work with animals that most people don't even dare to even consider with. This makes me feel like I am an individual that people admire and have a great deal of respect for. In reality, if it wasn't for the people like myself who have an interest in this field, the animals would most likely not have a great future in their (hands, claws, fins, etc.), the public would not be as aware of the reason why we need to preserve and know how to respect these animals. I'll agree that being a intern keeper is not the most glamorous job, but we do risk our safety for these animals so that the animals have a good life while educating people why they are important.