The weather is still stifling, but now with a hint of coolness in the breeze (yes, there is actually a slight breeze) and the thunderstorms are back, but only at 4am. With the slight change in weather come the mosquitoes AGAIN, we thought we’d seen the last of them this year but the little monsters are back. We’ve been liberally coating ourselves in DEET insect repellent (revolting nose-torturing stuff) before bed, but alas, to no avail, my arms and face are covered with bites and itch so much.
We’ve only had four days of work this week; Monday was a bank holiday for Ukrainian Independence day. So, on Tuesday morning I began training our elephant Boy. Don’t worry, this is purely to enable me to trim his toenails and to help the vets assess his health, I will not be standing on his head in a sparkly bikini, juggling swords whilst he whistles the national anthem (I can’t juggle anyway). Being able to start training is the culmination of many months of discussion, planning and construction work. This week all I wanted to achieve with the elephant is the basis of trust and for him to understand that if he does what I ask, he gets a reward (piece of apple) and if he doesn’t do it, then no reward. Simple really, just like training a very large dog! This week, we mostly did walking up and down the Protection screen and if he stopped and stood in front of me without reaching for a reward, he got a reward. It didn’t take long for him to understand that. On the second day of training just after I arrived at the elephant house, Boy came in to see me whilst I was chopping carrots and apples as food rewards for the session. He stood as close as he could to me, looked me in the eye and started purring! Really, his sound was just like a deep elephant-sized cat purring. I took it to mean “hello” and Don, my internet elephant mentor in America says that the grumbling sound is a greeting and that Boy probably wanted to say hi and for me to start the training session. Boy doesn’t have to take part in the training sessions if he doesn’t want to, he’ll still get all his carrots and apples and there are no punishments, it’s all up to him, and whilst four days is only four days, he seems keen to interact with me.
Also this week I have been observing different sections in the zoo to look at how they work with the animals and how efficiently each department operates. That’s the official work that I have to do, but for me it’s been lovely to be out the office and be with the zoo staff and animals. I’ve only been to one department so far, and will get to more next week. I started with Primates, so monkeys, apes and our lovely Carpathian lynx. I went to have a look at the lynx, I couldn’t see her anywhere in the enclosure so I thought she must be in the house, as I started to head round there she appeared right next to me, having stalked me along the edge of the enclosure without me noticing! Amazing animal. She had a lovely fresh rabbit for lunch which she proudly carried around the enclosure for five minutes before settling down to eat it. I also managed to spend some time with our Silverback gorilla Toni. Silverback gorillas are always difficult when you first meet them, you have to be very careful with them and not behave in a threatening manner i.e. don’t stare at them etc. So, I was sitting on the floor next to his enclosure, looking at him over my shoulder and out of the corner of my eye, whilst making gorilla-ish grunting noises. Toni stomped around a bit, came and looked at me very closely, tried to smell me and went away to eat his dinner. A few minutes later, he returned carrying a piece of browse (small tree branch for eating, chewing and playing with, which Steve and I insisted all primates must have every day), Toni very carefully threaded it through the enclosure mesh near where I was sitting and tried to stab me with the end of it! I politely informed him that I had not intended it to be used as such, but was actually rather proud of his logistical reasoning and tool use.
On Friday I spent some time at the Carnivore department, but not enough time to assess the department, that will have to wait till next week. I was helping with the new lion cubs. The babies, it seems are very scared of people. At their previous zoo, they were not on show to the visitors and only knew a few keepers and their mother. Here, they are starting to settle down but still don’t relax fully when there are people around. We are keeping them inside at the moment because they are still under quarantine, but they can be seen by our visitors and are extremely popular. They only really relax and play a lot when there are very few people around. We need them to be relaxed and happy all the time, but particularly when the keepers are around, as currently feeding and caring for them is quite difficult. So, zoo staff are taking turns to sit in the keeper-service area of the enclosure and talk to the lions through the mesh. So, I took my turn at this too. It’s a very strange feeling being hissed at by four grumpy lion cubs and having to talk to them. I started by talking to them about their living at Kyiv Zoo and the keepers that would look after them, then about the elephant Boy and his training, giraffes and other African animals at the zoo, zoo conservation, I told them that the vets were very nice and not at all scary and after that I just rambled about anything and everything I could think of.
It was the tiger twin’s first birthday this week and to celebrate they had lots and lots of enrichment and many people came to see them and wish them a good day. They were in all of the newspapers as their birthday is on Ukrainian Independence day.
Steve has been mostly up a ladder this week in the lynx enclosure. All his electric fencing supplies arrived and he’s been desperate to get started for some weeks now. Finally there was enough free time to get going. To do the work Steve needed a ladder as the electric parts of the fence will are very high up. He was given an hilarious selection of ladders to choose from; firstly there was a nice light aluminium A-Frame ladder that was just too short, secondly there was a hand-made wooden ladder (that Steve thought would be more appropriate for climbing the walls of medieval castles) that was very wobbly, to the point where during ascent it would sway until it started to find its natural resonance and threatened collapse and lastly another hand-made ladder probably designed by Hagrid (the Giant at Hogwarts School) that was just too heavy to lift! In the end, the “safest” option seemed to be the short aluminium ladder and Steve spent most of the week on top of it, on tip-toes trying to attach the fence components whilst gently swaying and trying not to topple off. Steve managed to get the majority of the fence done in just four days whilst teaching electric fence construction the Director of Zoology (Anatoly) and Tollik (one of the carnivore keepers). He let them use the crazy ladders!
The new kitten is settling in nicely, she’s very affectionate, talkative and purrs a lot, but we have a problem. No sock is safe, it seems she has a sock fetish and is always stealing Steve’s socks, carrying them around the apartment and trying to kill and disembowel them. I think Steve will forever have odd socks now.
It is currently water-melon season in Ukraine, they grow very well here and all the zoo animals are enjoying this refreshing treat, which is fantastic and cheap – less than 20 pence each. However, they seem to have particularly dangerous water-melons here, the street vendors keep them in large sturdy metal cages – see photo below!
We’ve only had four days of work this week; Monday was a bank holiday for Ukrainian Independence day. So, on Tuesday morning I began training our elephant Boy. Don’t worry, this is purely to enable me to trim his toenails and to help the vets assess his health, I will not be standing on his head in a sparkly bikini, juggling swords whilst he whistles the national anthem (I can’t juggle anyway). Being able to start training is the culmination of many months of discussion, planning and construction work. This week all I wanted to achieve with the elephant is the basis of trust and for him to understand that if he does what I ask, he gets a reward (piece of apple) and if he doesn’t do it, then no reward. Simple really, just like training a very large dog! This week, we mostly did walking up and down the Protection screen and if he stopped and stood in front of me without reaching for a reward, he got a reward. It didn’t take long for him to understand that. On the second day of training just after I arrived at the elephant house, Boy came in to see me whilst I was chopping carrots and apples as food rewards for the session. He stood as close as he could to me, looked me in the eye and started purring! Really, his sound was just like a deep elephant-sized cat purring. I took it to mean “hello” and Don, my internet elephant mentor in America says that the grumbling sound is a greeting and that Boy probably wanted to say hi and for me to start the training session. Boy doesn’t have to take part in the training sessions if he doesn’t want to, he’ll still get all his carrots and apples and there are no punishments, it’s all up to him, and whilst four days is only four days, he seems keen to interact with me.
Also this week I have been observing different sections in the zoo to look at how they work with the animals and how efficiently each department operates. That’s the official work that I have to do, but for me it’s been lovely to be out the office and be with the zoo staff and animals. I’ve only been to one department so far, and will get to more next week. I started with Primates, so monkeys, apes and our lovely Carpathian lynx. I went to have a look at the lynx, I couldn’t see her anywhere in the enclosure so I thought she must be in the house, as I started to head round there she appeared right next to me, having stalked me along the edge of the enclosure without me noticing! Amazing animal. She had a lovely fresh rabbit for lunch which she proudly carried around the enclosure for five minutes before settling down to eat it. I also managed to spend some time with our Silverback gorilla Toni. Silverback gorillas are always difficult when you first meet them, you have to be very careful with them and not behave in a threatening manner i.e. don’t stare at them etc. So, I was sitting on the floor next to his enclosure, looking at him over my shoulder and out of the corner of my eye, whilst making gorilla-ish grunting noises. Toni stomped around a bit, came and looked at me very closely, tried to smell me and went away to eat his dinner. A few minutes later, he returned carrying a piece of browse (small tree branch for eating, chewing and playing with, which Steve and I insisted all primates must have every day), Toni very carefully threaded it through the enclosure mesh near where I was sitting and tried to stab me with the end of it! I politely informed him that I had not intended it to be used as such, but was actually rather proud of his logistical reasoning and tool use.
On Friday I spent some time at the Carnivore department, but not enough time to assess the department, that will have to wait till next week. I was helping with the new lion cubs. The babies, it seems are very scared of people. At their previous zoo, they were not on show to the visitors and only knew a few keepers and their mother. Here, they are starting to settle down but still don’t relax fully when there are people around. We are keeping them inside at the moment because they are still under quarantine, but they can be seen by our visitors and are extremely popular. They only really relax and play a lot when there are very few people around. We need them to be relaxed and happy all the time, but particularly when the keepers are around, as currently feeding and caring for them is quite difficult. So, zoo staff are taking turns to sit in the keeper-service area of the enclosure and talk to the lions through the mesh. So, I took my turn at this too. It’s a very strange feeling being hissed at by four grumpy lion cubs and having to talk to them. I started by talking to them about their living at Kyiv Zoo and the keepers that would look after them, then about the elephant Boy and his training, giraffes and other African animals at the zoo, zoo conservation, I told them that the vets were very nice and not at all scary and after that I just rambled about anything and everything I could think of.
It was the tiger twin’s first birthday this week and to celebrate they had lots and lots of enrichment and many people came to see them and wish them a good day. They were in all of the newspapers as their birthday is on Ukrainian Independence day.
Steve has been mostly up a ladder this week in the lynx enclosure. All his electric fencing supplies arrived and he’s been desperate to get started for some weeks now. Finally there was enough free time to get going. To do the work Steve needed a ladder as the electric parts of the fence will are very high up. He was given an hilarious selection of ladders to choose from; firstly there was a nice light aluminium A-Frame ladder that was just too short, secondly there was a hand-made wooden ladder (that Steve thought would be more appropriate for climbing the walls of medieval castles) that was very wobbly, to the point where during ascent it would sway until it started to find its natural resonance and threatened collapse and lastly another hand-made ladder probably designed by Hagrid (the Giant at Hogwarts School) that was just too heavy to lift! In the end, the “safest” option seemed to be the short aluminium ladder and Steve spent most of the week on top of it, on tip-toes trying to attach the fence components whilst gently swaying and trying not to topple off. Steve managed to get the majority of the fence done in just four days whilst teaching electric fence construction the Director of Zoology (Anatoly) and Tollik (one of the carnivore keepers). He let them use the crazy ladders!
The new kitten is settling in nicely, she’s very affectionate, talkative and purrs a lot, but we have a problem. No sock is safe, it seems she has a sock fetish and is always stealing Steve’s socks, carrying them around the apartment and trying to kill and disembowel them. I think Steve will forever have odd socks now.
It is currently water-melon season in Ukraine, they grow very well here and all the zoo animals are enjoying this refreshing treat, which is fantastic and cheap – less than 20 pence each. However, they seem to have particularly dangerous water-melons here, the street vendors keep them in large sturdy metal cages – see photo below!
Steve testing a ladder 
Trying not to wobble
Don't look down
Me and Anatoly
Tollik using the good ladder
Electric Fences
Dangerous Water-melonsPlease note that the other melons (Honeydew?) don't seem to be quite as dangerous
