It's mostly been quiet for us this week, but we have had a few intense moments.
On Thursday evening, Steve and I were just leaving the zoo offices and looked out the window to see what Boy (the elephant) was up to. He was reaching out of his enclosure to pick grass to eat, which he does from time to time. As we watched, we realised something wasn't quite right. The elephant had been in a bit of a mischevious mood all day (he'd been stealing sticks from me during our training sessions). We could see him picking up something with his trunk that definitely was not grass or plants. He'd got hold of a hose-pipe. How it got there, we just do not know. As we watched, he pulled the hose-pipe into his enclosure and started swinging it round his head. Steve made a mad dash down the stairs and to the elephant enclosure. I followed and headed for the veterinary centre, which is just next to the elephant house. We all converged on the elephant enclosure just as Boy was trying to taste if the hose pipe was good to eat. Steve and the vets convinced Boy to drop the pipe and not eat it. We lured him to the far side of the enclosure with all his favourite foods and Steve was able to retrieve all the pieces of hose-pipe.
We don't know how the hose-pipe happened to be within reach of Boy, but you have to be so careful around zoo animals. There have been many cases in the past where animals have ingested items that have made them either very sick, or in a few tragic cases has killed them. Sometimes the items are given to the animals by the visitors, or zoo staff occasionally make mistakes. We were so lucky this time, and Boy is fine, but definitely a big lesson for all staff here at the zoo.
After all that excitement, Steve decided that he just needed to get out and do some physical work in the lynx enclosure. We're getting close to completion now and our gorgeous lynx will be moving in soon. The task Steve had in mind involved most of the zoo staff, a fork-lift truck and a huge tree trunk. Steve wanted the tree trunk to be lifted up onto an old tree stump creating a ramp for the lynx to run up and down. With everyone working together, they gradually lifted the trunk in place and it looks amazing! Photos are below.
It's still cold here and the heating rumours turned out to be just rumours. Larissa says that the heating will be on by the 15th of October, but I'm not so sure now. It's actually much colder inside than outside, so working outside is the way forward this week and wearing all my clothes when I'm inside will keep me nice and warm. Steve bought me some amazing huge hand-kintted woolly socks in the market last week - excellent timing!
Massive tree in position
From another angle
It will look amazing with the lynx running up and down the tree
Rhino just getting up after a roll in the mud
Rhino after having turned over to get her other side muddy
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