Vodka, Bears and Elephants: 18/11/09 to 21/11/09

After the course ended, all the other participants drifted away back to their homes, countries and zoos and by late afternoon on Wednesday, all were gone except for me. These extra few days were due to a crazy flight schedule from Hamburg to Kyiv, so I was able to spend some more time in the zoo. Very kindly, the Head Veterinarian arranged for me to meet with some of the non-elephant keepers and get a look behind the scenes in other departments. I saw the beautiful orang-utan exhibit and spent a few hours with the keeper there. I also spent some time on the African Section with the keepers and met lots of the animals in that area. They were great to me, I tried not to get in the way and disrupt their day but they had so much to show me – it was brilliant.
On my last day I went back to the elephant house, as I had a few more questions for the keepers about my training and management programme for Boy. Whilst I was there, they let me go out into the paddock with all the elephants to be able to meet the babies. I had a pocketful of elephant biscuits and was immediately besieged and harassed by baby elephants that were desperate for me to feed them the treats. It was incredible. During my training with Boy at Kyiv, sometimes I can touch the tip of his massive trunk, but I had three little elephant trunks all curling around my hands and arms, trying to worm their way into my pockets to steal their biscuits!
I had an amazing experience at elephant school and at Hamburg Zoo. I’ve learnt a huge amount and met some wonderful people from all over the world. It has definitely changed me.
I’ve never been to Germany before, I found the people at Hamburg Zoo to be extremely kind and generous. Compared to Kyiv, it felt almost like home – there was just a good atmosphere and I was happy.
I would very much like to come back to Hamburg, but maybe also some other zoos in Germany too.