I haven’t really got much to write about from the last two weeks. We’ve been working mostly on paperwork, getting a new education and events programme planned and looking at general staffing issues in the zoo. I’ve been working with the Invertebrate Department to help plan the future of the department – which species they will work with and their scientific research programme development.
Steve has been ignoring the lynx enclosure this week and has left the staff to get on with furnishing and decorating the enclosure themselves. They’ve been doing really well – they arranged a big delivery of soil, lots of rocks and some blue fir trees, which are native to the Carpathian Mountains apparently.
The animals are all settling into their winter accommodation at the moment. They currently just stay inside overnight and have free access during the day so they can go where they feel most comfortable.
It seems that we have mostly bypassed autumn, the leaves have all turned and fallen very quickly and the zoo is carpeted in yellow and red – our cleaning teams just can’t keep up with how fast the leaves fall. Fortunately lots of the keepers are taking advantage of this and bringing leaves into their enclosures as extra bedding and substrates for the animals. Temperatures have dropped faster than the leaves - at the moment they are averaging at about 2°C during the day and much colder at night obviously. The main topic of conversation is “when will it snow”? It’s already been snowing in Moscow and I think it will snow here within the next week.
Last weekend Steve and I had a day out in Kyiv, we went shopping and bought a nice huge pair of boots for me for the winter, some shirts for Steve and I found some long striped sparkly woolly gloves (hurrah!). We were right in the middle of Kyiv at Kheshchatyk and nearly got caught up in a political rally – the Prime Minister was holding a huge gathering and the crowds attending were vast. Fortunately we managed to escape the flow of people and treated ourselves to some nice hot curry at the Himalaya restaurant. Lovely!
On Monday we were invited to a birthday party for one of the zoologists at the zoo. We had a lovely evening, everyone ate and drank too much – it was good. During the evening Steve made a bet with the zoo technician from the herpetology department. Steve bet him that if Steve could name a venomous mammal, the zoo technician would have to run round the zoo in his underpants and boots when it first snows this year. Of course Steve could name one (he could name two actually) so we will have to wait and see if the forfeit is completed!
Following on from all that excitement, this weekend we’ve just stayed in; watching films and reading our books.
We did have a brief panic this week – Swine Flu has officially arrived in Ukraine – mostly in the Western regions at the moment but spreading fast. As part of the precautions, the Government has imposed “quarantine” on the country – it took a while for us to get the details of the quarantine filtered through to us. They are restricting travel within the country, banning mass gatherings and have closed schools, universities and cinemas. Although I have been told that they close schools every year when there is a “normal” flu outbreak. For a while we thought that the travel restrictions would stop people leaving and entering the country, which would be a disaster for us as it is Elephant School next weekend and we have just booked our tickets back to the UK for New Year. However, it all seems to be ok in terms of leaving the country - obviously the authorities don’t mind spreading flu to other countries! We’ve seen a few people wearing face masks but the newspapers have been reporting that pharmacies are running out of medication already - it may just be like that in other regions, it doesn’t seem to be the case in Kyiv. Although we have noticed today that the streets are emptier and there are more and more people wearing masks.
Not much else to say really – the elephant has been working very hard in training and behaves himself very well. The kitten is still enjoying the radiators and is currently chewing a large buzzing fly – yummy!
Steve has been ignoring the lynx enclosure this week and has left the staff to get on with furnishing and decorating the enclosure themselves. They’ve been doing really well – they arranged a big delivery of soil, lots of rocks and some blue fir trees, which are native to the Carpathian Mountains apparently.
The animals are all settling into their winter accommodation at the moment. They currently just stay inside overnight and have free access during the day so they can go where they feel most comfortable.
It seems that we have mostly bypassed autumn, the leaves have all turned and fallen very quickly and the zoo is carpeted in yellow and red – our cleaning teams just can’t keep up with how fast the leaves fall. Fortunately lots of the keepers are taking advantage of this and bringing leaves into their enclosures as extra bedding and substrates for the animals. Temperatures have dropped faster than the leaves - at the moment they are averaging at about 2°C during the day and much colder at night obviously. The main topic of conversation is “when will it snow”? It’s already been snowing in Moscow and I think it will snow here within the next week.
Last weekend Steve and I had a day out in Kyiv, we went shopping and bought a nice huge pair of boots for me for the winter, some shirts for Steve and I found some long striped sparkly woolly gloves (hurrah!). We were right in the middle of Kyiv at Kheshchatyk and nearly got caught up in a political rally – the Prime Minister was holding a huge gathering and the crowds attending were vast. Fortunately we managed to escape the flow of people and treated ourselves to some nice hot curry at the Himalaya restaurant. Lovely!
On Monday we were invited to a birthday party for one of the zoologists at the zoo. We had a lovely evening, everyone ate and drank too much – it was good. During the evening Steve made a bet with the zoo technician from the herpetology department. Steve bet him that if Steve could name a venomous mammal, the zoo technician would have to run round the zoo in his underpants and boots when it first snows this year. Of course Steve could name one (he could name two actually) so we will have to wait and see if the forfeit is completed!
Following on from all that excitement, this weekend we’ve just stayed in; watching films and reading our books.
We did have a brief panic this week – Swine Flu has officially arrived in Ukraine – mostly in the Western regions at the moment but spreading fast. As part of the precautions, the Government has imposed “quarantine” on the country – it took a while for us to get the details of the quarantine filtered through to us. They are restricting travel within the country, banning mass gatherings and have closed schools, universities and cinemas. Although I have been told that they close schools every year when there is a “normal” flu outbreak. For a while we thought that the travel restrictions would stop people leaving and entering the country, which would be a disaster for us as it is Elephant School next weekend and we have just booked our tickets back to the UK for New Year. However, it all seems to be ok in terms of leaving the country - obviously the authorities don’t mind spreading flu to other countries! We’ve seen a few people wearing face masks but the newspapers have been reporting that pharmacies are running out of medication already - it may just be like that in other regions, it doesn’t seem to be the case in Kyiv. Although we have noticed today that the streets are emptier and there are more and more people wearing masks.
Not much else to say really – the elephant has been working very hard in training and behaves himself very well. The kitten is still enjoying the radiators and is currently chewing a large buzzing fly – yummy!
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