CAPTIVE ANIMAL CARE:

MAY MONTH 2011:
BEING AT THE WILDLIFE CENTRE:

My time at the WLC... I learned a lot in the period that i was there. Why cleaning constantly is so very important when working with animals.
It is so easy for an animal to get sick when things
aren't properly cleaned and then used. Especially with small animals or even new animals that come in. What makes it worsts for the new animals, is that they are now in a new environment with new smells and sounds. So they are much more liable to become sick than the rest of your animals.

Working with the animals, was the best... Spending time with them makes you realize that each and every animal has a different personality. The reason for us spending time with them, well there are a couple. It is good experience for us, we learn how to work with them, in some cases how to discipline them (more the lions), what to do and what not to do, how to be dominant if necessary. We also spend time with them to exercise them, make them jump up and work their back legs and also for other stimulation.

Other things I've learned... How to feed an animal. Most important - do not let the animal out of the enclosure. First you identify where the animal is and if possible always open the door to the inside. Why? If the animal is in front of the gate you can enter easier and you can basically chase the animal away with the gate. Always close the door behind you as quick as possible and make sure the animal can't open it. Place down the food carefully and make sure the animal doesn't get a chance to jump at his food. This is basically all cat types.

If you have more aggressive cats, like we have a small Serval (Luci) that has a bit of a temper. She has a smaller comfort zone than the rest of our cats. She doesn't like it if you approach her. She and her brother share a cage. So make sure you approach her slowly and then place their food at the same time. Reason for that is, if you don't the one might eat faster and end up stealing the others food or the other cat might jump at you for his/her food. They will star eating. Luci normally grabs a bite and then runs away. So we just move her bowl a little closer to her in the back and then leaves. This makes her feel more comfortable to eat.

We also learned about the different feeding habits each animal has and how much they receive a day. Example - there were rhino's that we were feeding. They got skimmed milk and rice without salt. We also had a milk replacer that we used when we couldn't get enough milk. This was Denkivit Foal, it is a low fat powder milk that you mix with luke warm water. They got their food out of big black buckets, so that their heads can fit in it when they drink.

Feeding animals out of bottles... Important things to remember - Tilt the bottle upwards so that they don't suck in air. Always hold the teat while they drink, they can pull the teat of and swallow it. This can then cause a blockage which is very dangerous for the animal. Then listen and make sure that they don't aspirate, this can cause them to die if you don't do something about it immediately. Remove the bottle when they're finished drinking so that they don't suck on air.

Cleaning cages... Oh the glorious smells... Every day we did spot checks. Which is basically just going into each cage and picking up the leftover meat and faeces. We remove these objects and dispose of them in black bags. While we do spot checks we also check the water. If the water is running low or it needs to be changed, we scrub them out with water and we also use sand for some roughage. The sand helps to get algae loose and also things that have hardened. We use the sand because it is a natural product and doesn't have an effect on the animals.

Plants... Plants we mostly learn what is toxic and what not. We need to know which plants which animals can eat. So that we are assured that all our animals have enough food to survive from. We need to know when plants are toxic so that our animals don't die. Having various plant and trees are important , because a lot of birds eat from various types of plants. We also need to try to provide a more natural home for them, that's where the trees also come in.

Ecology... Not the most interesting topic to learn about, although it is important to know. We get taught about the trophic pyramid and how it works, how biodiversity works, symbiotic relationships - this was quit nice. Most people think that the Cattle Eagrit and the cattle is mutualism, but it is actually commensialism. Why? Well because the Cattle Eagrit doesn't eat the tics on the cattle, he eats the grasshoppers that jump out of the grass when the cattle moves around - interesting right??

and that is what I did in the WLC in my first year....