Once the Sammy art had been finished, and it had warmed up outside, we wandered out to visit some of our favorite Zoo critters, the orangutans. Karen the orangutan has always been hugely popular with this group, perhaps because of her own medical difficulties as a youngster. She and Janey, the resident orangutan artiste, are always intrigued by what our kids are up to, and both offer suggestions—through the window, of course—as to what colors should be used in the portraits that are starting to take shape in front of them. From a bystander’s perspective, I think the simple interactions between child and ape are just as therapeutic as the art itself—the kids get to be kids, not “cancer patients,” not “sick,” not “room 4114.” Just kids! Interacting with apes or macaws that are just as interested in them as they are in the animals.

Our time always flies when we’re together, and we wrapped up Saturday with a full Dr. Zoolittle show. Before we knew it, our time was up, and we made plans to reconnect again in the New Year. Dr. Zoolittle and I get to make a visit to the hospital with some animal friends next week…we can’t wait!!

Cindy Spiva-Evans is an educator at the San Diego Zoo.

Read blogs Karen: Will She or Won’t She? and Janey Exercises Her Keeper.
Read a blog about our ape artists, Painting with Orangutans.
Check out Janey’s profile on MySpace.com

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The program sprung originally from the minds of Bob and Georgia Langhorst, founders of San Diego’s SUCCESS Optimists, who decided that the pediatric wings in Kaiser’s San Diego hospital needed a little sprucing up. They contacted Dan Evers, an artist and craftsman, to head up the project. After a visit to Kaiser’s hospital, they started to dream about rooms with individual animal themes, and the basis for “The Children’s Rainforest” was formed. This great idea needed to be based on facts, though, so Dan contacted Deirdre Ballou, conservation education specialist at the San Diego Zoo, in order to obtain some information on rainforest denizens. Deirdre thought the program sounded fascinating and suggested bringing the Zoo’s art teacher, Joe Nyiri, on board to teach the students about art during visits to the Zoo. I was added into the group as the resident animal handler and guide, and the team was completed with the help of Deborah Roberts, child life specialist, and Dian Doyle, a registered nurse, both with Kaiser Permanente San Diego, and none other than the world-famous Dr. Zoolittle!

The second Saturday of every month, this team comes together with up to 20 pediatric oncology patients and their families for a little family fun time! We go out into the Zoo to meet up with the animals, sometimes scoring a behind-the-scenes visit (giraffes, for instance), sometimes getting a fabulous photo opportunity (koalas, anyone?), but always creating really wonderful art.

Once the kids finish up their projects, their art is photographed digitally and then given to them to take home. They might be done with it, but we certainly aren’t! Tune in next time to find out more.

Cindy Spiva-Evans is an educator at the San Diego Zoo.

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Of course, no sleepover would be complete without s’mores, hot cocoa, and warm cider! By now, sweatshirts and flashlights are necessary, and everyone gathers around the campfire for animal adaptation stories and silly songs. Some songs come complete with goofy dances, but everyone participates and gets a good laugh.

I haven’t had the pleasure of joining the overnight portion of the program, but I’m told that the tents are comfortable and that the rhinos do more than snore…apparently, some of their sounds are smelly as well as loud! Native neighbors sometimes show up overnight, too. Students tell us they’ve heard great horned owls, seen mule deer, and even encountered the occasional skunk (which, fortunately, always seems to be headed in the other direction)!
At any rate, everyone certainly seems to be in a good mood when it’s time for the wake-up call the next morning. And why shouldn’t they be? Waiting at camp is a hearty breakfast and a warm shower. After breakfast, it’s time for an early-morning hike, especially exciting because the Park hasn’t even opened to the public yet. This is a great chance for the kids to see some of the animals at their most active. At a special behind-the-scenes presentation area (with an amazing view of San Pasqual Valley), the groups are treated to one more animal encounter. This year, the special guest was an alligator! By the time the Wild Animal Park opens and guests begin filing through the turnstiles, our Night Owls are finishing up their special Park experience.

Each season, we receive letters and calls from Night Owls participants, telling us how much the students enjoyed the sleepover program and how much they learned in the process. Each of the letters makes the rounds through the Education staff. Here are some new arrivals that we all thought were especially sincere:

“Dear Mary,
Thank you for showing me the alligator. It was very cool. I wish I could go back in time and see it all again!
From, Kennedy”

“Dear Education Department,
Thank you for the trip on the tram. Thank you for teaching us how to memorize the differents (sic) between an Indian rhino and an African rhino. That was a very cool springhaas. It was funny when it went by our feet. The funnest part was when we got to sleep in the tents.
Sincerely, Trevor”

“Dear Night Owls staff,
Thank you for such a wonderful time! I really enjoyed the hot chocolate, the sausage, the tents, and the food! I want to really thank you for the T-shirts.
My favorite thing was the food. Man, that was the best dinner and breakfast and hot co-co I’ve ever had. If I could, I’d get bad grades so I can get held back and do this again. Man, I had such a blast.
Thanks for the ‘blast!’
Love, Griffin”

“Dear Night Owl Staff,
Thank you for such a wonderful time. My favorite parts were when we had the animal visits and when we got to see the gibbons and the rail tour. It was so awesome. I learned a lot from this program. Again, thank you.
Sincerely,
Devin
P.S. Don’t tell anybody this, but I learned the most.”

“Andy, Larkin, Dave, Mary, and Teri,
Thank you for teaching us about addapidtachions (sic) and taking your time out of your work to spend time with the fourth grade. I hope I can do it together again.
From, Wyatt”

Apparently, spelling lessons weren’t included in the Night Owls program, but that’s one of the most endearing parts of receiving thank you letters from the kids we teach! From all of the Night Owls staff, Thanks, kids! We hope to see you when we do it all again next spring!

Mary Zanotelli is an educator at the Wild Animal Park.

Here’s more information about Night Owls.
Here’s information about other sleepover programs at the Park and the San Diego Zoo.

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A selection of paintings by Janey will be displayed at the Zoo’s main gift shop and only available for bid in person. In addition, a couple of paintings will be offered online for auction to a worldwide audience exclusively on this Web site.

The auction started this morning. The first painting closes bids at 4 p.m., and the second at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, November 19. Bids start at $100 and can be raised in $10 increments. All winners will be notified soon after the auction closes during the week of November 19.

All proceeds of the silent auction will be donated to great ape field research and conservation projects including rescue centers in Congo and Borneo for apes orphaned by poaching, the bushmeat crisis, and destruction of their forest homes.

Enter the auction now!

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While the upgrade is going on, the majority of the Petting Paddock animals will be getting some R & R up at our Wild Animal Park. They will be behind the scenes, where the former Infant Isolation Unit and old hospital were located. The Children’s Zoo Paddock keepers will still be taking care of their charges and will make the drive daily up there to service, feed, and monitor the herd.

We apoligize for any inconvenience during the month of November for visitors who will miss their farm animal fix! But we hope you’ll come by after we are done and check out the new habitat for some of the most loved animals in the Zoo!

Nicki Boyd is an animal care supervisor at the San Diego Zoo.

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Working at the entrance turnstiles, a small girl (4 or 5 years old, perhaps) approached and handed me her ticket very deliberately. She said, “Here is my ticket and this is my mom and dad.” I smiled and ripped the stub off, handing her back her ticket with a “Thank you.” She strode away, sending me a “You’re welcome!” over her shoulder. My eyes turned immediately to her mom, who was already grinning my way. The only word I could come up with was “Wow,” her mom breaking into laughter. Precious perhaps…precocious, oh yes!!

A group of folks came through my turnstile, led by a young man of 10 years, perhaps. He presented me with five tickets, four of which were for adults. As I informed them of the rides and other things they had purchased, the young man began translating for them. Asking for the correct number of maps, directions to the nearest restroom and the tour bus, he never missed a beat, translating as he went. I stood watching the group following the young man away, wondering what I had been doing at his age. Hard for this blogger to put into words the emotion at that moment; however, feeling a sense of pride for that young man probably comes close.

Gary Voyles is this month’s recipient of the San Diego Zoo’s monthly PRIDE (Personal Responsiblity In Daily Effort) award! He posed for his PRIDE portrait with Karroo the cheetah and Sven Olaf, a golden retriever.

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As the vet techs begin treating the hospital patients, the hospital keepers may be called on to help hold, move, or catch the animals. While we are helping the techs, we are going back and forth cleaning and feeding. So we learn to multi-task.

At 8:30 a.m. we go to rounds. The hospital staff, including vets, techs, pathologists, and keepers, get together in the library to discuss all the medical cases at the hospital and the Zoo. Here it is determined which vets will work on which cases, what will be done to each of them, and in what order. The hospital keepers inform everyone how animals did overnight, if they noticed any changes from the day before, and figure out how they will best be able to help the doctors for the day.

Around 9 a.m. procedures begin. Grounds patients (those animals from Zoo grounds) begin arriving at the hospital, and, depending on who and what they are, hospital keepers assist by getting the animals ready for their procedure. This entails grabbing, netting, squeezing up, or transferring the patient so that it can be worked on or anesthetized. All this while still going back to our cleaning and feeding duties with the hospital animals!

The type of patients that come to the hospital varies every day. Every animal in the collection must get a physical and vaccinations at some point. There are also those patients who may be injured, others who are old and need some extra attention, and some who just don’t seem to be their normal selves. So there is a wide variety of who the patients are and why they are at the hospital. The number of cases for the day and how many patients are at the hospital determines how busy a hospital keeper’s day will be.

Regardless of what is going on for the day, the hospital keepers need to be aware of what is happening to the animals in their charge at the hospital. That is why they are checked several times throughout the day. And at the end of the day, once again the keepers walk around together to see how their in-patients are doing, discuss what happened to them that day, and share if there is anything scheduled for them the next day.

So, there are no typical days for a hospital keeper, but there are sure many interesting ones.

Yvette M. Kemp is a senior hospital keeper at the San Diego Zoo.
Read Yvette’s previous blog, Time at the Zoo’s Hospital.

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The first thing everyone says when they find out I work as a hospital keeper is, “Isn’t it hard working with all those sick animals?” I actually have a few responses to that.

First of all, if I was a patient, I would definitely want the people who were helping me get better to really care about me. That is certainly the case of the staff at the Zoo hospital. The vets, techs, and keepers really do their best to take care of and get to know each of the animals that come to the hospital, be they an outpatient or a long-term patient.

Secondly, not all the animals at the hospital are patients. Some animals arrive here to go through quarantine. That means they are stationed at the hospital until they pass their physical exams; then they can go to their new home at the Zoo, Wild Animal Park, or even another facility. For instance, there was the cutest little American pronghorn that lived at the hospital for several months while she was in quarantine. She was a very outgoing antelope who was afraid of nothing. You could bring in a platform to weigh her, a crate to get her used to walking into, a ladder to hang enrichment and browse with, and more. She acted like all these items were things she saw everyday. She was fun, too. She loved to prong when you lightly sprayed her pen and she enjoyed butting her head into the rake as you cleaned her stall. But she loved her baby formula the most. She would do anything if the bottle was present, even let the vets take blood for analysis! Now she is in training to become an animal ambassador at the Zoo’s Hunte Amphitheater.

Besides patients and quarantine animals, there are also animals that are housed at the hospital while their exhibits are being worked on, when introducing new members to an animal group, or those that just need some R&R time.

So you see, not all the animals that are at the hospital are patients. But if they are a patient, you can be guaranteed they are in good hands.

As I learn more about my job and the animals I work with, I hope to share my experiences with you. It’s a great place to be and I’m sure you’ll agree.

Yvette M. Kemp is now a senior hospital keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

Read Yvette’s previous blog, Time with the Siamangs.

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My trip last spring was quite special, for I was collaborating with another non-profit organization intent on improving the lives of the poor. Their mission: to provide assistance to the artisans of a community in need to produce goods that are marketable elsewhere in the world, then connect them with buyers such as the ZSSD to purchase and reinforce our conservation message.

My quest brought me to many villages and I was introduced to individuals who were excited about selling to a zoo. But one moment stands out brightly in my memory: when I was asked why I would not buy the black wooden boxes and vases. I explained that ebony wood is classified as an endangered wood. It takes years to grow and is not sustainable; in a matter of years, at the rate these trees are being cut down, they could be gone forever. I suggested they find alternate woods like the jacaranda or the balsa, specifically lighter woods were best. They said they understood, and the buyer who had accompanied me mentioned that perhaps it would be best if he no longer bought ebony. At that moment I realized that I just made a difference!

Something so simple and direct makes a difference…

The first shipment of goods has arrived and will be showcased at the Zoo and Wild Animal Park retail shops in September. Happy shopping!

Yvonne Miles is the director of merchandising for the Zoological Society of San Diego.

View some of Yvonne’s purchases at ShopZoo.com.

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Each driver/guide gives tours, drives the Express Bus (which lets guests hop on and off at various stops along the tour route), and works at the bus depot to help guests board the tour buses. With 100 acres (40 hectares) of Zoo to visit, the double-decked bus rides are quite popular. Our tours are a great way to get an overview of the Zoo, see the plants and animals in the collection, and learn about our many conservation efforts. Each guide brings his or her own personality and unique sense of humor, so every tour is different!

On average, each driver/guide gives 3 to 4 tours a day, but as the keepers fix up exhibits and the animals move from one area to another, we never know exactly what we’ll find around the next corner from one tour to the next. Sometimes it’s a new baby or one of our animal ambassadors out for exercise. There’s always something to discover along the bus tour route. We hope you’ll join us next time you stop by for a visit.

Patti Turkle is a driver/guide at the San Diego Zoo.

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