Today we finished up Ecosystems. But, the main thing we did today, each Trainee had to give a 3 minute talk. This was very hard, standing up in front of the other trainees and the Docent mentors, and giving a 3 minute talk on your chosen subject. My subject was Polar Bear Fur. Even though I'd timed myself many times and had gotten what I thought was a good 3 1/2 minutes of material, when I gave the talk I finished about 10 seconds short. "Uh, any questions?" Kinda embarrasing, but I made it. I wasn't the only one of about 15 of us who had to give a talk today who came up a little short. One thing, I found out right before class that you could ask the group questions as you talked. Now, that's one piece of information that I'd like to have had when preparing. You can really stretch out a talk if you can phrase a lot of your information into questions and fielding the answers as you go. So, I decided to stay with how I practiced it. I'm glad I've got that part behind me.
After class today, on our 'behind the scenes' trip, we went to the Zoo Commissary. Nope, it's not where they prepare food for the concession stands. This is where they prepare food for the animals.
I'm going to list the food the Zoo goes through every week. EVERY WEEK!
12 BUSHELS OF GREENS
30 POUNDS OF GRAPES
100 PEARS
120 BALES OF HAY, STRAW, ALFALFA
160 POUNDS OF BANANAS
200 RATS
250 ORANGES
300 POUNDS OF CARROTS
300 POUNDS OF SWEET POTATOES
500 POUNDS OF APPLES
500 POUNDS OF MEAT
1,000 POUNDS OF FISH AND SQUID
1,200 MICE
5,600 POUNDS OF GRAIN
10,000 CRICKETS
15,000 MEALWORMS
$400,000 per year is budgeted to feed the 1,700 animals found at the Zoo. The list doesn't include 'all' the food, but a sample of the volume of food they use.
The food must be prepared for each animal. Sometimes things are mixed together, portions need to be weighed, even the same food item may be prepared in different ways depending on which animal is to eat it. And the Commissary is constantly receiving changes in diets for each animal. More food, less food, different varieties of food. As an example, I saw a note on the bulletin board that, and I forget which animal it was for, the rats were to have their tummies slit open from now on. Appetizing, yes? But these are the things that the Commisary workers prepare for the Zoo Animals.
We went into the large walk-in refrigerator. Lots of veggies and fruits, but also bags of rats, mice, rabbits, chicks, fish, etc. The freezer had boxes and boxes of meat. They use horse meat. Also, they make a trip to Bardstown processing plant and bring back gallons of blood from the slaughtered sheep and cows. This is fed to the vampire bats and also mixed in with other animal feed. I don't know how often they make that trip, but my guess would be once a week.
This all may seem a little gross, but animals must be fed the food that keeps them healthy and mirror what they would be eating in the wild. I'll say it again, it's been very interesting!
2 comments:
Interesting to hear you tell about it, also.
That is some menu! It's interesting to read about the behind-the-scenes part of the zoo.
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