Updates on the Great Orangutan Project based at our rehab and releases centres in Borneo. Thanks to all the volunteers that help us save orangutans in Borneo. Visit www.thegreatprojects.com

Volunteer Visit GOP

Monday, October 20, 2008

The Life of a Volunteer at Zoo Negara (National Zoo of Malaysia)

At The Great Orangutan Project, we also work in zoos as part of our drive to help promote conservation education and animal enrichment . Here is the experience of one of our volunteers, Lucy Fisher.

As Lucy was the only zoo assistant this month she chose to spend her first 2 weeks with the other orangutan group (Orangutan Encounters Project) at the Ape Centre. She therefore contributed to all the enrichment activities there as well as working really hard at cleaning. After the Orangutan Encounters group left she helped complete the following activities around the rest of the zoo……

Painting concrete tunnels in the tiger exhibit
At the request of the carnivore section supervisor we painted the ugly concrete tunnel in the Sumatran tiger exhibit in an attempt to make it look a bit more natural. We used a weather proof base coat and then spray painted using leaves as stencils to try and make the concrete blend in with the rest of the exhibit.

Before



After




Cleaning out the rat and mouse cages at Reptiles
They might only be food for the reptiles but that doesn’t mean they can’t have a decent quality of life. We found the rats and mice in a terrible state so spent an afternoon cleaning out three big holding tanks so we could transfer the rodents out of the trays they were being kept in. It was a horrible job and we removed around 50 bodies from the tanks and trays, not to mention about a million fleas. But seeing the rats settled in a new, clean and spacious home (right) made it all worth while. Well done to Lucy for getting stuck in and doing a job that many others wouldn’t.

Mammal Kingdom
We spent two days at mammal kingdom, mostly helping to scrub out night dens but also carrying out a few enrichment activities. This included making blood ice blocks for the hyenas, fruit and meat ice blocks for the binturongs and a fish ice bock for the otter that doesn’t go out. The hyenas were a bit unsure about the blocks (right), and the binturongs didn’t touch theirs though they were salivating loads and smelling around the blocks they didn’t seem to be able to figure them out. Looks like we need another idea for binturong enrichment! The real success though was the otter (left) who got so excited about his ice block I thought he might pop with joy! We put it in his water trough and he had great fun trying to catch it, squeaking and squealing the whole time. As it defrosted he realised there were prawns in it which he wasn’t sure about at first but eventually decided were delicious. The next day Lucy made a new ice block by stuffing a piece of bamboo with prawns and freezing it. This was even more of a challenge but the little otter loved every minute! So rewarding!



Our final project at mammal kingdom was to install a couple of bamboo feeders into the racoon exhibit. Racoons are very resourceful and good at figuring out puzzles, so we took two pieces of giant bamboo and using a drill made a few paw-sized holes in the different segments. We then hung one vertically and one horizontally in the exhibit. The racoons were even faster than we thought and had their paws in the holes before we’d even finished hanging the feeders! We filled the bamboo with pieces of fruit and meal worms and stood back as the racoons tried to get their tasty treats. The horizontal feeder was fairly easy, but they found the vertical one more challenging as it kept moving around. It was fun to watch and hopefully we can encourage the keepers to put food in the bamboo on a regular basis so the racoons have to work for it.

Ice blocks for Otters
As well as making ice blocks for the otter at mammal kingdom, we also made fish and prawn blocks for the 8 otters in the exhibit. We gave the otters their treats on hari raya to a large crowd of tourists who really enjoyed watching the otters’ antics as they first stampeded into the pool and then chased the frozen blocks around in the water. Lucy also made one giant blood ice block which we gave to the Sumatran tigers. She worked hard during her month with us and will now go on to spend her second month at Taiping zoo.