SZ Tale 12 - First FF Duty

My first FF Duty... very excited. Reached zoo at 9am and did a biodome tour first to see where are the animals so that I will know what animals are around today should I conduct a biodome tour today.

And I could just wile the whole of Sunday away, stuck in the biodome, see the animals sleeping, eating, swimming, flying, running...


Caught sight of the Tree Kangaroo.. just can't resist its cuteness... curl up the tree. Sadly I left my camera at home and had to use my handphone as substitute camera...


The black and white ruffed lemur seems so active and yet so lonely.. because its best buddy - the ring-tailed lemur is not in the biodome today.


SLOTH! SLEEPING! SO SWEETLY!
Makes me wanna sleep though... cannot, I still got duty to do. Oh and I happened to be walking around with this family and I kindly pointed the tree kangaroo and sloth to the granny haha. The little boy was trying to catch butterflies (managed to get them land on his cap later on).. and the little girl pointed 2 bird eggs to me...

Anyway duty wise, I had only manned the fixed station today. And time flies very fast when visitors just kept asking questions and children and adult just kept getting fascinated with the live specimens...

Questions asked include:

1. Tree Nymph Butterfly
How long does the caterpillar takes to become a butterfly?

>>More facts about Tree Nymph Butterfly

• Japanese Name: Ogomadara
• Scientific Name: Idea leuconoe
• Chinese Name: 大白斑蝶
  
• The larvae are known to feed on plants of the species Aganosma cymosa (Apocynaceae).
• Another species of Apocynaceae, Parsonia spiralis has also been noted as a larval host plant. By the way, parsonia is the plant used by the zoo.
• The plant alkaloids apparently have a similar structure to the male pheromones of this butterfly, so it appears that there has been an ancient evolutionarily relationship between the butterfly and its food plant.  
• The caterpillars accumulate the bitter alkaloids in their bodies, protecting them from predation.
• The tree nymph is attracted to the color red, and will land on red shirts and hats.
  Source: JapanTimes

2. Mousedeer
Someone had asked about the mousedeer describing that it look like a deer but a smaller version. She then commented they were coming up to get close to her (odd because mousedeers are supposedly very shy?). She also asked if mousedeer is related to rodent or deer. (From the internet, it is of the same order as the deer.)

3. Malayan Gray Stick Insect
A father mentioned he saw a lot of the Malayan Gray Stick Insect in Malaysia in his younger days and was fascinated with the eggs. He asked about the dried skin too but at that time, I did not know stick insect moult.

SZ Tale 11 - Animal Day

MISSION STATEMENT - WORLD ANIMAL DAY

•  To celebrate animal life in all its forms
•  To celebrate humankind’s relationship with the animal kingdom
•  To acknowledge the diverse roles that animals play in our lives – from being our companions, supporting and helping us, to bringing a sense of wonder into our lives
• To acknowledge and be thankful for the way in which animals enrich our lives

And the zoo decided to take this chance to organise an Enrichment Day today to share with the public how the zoo keeps the animals entertained. By stating examples, those with pets might get pointers on how to keep their pets occupied too.

The only problem is both the briefing and the actual event is on a Saturday so I had to take 3 buses just to head to the zoo. Just shows how “passionate” I am about the zoo right now haha.

My first half of the day is spent at the giraffe section sharing with the public the tools they use to keep the giraffe, zebra, rhino etc occupied.


This is one of the tools used. And usually food is the main motivating factor for them to explore the tools. So for this case, different type of food and scent will be put into the tubes and the giraffes will spend time trying to extract these yummy food!


This is another tool used by the zoo. For giraffes, it is hung high up the tree and the giraffe will get their treats there. For the zebras, it is placed on land for the zebras to graze upon. Oh and this bottle was used as a game in the section where kids (or adults) will cover one hand with a sock (for protection against the bottle sharp edges if any and to mimic a giraffe’s tongue) and try to find 10 grapes within 1 minute. Those succeed will get a bookmark (actually anybody who tries will get la haha). I didn’t take photo of it though (forgot). You can see how scary some children can be!!

The second half of the day I was manning the face/hand painting corner which totally freak me out because I can’t paint at all. But my friend paints well for a beginner.. she painted a snake…


And a rabbit… cute right!


Then towards the end, there were 2 brothers who were asking to be face painted into cheetahs… So while painting the 2nd brother, another boy (the one on the extreme left side)  came along and he started staring first at the 1st brother then at the 2nd brother.. because he was also painted into a cheetah. And all 3 were very fascinated with each other.. it was a rather amusing sight. I still remember one of them even mention “I look better” or something haha.. Kids…

Oh and the lady (a CA) painting is the best face/hand painter I ever seen.. She was really good. And she’s very young. In fact I had quite a fun day making friends with these CA because they were really dynamic and amazing. And they were experienced volunteering in the zoo (compared to me this hatchling).