Day 10

7-26-10

Last night in Salt Lake City was lots of fun! We ate dinner at a really great brewery and our food and drinks were absolutely delicious! We walked to the movies afterward, and the walk back to the hotel after that, was a nice little exercise before bedtime.

Breakfast at our hotel was delicious this morning! We got up bright and early in order to arrive at the zoo before it opens. We called Dr. Erica, and she let us in one of the gates near the new hospital building. After all the numerous introductions, Dr. Erica led us to the exam room where she was beginning anesthesia on a capuchin monkey. There were two volunteers in the room, the head keeper, a technician, a veterinary student, another keeper, a couple more spectators, Dr. Erica, me, and Dr. Guthrie. It was quite a menagerie, even before the animals arrived! Dr. Guthrie and I observed for awhile and then took a little tour of the new hospital. They had a quarantine hall with large holding pens, an ICU room, a laboratory, a conference room, three to four offices, a necropsy room, a fluoroscopy room, a storage room, and lastly, an exam/x-ray/surgery suite all rolled into one large room. They had tons of neat toys too! Their shiny new equipment was likely very expensive and obviously state-of-the-art!

After our tour, the head keeper set us up with the elephant keeper four a tour of the elephant barn! She took us to meet the new baby elephant, Zuni and her mother. Zuni was the cutest tiny thing you’ve ever seen, weighing in at 842 pounds!

Even at birth, she was about 230 pounds, and has been growing quickly ever since. She is now about 14 months old and is learning all kinds of new training behaviors to make it easier for her keepers and veterinarians to safely care for her. We toured the hay barn also.

Each of the two full grown elephants eats about six square bales of hay per day, so they stock the barn completely full to last the whole winter.

After the elephant tour, we met up with the keeper in charge of the Asian Highlands section of the zoo. We watched a quick demonstration of training behaviors of the Amur Leopard. He is trained to open his mouth, present his belly, touch a target, and present his paws. Afterwards, we toured the indoor tiger runs that back up to their outdoor enclosures. We saw the large male Amur Tiger, the female Amur Leopard, the male Snow Leopard, and two Pallas Cats. Because these cats are solitary animals, mating pairs are not housed together unless the female is in estrous. This increases the chances of successful mating because the animals actually anticipate being allowed to mingle, rather than being annoyed that there is some other cat in their space all the time.

After the tour, we walked around the zoo observing all the different animals, and I was really impressed with their exhibits. There were very few, if any, concrete exhibits, and many were “open-air” exhibits where the animals weren’t behind any barrier. It was really neat to see all the birds, bats, and even the giraffes, without the solid barrier between you and the animals. The zoo and the weather were absolutely beautiful today, and the animals were active and seemed very comfortable. I really enjoyed visiting the zoo and talking with the vet. The whole experience was definitely worth the five hour drive it took to get here.