These past 2 days were very cool:)

Yesterday I was given the day off to relax. I went to the zoo and explored around as a tourist! I wanted to see the Amur tiger and leopard, and, well.. all the cats for that matter.. so that’s where I went first. All the cats were sunbathing and.. being cats! Some were upside down soaking up the sun, some perched on the oddest ledges, and some roaming around. The Amur tiger, previously called the Siberian Tiger, was lying on its back next to its cub. They kept twitching as they dreamt and doing the odd stretch to reposition themselves better in the sun rays. They were too cute! The Scottish wildcat was the only cat that was active when I visited. It was roaming around its habitat and nudging all the branches. It reminded me of my cats back home. Then finally after about 10 minutes of bopping sticks with its nose and cleaning itself, it climbed up to a perch and slept.

Besides being so excited to see ALL the cats at Nordens Ark, like the snow leopard and the Persian leopard, I also loved to see the reindeer, the Przewalski’s wild horses, all the birds, and the red panda! There were many other amazing animals but these ones stood out to me the most:)

I wasn’t able to catch a glimpse of the Pallas cat or the wolves, however, but I hope soon I will be able to see them up close!

They also had a spring fair happening at the zoo and a large trail runs throughout the park. The vendors were all selling beautiful handmaid linens, jams, honey, cheese, or bread. It was a very European market:)

Skip ahead to today…

Today has been… well I can’t come up with a great enough descriptive word.. but let’s just say one of the best days of my life.

I have been shadowing the zookeepers today. It started off at 7 am.. all the zookeepers and I drank our coffee altogether, then Helena, one of the amazing zookeepers, and myself went to go prepare food. We prepared food for the urials, the Tadjik Markhor’s, and the tigers. We first went to the tigers and fed them. They are so much larger up close and so beautiful. Their eyes are what caught my attention the most. They were so large and bright. Afterward, we went to feed the hooved animals. We cleaned their enclosures and fed them grain. They had such personalities and were fun to be around.

Later, after breakfast break (because they have that here), we went out and fed the red pandas! I was given the opportunity to hand feed one of them some pear! They were so fluffy and so darn cute. It felt unreal to be so close without a barrier in between.

I switched zookeeper’s cars- from Helena to Kenneth-after cleaning out the red panda enclosure. We went to the Amur leopard enclosure and Kenneth, the zookeeper, fed them. I was given the opportunity to help with training- I poked the leopard behind with my finger and after it followed the command it got a piece of meat. This process is to help the leopard feel calm and get acquainted with getting a Needle in case it needs sedation or medicine. Kenneth was amazing at this and taught me a lot about how they train these wild animals.

Afterward, we visited the mountain reindeer. I didn’t realize how HEAVY the male antlers were! They can be up to 7kg! They are the only deer where both male and female grow antlers, however, the female antlers are much smaller and more “stick”-like.

Then we fed the snow leopard- it was a huge shock to me that they were SO FLUFFY and their tails were SO LONG! Their tail is almost longer than their body and is used for balance when they jump long distances.

We also fed and cleaned the Przewalski horses- which are the last wild horses around. They were very curious. Through all this, I was also learning about life as a zookeeper, their education, and what life is like in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden!

After lunch, Helena and I went around and checked each enclosure again, and also gave some enrichment to some animals- like the Wolverine- we gave him horse poop to roll around in, as well as a blood ice cube to gnaw on. We also gave blood ice cubes to the tigers. We fed the Mane wolves as well:)

All in all, it was a fantastic day! It was great to help out and learn about these animals from a new perspective, as well as learn about how they are taken care of by the amazing (and very hardworking) zookeepers.