Week 2 - Jennifer L.

Now that the senior volunteers have gotten to know me a little bit, they've started to give me more responsibility. I am not only making the diets now, but I am giving the animals the food. I am also helping on tours. The reserve allows tours every Wednesday and Saturday. They last about two hours long and describe why the reserve exists, each animal's personal story, and general information about the type of animals that are housed. It is a feeding tour, which means the guests get to watch the carnivorous animals feed. This is my favorite part of the tour because some of the tigers and leopards are food aggressive. They get very upset when you are near them while they are eating and they growl and jump at the cage. They put on quite a show. My job during the tours is crowd control. I make sure the guests are standing at least five feet back from any cage at all times and are not teasing the animals or interrupting the tour guide. Every tour day, the tigers get bubble baths and all the animals get their cage scooped for poop. The animals are so fun to play with in their tub. Chakra, a very energetic and playful white tiger, will purposely splash everyone with her bubbles. When we fill her water, sometimes she will take her front paws and dump all the water out of the bucket, just to make us mad. I love her attitude though. Some of the animals are sniffing me out more now. I think they're getting used to me being around all the time.