Week 3 - Jennifer L.

This week, we got to take the two youngest tigers, Seze and Toruk, on walks around the reserve. I don't hold the leash but I get to walk next to them. It's really an amazing experience. This was the first time that I got to be near one of the tigers without a cage in the way. It's an amazing feeling being so close to such a magnificent animal with nothing separating us. These are the times that all the poop cleaning really pays off. Although it's not fun to talk about, removing poop is a large part of my job. I have to sweep the path clean on tour days so that the guests don't step in African Geese poop. Then I have to lock out all the animals in the small part of their cage in order to find their bathroom spot and shovel it into a bucket. Some of the animals don't have lock outs, which means that I can't enter their cage to clean the poop. They have made makeshift scoopers for us to use. They used the pole of a duster attached to a large kitchen spoon. I have to put the spoon through the holes of the cage, get the poop in the spoon, and then pull the spoon back out the cage. Sometimes the poop falls off the spoon and I have to do it all over again. Once I've collected all the poop, I take it to the poop pit. The poop pit is in the back of the reserve where none of the guests go. We put lime over the poop and then bury it in the dirt. Thanks to the lime, it actually doesn't smell that bad. Shoveling feces is well worth the experience of being with these animals.