Big penguin is the "main" exhibit if you will, more accurately, it is the largest part of the indoor exhibits. I began hosing at one end while my fellow zookeeper started at the other. Throughout the cleaning, this seemed to bother the penguins as usually they will move to the opposite side of the exhibit from whoever is hosing. Woody usually follows me around while I clean and today was no exception. He also leaves a lovely pile of excretement where he must sit all night in a spot near the gate. As I am on my hands and knees scrubbing, Woody likes to walk right under my chest and/or face and bite at my ponytail where it hangs down, or where my keys hang down, both hanging down right at my clavicle. Today, he, at a couple of instances, was standing on my hand and nibbling at my arm or hair. I also, today, put my face close to his and made a kissing sound and he didn't seem to mind me being so close to his face. I was reluctant to do this before because I had been warned to never get my face too close to any penguin. I believe that penguins know where the eyes are and I think that they would peck there soon, if not first. I enjoyed the attention from Woody, he is very sweet and almost defensive of me sometimes. I maybe am assuming too much when I say that he is defensive of me, I believe he is just defensive in general. He walks amongst the King penguins, three times his size no doubt, without fear. If other Gentoo penguins came near me as I was cleaning, also near Woody, he would sqweak and open his beak at them. Sometimes, if I move out of the exhibit to grab the hose or a bottle, Woody will remain where I last was. Sometimes, this means he is in the middle of the path that most of the birds walk. Even when he is in the middle of the road, he simply defends himself as all the other birds maneuver around him. It is pretty interesting that he does not spend time with his species on the other side of the building but prefers to remain with the King and Gentoo penguins.
After cleaning, my trainer for the day decided that I needed to get some practice feeding the penguins their vitamins. Vitamins in this case means a multivitamin that we previously shoved into a fish's gills and we then hand feed these specific fish, one per penguin. Each penguin gets one of these fish and I have been learning how to keep track of who has gotten theirs and who hasn't and which penguins will be first in line and even just general interaction with the penguins, most of which are still shy towards me. I began with several Gentoo penguins, and then was suggested to sit at the waters edge so that I could recognize which penguins will take their vitamin fish right out of the water. I hand fed a couple penguins who were swimming and it was successful. Next, I moved amongst the King penguins. They become rather competitive with this and they all crowd around me looking intently for their fish. A couple of Kings had approached me at the far end of the exhibit where I had fed some Gentoos and where normally they have not gone when I feed. I say out loud names or numbers of the penguins to remember who I am giving fish. Then, my trainer suggests going through the numbers in order to remember who I have given a fish to and to whom I haven't. As we do this, we finished off the vitamins except for a couple of Kings who were swimming and, when doing so, are difficult to coax out of the water. After the trays of fish are out and the vitamins are fed, Woody needs to be helped to eat from the trays. The ultimate goal is for Woody to be able to eat by himself out of the trays. Now, he does not seem to understand that he can grab the fish and pull it from the tray whenever he wants. If I prop the fish head over the edge of the tray and move my hand away from it, he will bite at the head, but not necessarily grab the fish and swallow. If I place but one finger on the fish, that is usually all it takes for him to recognize that the fish is one that he should eat. He usually is more willing to grab the fish himself when he begins feeding as I imagine that is the point he is the most hungry. After some fish, he begins to turn away from the tray and fluff his feathers. He's finished.
After break, my trainer and I begin cleaning the Humboldt exhibit. It had been raining today so we had a nice wet exhibit to start with which helps the process. I began hosing up at a higher point in the exhibit where Pedro has been hanging out. This is the penguin who has begun his molting process and has isolated himself during. I walk near him and notice that there are piles of feathers everywhere and that his chest is quite bare. He begins calling pitifully and sounds distressed. It is sad and he seems under stress. It was pointed out to me later that his call likely sounds bad because he has taken on another 2000 grams which probably is pushing on his vocal cords or just generally all over his body. I hose around him as much as possible and scrub quickly as he will begin to approach me and first want to attack the scrub brush as it goes back and forth, but would likely move on to my hand. I attempt to use the hose as a deterant, keeping it between he and I, but he doesn't have it. I have to stand up completely and turn the hose on full blast in the other direction to sort of make him uncomfortable enough to move away from me. I scrub as best as I can around him and then give up noticing that he is already pretty miserable and I am probably making it worse. Continuing on through the exhibit, I notice a pair that once had a tray with rocks as a nest, but does no longer, easily moves out of their protective plastic rock cave when I begin hosing near them. Another pair, that still has a rock nest, are defensive of it and will not let me within half a foot of the entrance to scrub. I do my best and hose as much as I can. Moving along the front edge of the exhibit, one of the younger birds, a hatch from either this past winter or past fall I cannot remember, Guanero, approaches my foot that is submerged on a ledge just on the edge of the pool and begins to peck and bite it. I finish my scrubbing and move my foot from the water. He still seems to want to bite it so I move along in the scrubbing. He then moves to the hose that is now draped through the water and is playing and/or biting it. I am not sure what I have done to provoke him but he seems to dislike me. One of my fellow keepers had informed me that he, not two weeks ago, would not actually bite anyone. Now, he definitely tries to bite me in a painful not so friendly manner. The penguins move around me as I clean and as I have to move back through the exhibit, the birds that have resumed their spots are upset as I disrupt their order. Pedro, the bird who is molting, has moved inside the building from the door we enter the exhibit. It seems that he likes it inside. We finish up that exhibit and eat lunch.
After lunch, and after I am taught how the banding process works, I head down to do some enrichment for the birds on exhibit. There is an ice machine right behind the exhibits on the north side and my trainer helps me find a big bucket and fills it with ice and shows me where the birds are the most responsive to the "snow." Immediately, the birds respond and walk over to the ice and stand in it. I continue filling bucket after bucket until the ice machine is empty. Each time, I leave the door from the exhibit into the egg room open and close the outer door so that when I carry a bucket back in, the egg room is full of curious Gentoos who, upon seeing me, file back into the exhibit in the classic waddle with their wings back. I dump 8 buckets intot he exhibit, each time with new birds exploring, standing, eating, laying, walking on or in the ice. Some seem to be perfectly content with their bellies down on the ice, others with only their feet. All the birds though seem to react whether it is to other birds that they don't want near them or if it is to the ice itself. After the ice machine is empty, I go to the exhibit to watch the birds. I sit down and after a bit, I notice Kong, a King chick from last summer, is standing near me. I bend down and call him over to me. He waddles slowly and finally comes near me. He stretches out his neck to check my hands, presumably to check if I have a fish. Once he finds that I do not have a fish, he nibbles at my fingers in a manner similar to Woody. I talk sweetly to him. At one moment, he begins to stare intently at my face. I look back and ask him what he is looking at. He continues to do this for a while and I am intrigued as to how my face can be so hypnotic to him. I soon realize that he is looking at my hair, just little frizzes of my hair that must be moving in the air from one of the vents. Looking into his eyes, he may or may not have been looking into mine, was an interesting experience. I noticed him blink his third eyelid several times and sometimes he left it closed and sometimes he left it open. It was difficult to tell the difference except for when I noticed him blink one way or the other. I enjoyed this close encounter with Kong.
Amidst the fun, my trainer had noticed that Tracey, the Gentoo penguin who went to the vet yesterday for an x-ray, has lost weight recently and is now on medication, had regurgitated fish from earlier today. She was laying on her belly and was acting quite lethargic. My trainer showed me how to allow her to drink from the hose: open the hose completely and leave the stream near her beak. She drank a lot from me and seemed happy to do so and even allowed us to rinse her belly at the same time. After a bit, she was finished drinking and simply slumped down in the exact spot she had been drinking. This bird is old, a hatch from '85. As I was adding ice to the exhibit, my trainer decided that Tracey was just too miserable and moved her to holding upstairs. When I got finished with the ice, I took a break and evidently, Tracey had again regurgitated in the small amount of time she had been upstairs. She was laying down in the holding room when I looked in on her.
We made trays for the evening after a bit and my trainer decided that I was on my own as it was almost time for her to leave. She fed out puffin and left me to give out trays, hand feed, do whatever I felt necessary. I believe she told me to "go crazy." I liked hearing this because it means I get to spend lots of time with the birds. I first gave trays to the far side of the exhibit where the King penguins hang out. Then, I took the bucket of hand feed fish, herring and mackeral, and sat where my trainer normally sits when she feeds. Several Gentoos approached and each one received a fish. I gave the smaller ones to the Gentoos first. Next, a couple of Kings decided to walk all the way across the exhibit to get some fish. One such penguin was Barry. He chowed down on four or five herring at least and then walked away. Number four King also had some and another King was there too. After the activity died down a bit, I walked with my bucket to the other side giving fish along the way. I tried to give at least one fish per bird but in retrospect, think I missed a couple. I usually give as many as they want to the two King chicks and work with B.B. to have her eat directly from me rather than try to grab the fish and walk away which often results in the fish being on the ground. When I am finished, the penguins still crowd around me, one, King Tut, stands with his big belly pressed against the back of my legs. I maneuver to the trays and set them out and search for Woody, who is usually hungry. Meanwhile, I hand feed capelin to the Gentoos that come over. Today, this was a lot. I ended up feeding most of the fish in the tray to Gentoos by hand. Some interruptions came when there was a miscommunication about whether PPC was open or closed but afterward, I was on the public area of the exhibit and found Woody swimming in the water. I bent down to look in the glass and point at him and stand up to try and get his attention. He finally surfaced and noticed who I am. He floated over to me and nibbled my fingers. I tried to get him to eat but was advised that, maybe he is not hungry and to let it go. I continued feeding Gentoos for a while and eventually, Woody does decide that he wants food. I fed him a good number of capelin and lake smelt and he then fluffed his feathers and turned away from the tray. One Gentoo that I had fed, number seventeen, eats proficiently: I touch the head of the fish to the edge of his beak and he quickly gulps the fish and is immediately ready for another one. Other birds are a bit more reluctant to even open their beaks and sometimes I have to push the fish in a bit before they decide to swallow. Not so for number 17. I gave him as much as he wanted.
After I finished there, my coworker had informed me that he would give me any extra fish from what went to the Magellanic penguins in holding. It wasn't much but I took the bucket down to put out in the trays. I spread the fish out, mostly in the trays near the kings, and then hand fed a couple of the riled Gentoos near the kings, they seem to be riled because they have "nesting areas" over there. Next, I wanted to hand feed Barry, the King penguin, more just because I like the interaction with him. I approached him and he didn't seem to move away from me so I talked to him and asked him if he wanted a fish, so I told him to say ah, and he put his beak down and opened it just a crack. I put the fish in his mouth and he gulped it down. I did this with maybe seven fish and then he didn't want any more. I locked up the exhibit.
After returning upstairs, Tracey had evidently regurgitated her fish with medication in it. She was laying in the holding room, lethargic.
I left at 5 p.m.
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