Monday, March 21, 2011

Miami Metro Zoo



So, during Spring Break I got to do something that was really exciting! My mentor, Mrs. Stoklosa, has a cousin who trains some of the wildlife at the Miami Metro Zoo, and she let me shadow her for part of the day. I was so excited to learn more about jobs working with wildlife.
When I got there, Jennifer, brought me to the section of the zoo where she is located. Since they are doing some construction in the zoo, she had to relocate to a trailer and temporary cages were built for the animals that she takes care of that are not on display, until the new building is finished. On the outside of the trailer, there was a sink and table, where they prepared the food for some of the animals. Inside the trailer, they had cages where they kept some of their parrots. The parrots were really pretty, and they were each trained for different talents, like flying or talking. I even went up to look at one, and it said hello to me.
Then, behind the trailer, was where some of the cages for the animals that Jennifer took care of were located. There were many different and beautiful animals. Jennifer even let me enter some of the cages to pet some of the animals, and take some pictures. One of the animals was a fourteen year old, female cheetah. I wasn't allowed to go all the way in her cage, but I was able to pet her and take a picture of her from the door of the cage.
After that, I went with Jennifer and her coworker to the animal clinic at the zoo. On the walls were pictures, taken during different surgeries that had been performed by the veterinarians. We then went to where some of the reptiles were kept. In there, they kept a snake that had just had surgery on its eye. it was a really big snake, about 100lbs.
When Jennifer was done, we went back to the trailer and she let me interview her. I learned a lot from the interview, especially about the types of courses I should consider taking in college if I want to have a career that involves animals. She also gave me some good advice on what to expect when having a career that involves working with animals.
Since I only shadowed Jennifer for a part of the day, when I was done, my family and I decided to enjoy the rest of the zoo, since most of us had never been there before. Since I just have a regular digital camera, my sister was able to get a lot of really good pictures of the animals with her camera. I can't wait to upload some of the pictures onto my computer, they came out really good!

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