Being a Bank Holiday Monday, here in the UK, I have a day off work today, so maybe I better use this day to catch up on last Wednesday's entry.
I contacted the bird section this morning to see if I could get access into the Lorikeet aviary. This is a walk through exhibit where visitors can also feed the lorikeets. It doesn't open until later in the morning so I needed to see if a keeper could let me in to replace some ID signs. Luckily my timing was good and I managed to get across in time to meet Rachel, a senior keeper on the bird section, so that she could let me in. As it was she was dashing off to check on the gardeners who were cutting back some ivy - Rachel is one of the bird keepers monitoring the wild bird population within the zoo grounds and she was worried as there was a robin nest in amongst the ivy, so she was in a hurry to make sure the gardeners were aware and didn't disturb or expose the nest. She gave me her keys and I let myself into the lorikeet aviary and I was able to change over the old tatty signs for some fresh new ones pretty quickly.
Back to the studio to sort out the photos on the computer, that I took yesterday of the rockpool display in Bug World. I picked out three decent images to use on the ID panel for this display and did a little adjusting of size,colour and lighting before I added them to the ID appropriate file.
Then I went back to Bug World to see if I could get any more shots. One of the hermit crabs was near the front and was sticking his head out nicely, unfortunately he was facing the wrong way so this did me no favours trying to get a photo of him. A lot of the snails were at the wrong spot in the tank for me to point the camera at without getting the distortions from the angle of the shot through water and thick glass. Mark, the assistant curator of invertebrates was around and he let me into the room where I could get to the rockpool tank off show. Here I could look down into the decetively large tank. Mark turned down a few of the water systems so that the surface was less disrupted by water from tubing flowing in. I was able to see some of the gastropods (snails etc) better and took a number of photos, playing with lighting levels to improve the shots of the limpets and different periwinkles.
After lunch I ordered some more eyelets for the bird ID's online and arranged to meet Jonny, assistant curator of the Aquarium, down at the new seahorse display in the underground section of the Seal and Penguin Coast exhibit. The seahorses and pipefish were new arrivals and had not yet really settled in so were difficult to get good photos of. I took a number just in case any came out but after discussion with Jonny it was left that he would contact me when the animals were settled and happier and consequently likely to be a lot more visible.
Whilst taking the photos a man aged about 20-30 banged on the glass window - trying to 'attract' the seahorses attention, I suppose. When Jonny asked him not to, through the glass, the man walked away grinning and laughing... he obviously thought it was funny to bang the window and get caught by a keeper. Sadly such behaviour is not uncommon and it never fails to amaze me that some visitors, rather than having a respect and compassion for the animals, seem to enjoy trying to irritate or disturb them, as if it was for their entertainment. I On the same day later that afternoon whilst up near the lion exhibit I saw a group of people teasing the lioness (she has two 15 month old youngsters that she is still very protective of) until she leapt snarling at the glass that seperated her from the humans. They all laughed, a few I think were shock at the speed and feroscity of her 'attack' as their laughs seemed a little nervous. But why do that? Was it to get a better photo or to be able to go home and say, Hey guess what I did at the zoo today? I really don't understand people treating animals that way.
Inbetween visiting Jonny and going out late in the afternoon to help Phil, the graphic design manager (my line manager), I started drawing up my next subject to illustrate - a tailless whip scorpion also known as whip spiders (not to be confused with whip scorpions). They have no stinging tail and are harmless to humans. I had taken the reference photos of this amazing beastie some months back before Christmas. I didn't have time to get the species illustrated prior to the Christmas holidays so I did the ID sign but used one of my reference photographs on it instead as a temporary measure. Now I have caught up with my species to do list it is time to get started on this invertebrate.
Last job of the day was to help Phil get a couple of the new Zoolympic panels up. The Zoolypmic trail is a series of challenges for the visitors to do so that they are able to compare themselves to, and marvel at, the abilities of some of animals. There is a running track that measures your speed between two posts, a hold your breath stop watch counter, a standing jump measure, a height board etc etc. I helped Phil get two of the new replacement panels put in place for the stand on one leg timer and the how fast is your reaction challenges. The panels are very smart and printed onto a lovely shiny perspex panel. For both the panels, holes needed to be drilled through for the start stop buttons to be reached. Phil did all the tricky drilling (done with a mean looking special drill bit) I just held the panels in place. We had a few problems but Phil sorted them out quickly and we managed to get the last of the two panels in place just before 5.30 (home time).
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