It was back to the tailless whip scorpion today... tidying the outline where I had to repaint the background yesterday. Whilst that was drying I checked my emails. The text for the Asian glossy starling Aplonis panayensis was sent through by Rose, one of the Education Officers, so I was able to copy and drop it onto the ID file. Then I printed 3 copies and put them aside, safe, ready for when the birds are in the aviary and I can laminate, hole punch and put them on display.
There was a call from Ryan in Marketing and unusually he wanted to talk to me instead of Anna or Phil, who do a lot of work for the Marketing Department. He was after some photos of a Von Der Deckens hornbill and a kea, both species we have at the zoo, but which he could not find a suitable photo for what he wanted. So he was asking if I had any in my collection from when I take reference photos etc. I had none at work so I will check my photo library at home.
John, the Senior Curator of Mammals, popped up to the studio this morning to let us know that they had moved both the okapis across successfully and uneventfully this morning. All had gone much better than planned it seems; a testament to all the preparation work over the last few weeks done by the animal keepers to prepare Lodja and Rubani (our two okapis) for the move. So the up shot of this was that I was clear to remove the interpretation panels both inside and out of the previous okapi enclosure and as the okapis were being kept in, to allow them to settle, I had clear access to the new paddock area to put up the panels on the fencing.
So Anna and I went across to remove the name signs and interp panels and then put them up in their new positions. It takes two as the panels are attached to the fence by screws going through an aluminium strip one side of the fence and into the wood attached to the panel on the other forming a brace. The job was hampered slightly first by a couple of stubborn screws refusing to budge taking the signs down and then by our cordless screwdriver running out of umph as we put them back up!
I nipped back to the studio to get a normal screwdriver and put the other battery on charge ready for taking down the last panel this afternoon.
After lunch the battery was charged enough for me to go and remove the last okapi panel. This one is on a stand by the outside paddock. It didn't come apart as I thought it would as the wood sides on the panel were not only screwed but glued into place. So after some revised investigation of how it was put together I worked out how to get the panel off. Finding two other screws that acted as restraining bolts that once taken out, the panel could be slipped out of the back of the stand. I had help from Emily, a senior keeper, who was walking by as I struggled with my dismantling operation.
She left me to remove the last name sign holder; which due to rusty bolts, proved a little awkward. To remove both the panel and holder I had to climb over the rope fence on the walkway, jump across a gap to a small ledge of wet rock that a wire fence was attached to by posts. Then I had to sidle along the ledge of varying rocks, being careful not to rely on the fence at it was far from capable of holding my weight and behind it was a drop of about 4 foot down into the okapi paddock. Needless to say something had to go down there and after managing to get both jobs done I dropped a small spanner... yup, into the paddock.
Too far to reach and having no radio to call a nearby keeper to let me into the paddock, I surveyed the fence. It was just about high enough for me to climb over but to do so I would need to hold onto the fence and let it take my weight at some point... I didn't fancy the chances of that being a totally successful venture. So looking along the fence line I saw that further down it was lower on some higher rock. So I carefully worked my way along and climbed over and then carefully sidled back along the rock ledge outcrop on the other side to where the spanner lay.
Luckily there were some convenient footholds for me to climb down and back up again once I had retrieved the naughty spanner. Then I retraced my steps along the dodgy rock ledge and back over the fence, along the rock ledge on the other side and then back over the gap and rope fence. Gathering all my things it was time to head back to the studio.
I got back to painting the tailless whip scorpion and tried again to put in the beastie's shadow. Usually I have no problem getting the shadow more or less right - both colour and strength wise, but again I was having problems - just wasn't happy with what I kept laying down. So after the second failed attempt I was glad when Mark, Assistant Curator of invertebrates, rang to ask if it was convenient for him to pop over. Last week I had asked him to pop over when he had a few spare mins to help me identify the snail photo's I had taken. I needed to know what were the edible periwinkles, flat periwinkles and grey topshells, so I could file them in separate folders allowing me to pick the best shot for each.
As we were going through all the rock pool species making sure I had them in the right folders, Mark dropped into the conversation that two invert species were going to go on show in Twilight World (the nocturnal house). This included the tailless whip scorpion and they were to go in the cave area of the house - a section which has only backlit text to go with each species, no illustrations. Mark obviously wants the ID's to be illustrated but this would be different than what is provided for the other species. This is something I have no say in; Phil will make the decision on whether any new species going in should or should not have illustrations. So the tailless whip scorpion illustration has to be put on hold until that decision is made. Considering the problems I've been having with the shadow, perhaps something was telling me not to do too much work on this beastie yet!
Finally my last job for the day was resizing and positioning the relevant dietary symbols next to each rock pool species that Mark had given me the info for when he was in the studio earlier.
All done for this week... time to go home.
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