Day 3, 4 and 5
Bird section
Since I'm on a speedy track, I have been given 3 days to experience one sector (this gives me the chance to experience as many different sectors possible within 1 month).
My first section was the birds; every living thing in the zoo that has wings, the responsibilities belong to this section.
Their day basically starts at 7am everyday. If they work fast enough, their day could end at 4pm and they are good to go or else they will have to chug through to 5pm. This section has 9 people in total, but there will be at least one person on holiday everyday and they will take turns. Which means there will have to be at least 5 people in this sector to get things done, otherwise everything will just malfunction. There's quite alot to do in this section, mainly cleaning.
Arriving at 7am, there will be two staffs in the kitchen preparing food to be delivered to all the birds in the zoo. Precisely how many cages there are, what kind of birds living in the cages or in the enclosure, what their diet is, these two person in the kitchen must make sure that every bird gets their food. Food that needs to be prepared are chopped fruits (bananas, apples, honeydew, carrots, long beans, papayas), pellets, dog food (I was surprised by this one), bread, mill-worms, nuts, meat and supplement calcium (I think). Their meals have all been modified and some would say these are luxurious meals to the birds because they get all kinds of food they need without moving about. Though I would argue and say that it's sad because the animals have kinda lost their natural animal instinct. My thoughts are that these animals wouldn't be able to survive in the wild. Food preparation is prepared in their own kitchen. The staff here claimed that they are the only section with a kitchen to prepare the food. I'll explain more about this later on. But honestly, it really does look like something you would see in a restaurant with a clear glass between the sitting area and the kitchen that is preparing your meal for you. There will be rows upon rows of aluminium plates on the table and almost all the plates are of different sizes and contains different amount of food on each plate. It is pretty remarkable how the staff remembers which bird eats what and how much food it requires. Because if they miss any one meal out or somehow, this cage of birds will go hungry and things could happen.
By 8am, the food has to be sent out. The remaining staffs of the day would walk into the kitchen and bring out the stacked up plates of food for the birds. It's somewhat like a banquet, somewhat like a grand event dinner taking place and the food comes out of the kitchen at one go. Different staff will be responsible for different areas of this section everyday. This is necessary because there's quite alot.. The bird aviary is ONE section that is divided into two, and this is where the visitors would walk into and look at birds. But the truth is, there's four more areas at the back that are filled with birds in their cages. I would guess that normal guests walking into the zoos, complaining about why there were so little birds in this zoo. I was shocked to know how many more birds there were at the back. I asked the staff why were there so many birds at the back and why aren't they in front. They say that these birds at the back will be released to the front when the ones in front dies. It is also possible that these breeding really easily too. Hrmmm.. OR it could simply be a reason because there wasn't enough space for all the birds to be in front. I don't know.
At 8am, there will be one person in charge of the kitchen. This person will be working in the kitchen from 8am until 2pm. What this person does is.. chop cabbage, peel bananas, chop carrots, blend carrots, chop more fruits. These preparations were mainly for the morning feed of the next day. Ah. I don't even know how to explain this in words. There's just so much to prepare for the morning feed that it all has to be done the day before. I'd tell you to try imagining that, because that's the best that I could do. I forgotten to take pictures of this because it was too mesmerising LOL. Even the evening feed is only prepared at 3pm for the feed before 4pm, though to be fair, only a small population of the birds require evening feed.
The other staff will be outside working at the enclosures, making sure that the enclosures are leaf-free, removing grass and trees to maintain the enclosures from looking like an absolute jungle that had not been taken care of. This bit was the harder one, because of the labour work that needs to be done under the punishing weather of Malaysia. Though honestly, if I continued reminding myself about how it benefits the animals I really didn't mind doing the work.
At 2pm, it was time to clean the cages. These couple of days that I have been around along with 4 other interns, the staffs had help with cleaning. We probably slowed down the process instead of speeding it up. HAHAHA. You know how you are used to doing something and it becomes a routine, but somebody just pops up to help you; sometimes you just rather not let them help you because you know it will delay things? But oh well, we had to learn and understand the importance of cleaning the cages anyways. Which is good. Step 1: wet the floor with water, this is to ease scrubbing of poo. Step 2: take the brush, brush the food stand and water container. Step 3: rinse the food stand and water container. Step 4: fill the water container with water. Step 5: Scrub the cement floor. Step 6: Hose whatever scrape food that has been messily scattered by the birds (food and poop). Step 7: move on. I lost count of how many cages they were at the back, but there's 3 strips of cages at the back (4, because there's one right behind the 'headquarters' that has two sections, technically one very long strip that is twice the length of other strips), one staff will be allocated to one strip each (except the one behind the hq, one person does both, I don't know why). The aviary doesn't need cleaning, more of sweeping and clearing of tree and plant stuff instead of scrubbing poop.
By 3.30pm, cage cleaning in all the sections should be done. It is now time for the evening feed. Kitchen prep, and food will be pouring out of the kitchen to the respective cages once again. There's 2 section outside of this area that is they are responsible as well: Flamingoes and Storks/Pelicans. The Flamingoes were at this location near the Savannah, which requires one staff to walk all the way there just to feed the Flamingoes. Storks and Pelicans get fed 3 times a day, these are free-roamers in this zoo. The amount of food that is provided to these free-roamers are usually not enough because they are free to roam and free to breed however they like, which means there are more birds than food available. But thankfully they are trained to get their food. At the blow of a whistle or horn, they will fly to the source of the sound and expect food. Pelicans were higher in the priority of attaining food from the staffs, simply because their numbers were much smaller than the storks. So I guess the only bird that still has its natural instincts would be the painted storks that lives in the middle of the lake in Zoo Negara.
I think I've covered everything in the Birds Sector.
No doubt about it, these people are really nice. But the quote to remember from this sector would be 'We don't chase for time, time chases us'. After working 1 day with them, yeah.. I totally agree. They really have to work a whole lot within the short period of time in order to get everything done. There really is alot to be done in this sector.
But as I have already experienced 2 sectors, both were mentioning how their sectors were different from the other in terms of work load.
'Oh, we've got more work to do. You finish early there right? That's all you do there, right?'
'It must be boring at that sector, huh?'
NOT PICKING SIDES. Secretly wishing they could exchange workers for a day just so they could just stop saying that kind of things. Part of me feels like these people were working here because it was their best option instead of having a deep passion for animals. But this is me having a point of view.
One of the cockatoo has a bare chest, it didn't have any feather on it. Apparently it was too bored that it started plucking it's own feathers off its own body. Yet there was nothing that could be done, because these workers had their time occupied with work in maintaining the animals living conditions. Yes, the workers love their animals, but they don't have the time, ability nor knowledge to enrich the lives of these caged animals. They know every kind of birds there is in this sector, it is amazing though. But they couldn't relate their body parts that links to the lifestyle of the birds, they could only tell why because of what they were taught to do. Life in the zoo, is routine.
Next sector: Carnivores.
'Don't get eaten, please?'
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