WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.250 My name is Kara Johnson. 2 00:00:02.250 --> 00:00:04.980 I am a zookeeper at the Central Florida Zoo 3 00:00:04.980 --> 00:00:06.730 and Botanical Gardens. 4 00:00:06.730 --> 00:00:08.640 So we have oour zoo broken up 5 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:11.610 line:15% into five different departments, 6 00:00:11.610 --> 00:00:14.380 line:15% so the small mammals is the department I'm in. 7 00:00:14.380 --> 00:00:17.610 line:15% And I'm the primary caretaker of the monkeys, 8 00:00:17.610 --> 00:00:19.450 line:15% the sloth, and the porcupines. 9 00:00:19.450 --> 00:00:22.728 But also in my department are otters, lemurs, 10 00:00:22.728 --> 00:00:25.000 and some kinkajous. 11 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:27.900 line:15% So usually, we start our day, we get there, 12 00:00:27.900 --> 00:00:30.550 line:15% we check on everyone to make sure they're all bright, 13 00:00:30.550 --> 00:00:34.010 line:15% alert, and there, so that's important. 14 00:00:34.010 --> 00:00:38.250 line:15% And then we get what we call enrichment together, 15 00:00:38.250 --> 00:00:42.650 which is things that we use to help trigger 16 00:00:42.650 --> 00:00:45.715 those natural behaviors from our animals. 17 00:00:45.715 --> 00:00:46.820 So it could be something like a puzzle feeder, 18 00:00:46.820 --> 00:00:51.300 it could be a mirror, it could be a whole bunch of things, 19 00:00:51.300 --> 00:00:54.790 that get our animals active and thinking and working. 20 00:00:54.790 --> 00:00:57.150 So we get those together, and we get our diets, 21 00:00:57.150 --> 00:01:00.010 which are prepared by our nutrition center. 22 00:01:00.010 --> 00:01:03.698 line:15% And then we start by cleaning, doing a lot of cleaning. 23 00:01:03.698 --> 00:01:08.698 line:15% So we go from exhibit to exhibit and, just disinfecting, 24 00:01:09.140 --> 00:01:11.340 line:15% picking up poop, pick up old food. 25 00:01:11.340 --> 00:01:13.830 line:15% Taking out the old enrichment, putting in new stuff, 26 00:01:13.830 --> 00:01:17.380 and scattering their food around however we need. 27 00:01:17.380 --> 00:01:19.670 So all of our animals need vet care 28 00:01:19.670 --> 00:01:21.710 just like our dogs and cats. 29 00:01:21.710 --> 00:01:24.440 They get vaccines, they get annual checkups 30 00:01:24.440 --> 00:01:26.000 or triennial checkups 31 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:29.540 every three years, so we do a lot of training 32 00:01:29.540 --> 00:01:32.040 to make that as stress-free as possible. 33 00:01:32.040 --> 00:01:35.300 So a lot of our animals are injection trained, 34 00:01:35.300 --> 00:01:37.880 meaning they are happy to take an injection 35 00:01:37.880 --> 00:01:41.670 to a certain part of the body, and they get paid for it. 36 00:01:41.670 --> 00:01:44.483 line:15% So they usually are like, yeah, let's do this. 37 00:01:45.520 --> 00:01:49.277 line:15% But we also do target training, which is just having them 38 00:01:49.277 --> 00:01:51.763 line:15% move and touch a certain target. 39 00:01:53.035 --> 00:01:54.780 And that helps us give them exercise, 40 00:01:54.780 --> 00:01:57.440 and it helps us move them to certain areas 41 00:01:57.440 --> 00:01:59.550 that we want them to be. 42 00:01:59.550 --> 00:02:03.350 We do just a whole bunch of different stuff, 43 00:02:03.350 --> 00:02:05.310 whatever the animal needs, essentially. 44 00:02:05.310 --> 00:02:08.270 Education is a huge part, because you know, 45 00:02:08.270 --> 00:02:10.920 where else are a lot of these visitors 46 00:02:10.920 --> 00:02:15.920 going to see a giraffe or, you know, a spot-nosed guenon? 47 00:02:16.200 --> 00:02:21.200 So I think a lot of the times, it's us trying to convey 48 00:02:21.310 --> 00:02:24.390 our passion to the visitors, that yeah, 49 00:02:24.390 --> 00:02:27.310 a crested porcupine is an amazing animal, 50 00:02:27.310 --> 00:02:29.323 line:15% and deserves our attention and care, 51 00:02:30.840 --> 00:02:34.500 line:15% especially with all the habitat destruction 52 00:02:34.500 --> 00:02:37.920 line:15% and all of the animals going endangered and extinct 53 00:02:37.920 --> 00:02:40.830 in the wild, it's really our role to educate people 54 00:02:40.830 --> 00:02:43.340 on why they're important, and why we should work 55 00:02:43.340 --> 00:02:45.093 really hard to keep them around.