On the 22nd November, I went to Colchester Zoo for a “keeper for a day” experience, bought as a 21st birthday present by family. I was looking forward to it, and I am proud to say that I was not disappointed.
The day started with the Humboldt’s penguins (named for Alexander von Humboldt); of which, the zoo has two colonies (in separate areas). They are the most common penguin in British zoos, due to I was given a bucket of fish and told to feed the penguins; when I entered, a small group of them quickly surrounded me. It was there I found out that Happy Feet was, in fact, a dirty lie. Now, to my credit, I tried to make sure each penguin got a fish and that nobody was left out; however, I found that, when I put a fish down, the penguins all immediately began fighting over it, so making sure that everybody got an equal share became a pointless exercise. “No manners in the penguin world”, as the keeper put it and it’s absolutely true.
Next up was the sealions; Colchester has five female Patagonian sealions, all named for major world cities (Paris, Winnipeg, Atlanta, Milan and Sydney); apparently, males require a separate pool for when the females have pups. Firstly, we got to meet them all from behind the mesh in their indoor area. The first thing I have to say is that they are bigger than I expected; Paris, the largest of the bunch, weighed about 150kg, and, apparently, a male would be about twice that.
After that, we got to help target-train Sydney, one of the smaller females (I think they were going easy on me); this basically involved putting a ball glued to a stick on the mesh of the door and moving it around, with the sealion following the ball with its nose. After that, we basically got to play fetch with Sydney, throwing balls and other objects into the water for her to retrieve. To cap it off, we got to help in the sealion demonstration, basically waving a ball in front of the viewing area for the sealions to come to.
What I was amazed by is how intensive the sealion training actually is; apparently, it takes months to teach them a single thing. Training is also an ongoing process, in order to make sure the sealions remain familiar with the routine. It was also a little amusing as to how dog-like the sealions behaved; Patagonian sealions, in personality, are pretty much Skye with flippers.
The next animals on the list were the lemurs and the orangutans, with a brief detour through the chimpanzees.
First stop was at the lemurs. The lemurs at Colchester are kept in a large, walk-through enclosure, which is split into two halves; the main troop in one side, and a smaller group of bachelor males in the other. It was the latter we got to meet. We took a large box filled with food pellets in the enclosure, and I was told to just sit on a rock and wait for them. I didn’t have to wait long; the ring-tailed lemurs were very… enthusiastic to know I had food and spent pretty much the whole time climbing all over me. At one point, I had about ten lemurs climbing all over me; one of them, aptly named Julien, seemed to particularly like sitting on my shoulder. Eventually, when I ran out of food, they lost interest in me; which, to be honest, I found a little hurtful.
After that enthralling experience, we went to the orangutans. When we were there, Colchester exhibited two males; Rajang, a Bornean/Sumatran hybrid (hybridisation is no longer allowed; things have changed in the fifty years since he was born), and Tiga, a pure Bornean. We had to, believe it or not, give them a cup of tea! Rajang had strawberry flavoured Complan, whilst Tiga, (who was a bit… ahem, constipated), had orange flavoured Fybogel added to his! It wasn’t until doing this I realised how much stronger the great apes actually are than humans; we gave them the tea by pouring into their mouths through the bars and I could feel the tug on the spout just from their lips. We then had to give them dates placed in a small tube of firehose as a treat. Fortunately, the orangutans behaved impeccably throughout the whole procedure.
After lunch, it was time to meet the animals of Colchester Zoo’s Edge of Africa exhibit.
The first animal we met was the spotted hyenas; Colchester is one of only two zoos in the UK that has them (the other being Longleat Safari Park). This was the part that I was looking the most forward to. Any preconception you could have about hyenas as ugly, dirty, cowardly scavengers will be utterly destroyed when you actually meet them. You will find that they are actually fiercely intelligent, fearless hunters (and are also utterly adorable) and have been incredibly wrongly portrayed in certain media (the keeper shared my sentiments). So, the three hyenas (a male and two females; the male is the father of the other two) came bounding up to us like large, excitable dogs (that can crush bone); one of them even let the keeper scratch it under the chin, just like one would with a dog. The hyenas were kept in their off-show paddocks whilst we put various bits of raw chicken around the enclosure for the purposes of enrichment; after that, we watched the hyenas tear around the paddock in search of what we had left. Even the poor old bullied male got a bit of chicken.
After that, we went to meet the mandrills; the largest monkeys in the world, with their brightly coloured faces (and bottoms). Like with the lemurs, we had food pellets, which we gave to the mandrills through the bars. Like the lemurs, the mandrills were very curious about us and readily came up to the bars to get the pellets. The most notable thing I have to say about this one is that the alpha male, Gizmo, saw me as a threat to his superiority and made threat gestures at me throughout (to be honest, he’s giving me too much credit there).
Next up was the warthogs (apparently, if the keeper had a penny for every time he heard someone say “Hakuna Matata” at the enclosure, he’d be rich). We threw fruits and vegetables into the warthog paddock, which the warthog ate, with the exception of some broccoli; apparently, the warthogs will leave that uneaten because they know the broccoli attracts rabbits, which they actually hunt and kill. Fun fact, that.
Finally, it was the cheetahs. We went into the enclosure housing the female cheetah (whilst she was in the off-show paddock) and put a whole chicken in to feed her. Trying to give her a challenge, we attached it to a branch and let her out to “catch” it… however, she had other ideas; she refused to jump up to the branch to grab it, so we had to put her back in the off-show paddock, go in again and put the chicken on the ground, so she could get to it with the least possible effort. So much for fastest cat alive!
What I was impressed by was the sheer knowledge and dedication that the keepers showed and their eagerness to share that knowledge with us; they were always perfectly willing to answer questions about their work. Throughout the day, I learned a lot of little facts about what goes on behind the scenes at Colchester Zoo and how the animals are cared for. It was a very eye-opening experience about what life is like behind the scenes at a zoo.
Overall, it was a fantastic day; I’d rate it a solid 10/10.
The day started with the Humboldt’s penguins (named for Alexander von Humboldt); of which, the zoo has two colonies (in separate areas). They are the most common penguin in British zoos, due to I was given a bucket of fish and told to feed the penguins; when I entered, a small group of them quickly surrounded me. It was there I found out that Happy Feet was, in fact, a dirty lie. Now, to my credit, I tried to make sure each penguin got a fish and that nobody was left out; however, I found that, when I put a fish down, the penguins all immediately began fighting over it, so making sure that everybody got an equal share became a pointless exercise. “No manners in the penguin world”, as the keeper put it and it’s absolutely true.
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| Don't let appearances fool you... there's no manners in the penguin world |
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| I'm not playing tug-of-war with the sealion - I'm target-training it. |
After that, we got to help target-train Sydney, one of the smaller females (I think they were going easy on me); this basically involved putting a ball glued to a stick on the mesh of the door and moving it around, with the sealion following the ball with its nose. After that, we basically got to play fetch with Sydney, throwing balls and other objects into the water for her to retrieve. To cap it off, we got to help in the sealion demonstration, basically waving a ball in front of the viewing area for the sealions to come to.
What I was amazed by is how intensive the sealion training actually is; apparently, it takes months to teach them a single thing. Training is also an ongoing process, in order to make sure the sealions remain familiar with the routine. It was also a little amusing as to how dog-like the sealions behaved; Patagonian sealions, in personality, are pretty much Skye with flippers.
The next animals on the list were the lemurs and the orangutans, with a brief detour through the chimpanzees.
First stop was at the lemurs. The lemurs at Colchester are kept in a large, walk-through enclosure, which is split into two halves; the main troop in one side, and a smaller group of bachelor males in the other. It was the latter we got to meet. We took a large box filled with food pellets in the enclosure, and I was told to just sit on a rock and wait for them. I didn’t have to wait long; the ring-tailed lemurs were very… enthusiastic to know I had food and spent pretty much the whole time climbing all over me. At one point, I had about ten lemurs climbing all over me; one of them, aptly named Julien, seemed to particularly like sitting on my shoulder. Eventually, when I ran out of food, they lost interest in me; which, to be honest, I found a little hurtful.
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| Me with some rather... enthusiastic lemurs |
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| Me and old man Rajang (RIP) |
The first animal we met was the spotted hyenas; Colchester is one of only two zoos in the UK that has them (the other being Longleat Safari Park). This was the part that I was looking the most forward to. Any preconception you could have about hyenas as ugly, dirty, cowardly scavengers will be utterly destroyed when you actually meet them. You will find that they are actually fiercely intelligent, fearless hunters (and are also utterly adorable) and have been incredibly wrongly portrayed in certain media (the keeper shared my sentiments). So, the three hyenas (a male and two females; the male is the father of the other two) came bounding up to us like large, excitable dogs (that can crush bone); one of them even let the keeper scratch it under the chin, just like one would with a dog. The hyenas were kept in their off-show paddocks whilst we put various bits of raw chicken around the enclosure for the purposes of enrichment; after that, we watched the hyenas tear around the paddock in search of what we had left. Even the poor old bullied male got a bit of chicken.
 |
| Spotted hyenas waiting for food - just like dogs. Look at that and try to not say "Awww!" |
Next up was the warthogs (apparently, if the keeper had a penny for every time he heard someone say “Hakuna Matata” at the enclosure, he’d be rich). We threw fruits and vegetables into the warthog paddock, which the warthog ate, with the exception of some broccoli; apparently, the warthogs will leave that uneaten because they know the broccoli attracts rabbits, which they actually hunt and kill. Fun fact, that.
 |
| Warthogs - you'll learn to love 'em! |
What I was impressed by was the sheer knowledge and dedication that the keepers showed and their eagerness to share that knowledge with us; they were always perfectly willing to answer questions about their work. Throughout the day, I learned a lot of little facts about what goes on behind the scenes at Colchester Zoo and how the animals are cared for. It was a very eye-opening experience about what life is like behind the scenes at a zoo.
Overall, it was a fantastic day; I’d rate it a solid 10/10.
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