Tyler Courier-Times-Telegraph (July 18, 2004)

The Wild Life: Zoo Crew Gives Caldwell Menagerie 24-Hour Care
By ANGELA GRANT, Staff Writer

As the sun begins its climb and most people are rolling out of bed at 7 a.m., the Caldwell Zoo is already a flurry of activity.

Grounds maintenance workers are cleaning, trainers are feeding animals and releasing them into the exhibits and commissary workers are preparing enough food to feed an army.

Mornings are a rush as workers prepare for the zoo's 9:30 a.m. opening. But the zoo workers' jobs never end; they work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to care for the animals and maintain the zoo.

Workers say the behind-the-scenes operations that keep the zoo up and running are largely unknown to the estimated 600,000 people who visit each year.

"A zoo is a very complex operation," said Caldwell Zoo Assistant Director Scott Maddox.   "It's kind of like a small city. It makes a constant challenge, and I love that."

KEEPERS WORK 24/7

Zoo visitors might think animal keepers get to play and interact with the animals as part of their jobs, said Lisa Clay, mammals supervisor II.

The reality is that keepers rarely enter the habitats where the animals spend their days.

"A lot of people have preconceived notions that the animals are tame," she said. "They're just about as wild as you'd find out in the woods."

Three keepers did enter the tamarin habitat Wednesday to capture a female tamarin due for a regular examination. The kitten-sized, fluffy-faced primate's wild nature was evident in its reaction to the intruders.

Mammal keeper III Patsy Smith stood in the enclosure with a yellow broom, trying to encourage the tamarin to enter the attached building where the keepers would trap her and transport her to the zoo's animal hospital.

"Go! Go, easy!" Ms. Smith said.

The female, along with the other tamarins in the exhibit, skirted up vines and around the fence, issuing alarmed squeaks like the warbling of baby birds. Finally the keepers gave up.

"It doesn't look like we're going to get them this time," Ms. Clay said. "Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."

The 28 keepers employed by the Caldwell Zoo are split into three shifts that ensure someone is always working.

There are bird keepers, reptile keepers and two types of mammal keepers: those who care for large mammals such as giraffes, elephants and rhinos, and those who care for all other mammals.

Trainers on each shift have specific duties to keep the zoo operating.

Ms. Clay and her team arrive at 7:30 a.m. to begin cleaning habitats, feeding animals and releasing animals from the buildings where they sleep. Trainers pull a cable and the doors to the animals' stalls open, so workers don't come in contact with the animals.

The keepers make exhibits interesting by adding "enrichments" - things like new scents, food items or hidden toys that the animals look for and play with when they come out.

"That way, they're not so bored during the day," Ms. Clay said.

The next shift arrives at 3:30 p.m. and works until midnight.

"We're the ones that usually no one knows about," said Jimmy Coker, night keeper supervisor. Many animals are fed at night, and the night keepers' first duty is to distribute food to the animals' buildings.

When the zoo closes at 6 p.m., the night keepers let certain animals inside - a task that can be simple or difficult, depending on the animal.

"They all know the routine, they're all ready," Coker said. "They have that internal clock that tells them it's time to eat."

Most animals were waiting by their buildings for Coker to enter and pull the cable that would open the door. Once inside, they run to the food bowl and begin munching.

But the zoo's five giraffes - one male, four females - are a different story. Each has a designated stall where it stays for the night, but the giant mammals don't seem to know it.

"They're not very bright," Coker said. "But they're cool to look at."

Coker opened a series of gates on Wednesday night, then ran around to the prairie area where the giraffes spend their time and gave a yell for them to come in.

A few minutes passed before the giraffes ambled around the corner and stopped in their tracks right before entering the building.

They stared at Coker as he urged them to come in, then eventually crossed the threshold. But they strayed into the wrong holding area and began munching on alfalfa hay, ignoring Coker's calls.

"Sometimes we use a little water, spray them with the hose a bit, then they come in," Coker said. "You have to keep changing it up and trying new things until it works."

Finally, after enough yelling, arm-waving and hose-spraying, the giraffes ambled into the right areas and Coker closed the gates.

WILL WORK FOR FOOD

It takes a lot of work each week to dole out 1,300 pounds of fruits and vegetables, 900 pounds of meat products, 128 bales of hay and 3,500 pounds of grain and dry feed products.

But four employees in the zoo's commissary department dish out about that much grub weekly to feed the zoo's 216 animal species.

In a central kitchen with stainless steel counters and food-preparation gadgets galore, three workers brandish cutting knives and get started with a radio playing in the background.

They'll work from 6:30 a.m. to about noon preparing the diets for the following day, commissary manager Judson Phillips said.

A 3-by-5-foot cart is loaded with apples, oranges, and bananas, romaine lettuce and other greens.

Plastic bags line the countertop, waiting to be filled with carefully sliced mixtures of the plethora of ingredients.

Dena Pope, tech II, cuts sweet potatoes for a parrot diet.

"We try to cut it like french fries so when they pick them up and eat it, they can hold onto it and eat at the same time," Ms. Pope said.

Many diets specify how the food should be cut so animals can easily eat it, she said. That's a lot for workers to remember, considering the number of complex diets the group prepares.

"It's hard because the diets change every day," said Sonia Arzola, a tech II who has worked for 20 years in various zoo positions.

Phillips said the zoo decides what each animal should eat based on a "zootrition" program that creates recipe cards showing the exact amounts of each kind of food the animal needs. He said he has memorized many recipes, but still refers to the cards occasionally.

It seems like it would be just as easy to forget where the ingredients are stored. Containers of dried food line the wall under a countertop, each carefully labeled with names like "trout chow," "monkey chow" and "parrot mix."

A walk-in refrigerator is like a small bedroom decorated in a grocery produce section motif. Turnips, collard greens, romaine lettuce, spinach, broccoli and various fruits rest on shelves along one wall, while thawed meat is stacked in the opposite corner.

Boxes of frozen meat, fish and rodents hide the walls of a walk-in freezer connected to the fridge.

Not all zoos have a centralized kitchen, Phillips said, but the Caldwell Zoo benefits from the operation.

"You can have more consistency," he said. "I know only four people will prepare the diets."

CLEAN AND TIDY

The 2,000 animals at the zoo generate a lot of waste: Turf and Waste

Department employees each day collect and dump 20 bins of manure, each measuring 4 feet by 4 feet.

The waste is transported to two full-size Dumpsters, where it is compacted and disposed of, said Gloria Perez, grounds maintenance supervisor. The zoo may begin a composting program to make use of the waste sometime in the future, she said.

Even without the extra fertilizer, the landscape at the zoo would be the envy of any home gardener.

Grounds maintenance employees start patrolling the zoo grounds every day, starting at 6 a.m., to mow the habitats, clean parking lots and picnic areas, and water the landscaping and potted plants before guests begin arriving at 9:30 a.m.

The department also maintains each exhibit at the zoo, and must coordinate with trainers to find times when animals and visitors will not be affected, Ms. Perez said.

"We never go out on the exhibit when the animals are out," she said. "We make sure they're safe, as well as ourselves."

In all, nine employees clean and maintain the entire zoo.

"I try to maintain as much as I can for the public, make sure everything looks nice," Ms. Perez said.

"I really want (visitors) to feel relaxed and enjoy themselves while they're here."

Used with permission, Tyler Morning Telegraph