Honorary zookeeper for a day spends birthday feeding critters
Jamie Hall
The Edmonton Journal
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
An armadillo plays shy during the Valley Zoo's Zookeeper for a Day program on the weekend.
CREDIT: John Lucas, The Journal
An armadillo plays shy during the Valley Zoo's Zookeeper for a Day program on the weekend.
EDMONTON -- Lisa Budney called the brightly decorated envelopes stuffed with wriggling mealworms "monkey mail." Falon Hulme called them "gross."
It's all in how you look at things.
On the weekend, 13-year-old Falon got the opportunity to look at Edmonton's Valley Zoo from a behind-the-scenes perspective by taking part in the Zookeeper for a Day program.
Nine kids between the ages of seven and 13, each accompanied by an adult, spent the day with Budney, an education interpreter, observing, feeding and cleaning up after the animals. They also made special crafts for the primates.
The monkey mail made by the group was delivered to the spider monkeys' habitat, where each envelope was tied onto tree branches. Within seconds, the monkeys had used their dextrous fingers to rip open the sealed envelopes and feast on the slimy contents.
The zookeeper program runs twice a year and is designed to be part education and part fun.
For Charissa Traverse, though, it's also serious business. She hopes to one day to make a career of animal care and chose the program as the venue for her 12th birthday party, bringing along three of her friends.
"She is an animal fanatic," said her mom, Marny.
"She reads about them, she writes about them, she has notebooks that are full of all kinds of facts and figures about animals."
Falon also had more than just fun in mind when she asked her mother to register her for the program.
"I would love to be a zoologist one day," she said as she mucked out the Arctic wolves' outdoor enclosure.
The wolves arrived six months ago from Quebec and are relative newcomers to the zoo. They're also part of an expanded northern climate theme, something the zoo is moving toward to reflect not just the region's weather, but to make its exhibits more focused and more educational.
After the honorary zookeepers finished tidying up their home, the wolves were let out to inspect their work, and immediately dipped their pointy snouts to the cold Earth.
"There are fresh smells all over here now from all the people," said Budney, laughing.
"That'll keep them busy all day."
jhall@thejournal.canwest.com
© The Edmonton Journal 2007