Behind the Scenes at the Zoo

*I've tried posting this a few times since last Friday. I think Picassa is having some tech problems with their "blog this" button. Anyway, until they get it resolved, I may or may not post very many pics because as I was reminded by making the necessary corrections so this post would have pictures in it, it can take forever for stuff to upload the old fashion way. If I didn't already have Picassa, I would get it for their "blog this" feature alone {provided that it works :-) }*

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A few weekends ago we took the girls to the "Behind the Scenes" weekend at the Zoo. We set out to see all the special exhibits that we missed last March when we came to the same event.


What's really fun about the behind the scenes days is that you get to see lots of stuff that you couldn't on a normal day. Since it's still cold, many of the animals that aren't very active during our usual visits in the Summer, are out enjoying their habitats. And because it's not crowded at all, we could get a better and longer look at all the animals which led to fun discussions of which ones would make the best pets and why. The girls were trying to make a strong case for bringing home a prairie dog.


There were also special hands on exhibits that aren't always set out on usual days. The girls loved these taxidermed animals of Wisconsin.


While visiting the zoo's animal hospital, we saw a cheetah being operated on. Because of a medical condition he has, he had some lesions that he tore at with his teeth badly enough that he needed surgery to repair them.

It bothered Rebekah a lot to see the cheetah like this, and I could understand. Seeing the surgery was kind of frightening and even somewhat gross, but there was also something very compelling about seeing this and I couldn't stop watching the procedure.


We went to the aviary and were able to see the zoo keeper's food prep area which was really gross! Not that the zoo smells all that great to begin with, but many of the behind the scenes areas smelled terrible. After describing to us in great detail all the food options on the trays in front of us and explaining how important these dead bugs, rodents, fish, and lizards are to the bird's diet, the zoo volunteer asked us if anyone in our group was considering being a bird keeper when they grew up. No one raised their hand. Emma looked around hesitantly and seeing that no one had any interest in taking care of the birds she gingerly raised her hand up to about shoulder height and reluctantly agreed to the job. Poor thing, all concerned about the birds and their disgusting food.


We saw this cute giraffe looking like she was chewing gum...


So Rebekah went outside and did her best impression.


This baby Joey was just as curious about the girls as they were of him.























Another neat place was the train yard where they store and maintain the zoo train during the Winter months. The kids ran in and out of all the empty cars and saw the engines being worked on and prepared to start running again soon. It was way off at the back of the zoo and the girls thought they were uncovering all the hidden secrets of the zoo.


It was interesting to see everything that goes on behind the scenes to care for the animals, but one thing we've learned for sure, is that the work of a zoo keeper is not for the slightly squeamish! There were a few times, particularly when we were invited into the freezers where all the food for the animals is stored, that I thought to myself that I really could have gone on enjoying visits to the zoo without ever having seen that.