Fragile Forest

I was attached to the Fragile Forest section for the last two weeks of my attachment, which consisted of a diverse collection of animals including mouse deer, flying foxes, pheasants, toucans, arachnids and insects housed in a large aviary. The pace of work there was also rather slow, with a heavy emphasis on husbandry for the insects and kitchen husbandry, with the tasks in general being more repetitive in nature than those in the Reptiles section.

Food preparation for the animals in the aviary would usually be done at the start of the day, where each type of animal would have a different combination of food prepared for it. For example, most of the land animals would be fed a mixture of seeds, grass and pellets, whereas the flying foxes and birds would be offered fruits at a higher position, with the monkeys happily taking from both types of food. I would help with the feeding of the food before wiping the kitchen counters as well as sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor in order to prevent the attraction of pests in the kitchen. Leafy branches would have to be sorted, cut into short bundles and washed before being put in the caterpillar enclosures for feeding, and later in the day, I would clean and replenish the food for the crickets kept in the breeding room as well as replace the old decomposing food in the Giant Millipede, Rhinoceros Beetle and Mexican Snail tanks with new pieces of fruits and vegetables while also misting the tanks to create a humid environment for the animals. The stick insect enclosures would also have their leaves replaced in order to feed the stick insects, which thus involved removing the stick insects from the leafy branches by hand. This was challenging as stick insects unsurprisingly look remarkably like sticks, and separating them from the branches was a tedious task. I would also replenish the water containers for all the spider and scorpion tanks. Butterflies bred in the breeding room would also be hand caught and sent to the butterfly garden. As there was an injured mouse deer under care, we had to place it in a pet carrier and keep the pet cleaner clean, along with monitoring the healing speed of the deer’s wound. I was also assigned to help with washing the tanks and changing the substrate for the tree frogs kept back-of house on my final day at the section.

Modus Operandi of Singapore Zoo

I gained much exposure to the internal operations of the Singapore Zoo, specifically how food was prepared in the Nutrition department before being distributed, where keepers would conduct body scoring monthly and report to them such that the right amount and type of food would be prepared and brought to each section daily. Similarly, the Veterinary, Pest Control and Maintenance departments worked closely with the keepers in caring for injured or sick animals, handling pest problems and ensuring the function of the infrastructure of the exhibits respectively by corresponding with the keepers, cooperating with them to ensure problems were solved without compromising the welfare of the animals . The organisation was a well-oiled machine that operated like an organism, where different departments synergised behind the scenes to work effectively and efficiently in a systematic fashion.

Emotional Aspect of Working with the Animals

Every keeper working in zoos around the world would undoubted have a deep passion for animals and taking care of them, and I was no exception. While working with these animals, I was able to experience many of their “personalities” first hand, which certainly made every single work day unique and interesting. For example, the oldest tortoises in the Giant Tortoise exhibit were lazy giants and would often take naps in the afternoon and reacted hilariously slowly to food being brought to them, often reminding me of my own grandfather whereas the smaller ones were more playful and child-like as they would chase visitors around and had to be occupied by a keeper who would take it for “walks'' by luring it away with food. The tortoises’ antics would never fail to crack the keepers up, and made work all the more interesting. Dealing with losses however, although painful for every keeper, was part and parcel of their jobs, as my mentors explained to me. Although I slowly but surely grew attached to many of the animals I worked with, I also had to keep in mind that many animals would have to be euthanised if they had severe or contagious illnesses, and some would simply die from illness before the keepers could treat them.