LAU EN MENG, ZACH

Summary

From 6th January to 31st January, I was attached to the Singapore Zoo’s Reptiles and Fragile Forest sections for two weeks each as a Student Volunteer, where I helped the keepers with daily tasks and caught a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes lives of zookeepers at Singapore Zoo. As the back-of-house photographs cannot be shared, the images included below are unfortunately rather limited.

Background Information of WRS

Wildlife Reserves Singapore is the holding company of the award-winning attractions Jurong Bird Park, Night Safari, Singapore Zoo and the newly-opened River Safari, and is dedicated to the management of world-class leisure attractions that foster conservation and research, while educating visitors about animals and birds, and their habitats. The organisation aspires to be a world-leading zoological institution that inspires people to value and conserve biodiversity by providing meaningful and memorable wildlife experiences with a focus on protecting biodiversity in Singapore and the Region, recognising People, Wildlife and Community as one entity in our efforts of Conservation, Education, Recreation and Research. It upholds ethics-centric core values as a corporation, believing in Excellence - striving for the highest standards, Teamwork - accomplishing even greater feats together, Hospitality - serving from the heart, Integrity - acting honestly and fairly, Sustainability - embracing eco-friendly practices and Care for Wildlife.

Background Information for Attachment

The Wildlife Reserves Zoology volunteering programme is open to students in related studies, Conservation Ambassadors and Docents. Volunteers have to commit to a minimum of 4 weeks for this programme, with two weeks each in a section of the Zoology Department (specifically Reptiles and Fragile Forest for this attachment). A large portion of volunteer duties involve cleaning of animal facilities, removal of animal wastes, preparing of food and feeding for the animals, undertaking behavioural and environmental enrichment improvements and other menial tasks. Other duties include animal survey and recordings, pruning of plants in the exhibits and any other exhibit maintenance jobs. The programme seeks to allow students interested in employment under Wildlife Reserves Singapore as Wildlife Keepers to gain crucial exposure and skills essential to the duties required.

Record of Activities

Reptiles

Volunteer duties at the Reptiles section were split between outdoor and indoor enclosures, and I spent one week at each.

The outdoor enclosures included the Giant Tortoise exhibit, the Rhinoceros Iguana exhibit, the Tortoise Shell-ter exhibits, as well as the Asian Turtle and River Turtle exhibits. The nature of work in the outdoor enclosures was far more intensive and fast paced compared to the other sections, with all work done outdoors regardless of weather. However, the tasks were relatively simple and interacting with both my fellow keepers and the animals allowed me to keep my spirits up while working.

Area cleaning and feeding was usually done first thing in the morning and done continually throughout the day, where fallen leaves and faeces are raked and removed to ensure the exhibit is presentable to guests. As reptile faeces is dry and fibrous, this was not a challenging task, but was rather time-consuming. Following this, the bundles of long leaves and branches used as supplementary food sources for the Giant Tortoises are replaced with new ones cut and washed the day before. Hay and fruit are distributed to feed the tortoises and iguanas, and fish and vegetables are distributed for the turtles. At 1.15pm, the Giant Tortoises Interactive Feeding session begins, and 8 groups of guests are allowed in the exhibit to feed the Giant Tortoises. I was to brief guests regarding how to feed and handle the tortoises and supervise the guests as they interacted with the tortoises in order to ensure the safety of both the guests and tortoises. I would also assist the guests in photo-taking and answer any of their questions regarding the tortoises or Singapore Zoo. My fluency in Mandarin was of great help when communicating with Chinese tourists, as my fellow keepers were not particularly strong in the language and largely relied on English. Afterwards, tortoises with older or deformed shells are treated with Iodine to prevent fungal growth on the shell, and tortoises with damaged shells are treated with medication, both of which are painted on the shell with a brush. Leaves and branches for feeding are processed, bundled and left in a tub to soak till the next day. The feeding areas are washed down with a hose and the area is cleaned again before the keepers lock the area up. Other tasks done every few days included the cleaning of the glass of exhibits with glass barriers, the draining, cleaning and refilling of water pools used by the Giant Tortoises to soak and the inspection of the River Turtles via a process known as body scoring, where the condition of the turtle would be assessed and given a score between 0-5 based on the amount of fat in its body.

The indoor enclosures are largely confined to Reptopia and the Care Centre which was next to it. Work at Reptopia was far less physically demanding as smaller animals such as snakes, lizards, chameleons, newts and turtles were taken care of there. However, the learning curve for work there was much steeper as many of these animals were dangerous or sensitive, and each needed to be handled and fed with specific methods. This was not a negative factor, nonetheless, as I had learnt and experienced a great deal in my time there.

Feeding and enclosure maintenance of the animals in Reptopia and the Care Centre throughout the day formed the bulk of the tasks I performed there, where many of the animals had to be fed a specific amount in a specific way due to their “personalities”. For example, the chameleons would extend their tongues to catch food when presented with live and moving crickets with forceps whereas the tree monitors would quickly bite the crickets and violently “play” with their food, and the Ball Pythons would only eat dead mice that were heated under a heat lamp and moved in front of them as they rely on their heat-detecting pit organs and motion to hunt prey and Egg Eating Snakes had to be presented with well-sized egg or tube-fed its contents, while the Dwarf Caimans had to be offered fish by first tapping the forceps on the side of the water to attract their attention before then brushing the fish along its snout to allow it to detect the scent. While it took me a while to get the hang of each technique, executing these tasks became a smooth affair within a few days. At 1.15pm daily, there would also be an interactive session for visitors where the Caiman Lizards were fed sea snails, and I was tasked with assisting the keepers in handling the food as well as helping to answer the visitors’ queries, again allowing my Mandarin skills to shine. Other tasks I undertook once or several times include: the enrichment of the corn snake and milk snake by changing the substrate and natural artifacts in their enclosures (to give them a new space to explore and thus provide them with sufficient mental stimulus in a confined enclosure), the maintenance and cleaning of the cricket tanks (in order to provide the section with sufficient crickets for reptile feeding), the body scoring of all animals in the exhibit area, the weighing and tube-feeding of the baby ball pythons before their departure for Australia and the pH, NO3, NO2 and NH4 testing of the water in all enclosures, where the Chemistry practical skills picked up from school were particularly useful.

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.

Outcome

The swift execution of my tasks allowed the section to operate at a far greater efficiency with an extra pair of hands, allowing for more time to be allocated for the enrichment of the animals kept there and for the other keepers to work on other ongoing projects. Personally, while attached with Wildlife Reserves Singapore, I had not only gained skills and knowledge regarding the animals and caring for them, but also eye-opening experiences in handling the animals and helping run the section behind-the-scenes.

Content Knowledge and Skills Learnt

Teamwork in a work environment

As I was the only volunteer at the sections I worked at and was by far the youngest member, I had to get used to working with colleagues far older and more experienced than me. This was a sharp contrast from school life, as I would usually take the position of leader when working with groups. As I would work with a different keeper every day, I had to learn to quickly adjust to each person’s working pace and style while figuring out my personal most effective method of executing tasks. While I had to be receptive to feedback and work closely with my mentors, I also had to learn to act independently and solve problems that arose from the animals’ behaviour myself.

Importance of observation

Observational skills played an essential role for most tasks, as animals do not communicate directly with the keepers and often do not display prominent symptoms when they are unwell. Understanding each animal’s typical behaviour was also important when handling and taking care of them, as certain animals were more shy than others, and some preferred specific types of food or food presentation methods. I was able to hone these skills especially when working in Reptopia, as I had to observe the body language of many of the reptiles in order to figure out their hunger levels and preferences, as well as whether they were healthy or unwell based on their movement.

Managing guests from all around the world

As Singapore Zoo is a major tourist destination for our nation, it sees thousands of international visitors daily. Besides taking care of the animals, zookeepers also play an important role in moulding the experience of each and every visitor, giving visitors insights into the lives of the animals and inculcating the spirit of love for nature in them. Furthermore, keepers are also responsible for ensuring the safety of both animals and visitors, and must be ready to react appropriately to a situation where either party is endangered. I had the opportunity to assume this role while working there, where I briefed guests before their Giant Tortoise Interactive Feeding sessions and also chatted with them when they asked me questions about the animals. I had to be friendly but firm simultaneously in order to ensure that visitors followed the rules and did not endanger the animals by handling them or using camera flash, as many animals are highly sensitive to such things. As previously mentioned, being able to communicate fluently in Mandarin also helped as a majority of the visitors spoke Mandarin.

Interesting Aspects of Work

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.

Takeaway for Life

Once-in-a-lifetime experiences

Every single day at the Singapore Zoo was different and new to me, where I saw, learnt and tried so many new things and always went home fulfilled. These experiences made even the most intensive tasks worth it, and made my attachment so much more memorable. Working there, I experienced many unique things, such as feeding the reptiles in Reptopia as previously mentioned. I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with and handle incredibly rare animals, such as the Southern River Terrapin and Roti Island Snake-Necked Turtle, and developed a deeper understanding and passion for these animals. For that, I am thankful for my time at the zoo.

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