Behind the Scenes at Reid Park Zoo

The Cornell Club of Southern Arizona has a checkered history when it comes to event planning.  When The Big Red was involved in basketball's March Madness last year there were some well attended "watch parties" at a sports bar which drew new members and classmates who were looking for others who might be cheering for a team from the Ivy League.  But typically our events are attended by Board Members and their devoted spouses and reluctant children, with the occasional "maybe I'll see her there" hopeful newbie.  Luncheons, picnics, holiday parties.... we've tried them all.  Those who attend have a fine time, but we already know and love one another and Cornell.  We haven't been doing a very good job of attracting anyone else.

Saturday was a different kettle of fish entirely.  One of our younger alumni has secured a job at the Reid Park Zoo here in Tucson, and she kindly offered to share her back-stage access with us.  The Crayola Kids agreed to keep me company and we joined 40 other children of all ages just before 10am in mid-town.  The Board members were smiling at one another - look at all these people!  The people were smiling back - look at where we were and what we were going to get to do!  As if ordered up by Goldilocks herself, the weather was neither too hot nor too cold, but just right for a November morning.  My jeans and cowboy boots were never more appropriate as our guide unlocked an unpreposessing gate and led us behind the scenes

 

I knew I loved this crowd; no one was wearing anything that couldn't handle paths like these.  We wandered past the confluence of Halloween and Christmas as one by one we each found something to treasure.  There was a lot of "Look at that" and "That is big" before we entered the kitchen

 

 and heard how dinner was prepared

 

 It's a small zoo, so each animal can be fed just the food she likes

and they have a chart right across from the prep table to help them keep track of the fact that Pip is getting some cucumber on Tuesday.

Here's Pip

who got her name when her egg fell from the nest and the workers heard her pipping to get out of the shell.  Pipping? you say?  Yes, pipping.  Apparently these vultures have no teeth while they're in the shell but they do have a sharp pick on the top of their beaks which is used to pip their way out of solitary confinement and into the waiting arms of the zoo.

The food is nicely served, too.  It's bright and colorful, we found, because the animals are attracted to reds and yellows. 

If there were ever a place for the nature/nurture argument, for the evolution/divine intervention argument to occur, this seems to be it.  Foods with bright colors are filled with more nutrients than those foods which are beige.  Blueberries, carrots, sweet potatoes.... when the trainers on Biggest Loser remind the contestants that their plates should be colorful they are hearkening back to the animal kingdom and the delightful confluence of events that makes animals which eat bright healthy foods animals which lead disease free lives.  Is it God's plan or survival of the fittest or just dumb blind luck?  I don't know that it matters, just that it's true. 

So, remember to eat your veggies.

We went to the medical facility and were fascinated by the dart gun used to tranquilize the animals.  Those are the shoes of the boys who couldn't get close enough to satisfy their age-appropriate curiosity.  Megan, our guide, told us that the staff uses behavioral training to obviate the need for the tranq guns; it seemed to be a toss up whether the animals or the trainers hate them more.  But with arthritic snakes and diabetic baboons and elephants whose hoofs require pedicures every single day, well, there has to be a means of control.  

There's a height and weight limit regarding the animals which can be treated in the center.  The giraffes are too tall to fit through the doorway. The giraffes are many other things as well.  Adults are never traded from one zoo to another because they are too tall to fit beneath the underpasses on highways.  Giraffes have the same number of vertebrae in their necks (7) as we humans have; theirs are just a bit bigger.  Giraffes are very nervous creatures.  They sleep behind a closed door in their "night house" just off their outside grounds.  If the door were left open, Megan told us that the giraffes wouldn't sleep at all.  They just would just pace, back and forth, from the bedding to the doorway and back again, wondering what was out there, which predator was waiting to attack should their vigilance slacken for even a moment.  With the door closed and the passage of time, our Reid Park Zoo giraffes now sleep lying down.  They are content.

Megan says it's very rare for giraffes to feel comfortable enough to lie down.  Then, again, Reid Park Zoo is a very rare place, too.  Enjoy the giraffes..... we certainly did: