LisaAnnOKane
Tampa, FL
Female, 32
During my zookeeping and environmental education career, I have interacted and worked with a variety of animals, including brown bears, wolverines, red foxes, moose, camels, mountain goats, dolphins, sea lions, raccoons, porcupines, snakes, raptors and ravens. I am also a young adult author, and my debut novel ESSENCE was released in June 2014 by Strange Chemistry Books. Ask me anything!
Thanks so much, Marques! Public appearances were actually a big part of my job in Alaska. I trained the pint-sized outreach animals--red foxes, great horned owls, porcupines, red-tailed hawks, baby deer, etc.--and I took them to schools and visitor centers and special events. I would love to get back into those types of outreaches some day. If you know anyone who would like to hire me as a TV personality, you just let me know! ;)
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Great question! It absolutely depends on the individual animal, and the answers can vary significantly. A domestic animal like a goat or sheep may simply be corralled back where it belongs, and a net may be adequate for a small animal like a raccoon or a crow, but a tiger will obviously require much more significant force.
In all cases, zoos start early by categorizing each animal by "threat level" and designing emergency plans to deal with a possible escape. Zookeepers memorize these plans, and animals are also trained to view their crates as "safe places." (This works wonders when a nervous animal suddenly finds itself out of the safety and comfort of its enclosure.)
When an animal escapes, zookeepers generally start by corralling it and attempting to entice it back into its enclosure using positive reinforcement and the procurement of its crate. If this doesn't work, nets or lassos may be used. If these don't work, tranquilizer guns are often used.
Last but not least, zoos may use deadly force, but this is obviously the VERY last option, and it is only employed if the animal becomes an imminent threat to someone's life.
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I love this question! The biggest animal I have worked with is a 1,600 pound, seven-foot tall male Bactrian camel named Knobby. The smallest is probably a 110 gram, nine-inch tall male boreal owl named Mouse. Pound for pound, the camel definitely wins. However, I have worked with many high-maintenance little guys, including a snowy owl named Freya, a raccoon named Max and a muskrat named Critter. Although they were all fairly small, they still required a LOT of my mental energy!
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Hahaha, absolutely! Many, many species of animals enjoy a gratuitous romp in the hay. As a matter of fact, bonobos (chimp-like primates) revolve almost their entire social structure around sex. They use intercourse (in various, creative forms) to greet each other, to solve disputes, and to make up after fights. They even use sex as currency when bartering for food! In my personal experience, I have worked at facilities that house dolphins, and... man! The things I have seen, particularly with males (and females, and other males, and cones, and toys, and pretty much any other inanimate thing)... Let's just say the Spice Network could take some tips from those guys... ;)
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It really depends on the situation. The animal's best interests always must come first, so staff veterinarians closely monitor aging and / or ailing animals. If it is possible to allow the animal to live out its life, that is obviously the ideal choice. Sometimes though, euthanasia becomes the only humane choice--much like with aging or ailing cats and dogs. Saying goodbye to an animal is heartbreaking, and I can't tell you how many tears I have cried through the years. But an animal's welfare comes before anything else, so sometimes a hard decision must be made.
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Hi again, CAT. Because zoo environments are so different from wild environments--plentiful access to food, absence of predators, little to no competition for mates, etc.--zookeepers members must work very hard to ensure the ongoing physical and mental health of their animals. In particular, zookeepers want to maintain fitness and decrease the likelihood of unwanted behaviors like pacing, rocking, increased aggression, altered time management, increased frustration and increased fearful behavior.
Environmental enrichment plans are a very important component of animal health management plans, and these plans definitely vary from species to species--depending on things like natural history, physiology, etc.
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Oh my gosh, how funny, because I was just looking at this video earlier today! It's really well done, isn't it? I was thinking this video was a hoax for a few reasons, and some subsequent research confirmed this for me. It was apparently made by some 3-D animation students at a school in Montreal, and they have come forward to say they animated both the eagle and the kid into the shot. (AMAZING work, though, right? Well done, guys!) However, let's assume for a minute that we don't already know this video is fake... The eagle was supposed to be a golden eagle (it's not, BTW), and golden eagles are known for being huge. They can have wingspans of 6 to 7.5 feet, and they usually weigh between 8 and 11.5 pounds. However, when you figure that a newborn human baby usually weighs that much, that means the toddler in the video probably weighs... What? 25-30 pounds? It's not IMPOSSIBLE to assume that a golden eagle might swoop down to check out a child anyway, but I would say it's VERY unlikely. Golden eagles typically prey on small rodents and rabbits, and their usual weight limit is half their body weight--so 4-6 pounds on average. Therefore, this eagle would know from a distance that this toddler is far too heavy to carry for more than an instant. (It would also be probably very put off by all the elaborate clothing and such.) Finally, golden eagles generally stay away from humans, so I can't imagine one swooping down with so many people standing around this park. But, holy cow, I have to admit that my heart stopped for a minute when I first saw this!
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