My Placement so far

As many of you may know my current placement is at Chester Zoo where I am working as a 3 month intern with the Rhino Team.

My role involves HUGE amounts of poo, which is understandable due to the size of rhinos! In the morning we clean out all of the rhino enclosures inside and out providing them with plenty of food and nice new bedding, we then move onto the other animals on the section after break which include tapirs, capybara's, bongo, rowan, zebra, brown antler dear, and warthogs, just to name a few.

After lunch we then have to prepare food and so chopping fruit and then depending what is required I maybe able to see some training which is crucial for the rhinos in case they become ill and require medication or just a checkup.

I currently float between the 3 areas in the Rhino department depending on where I am most needed.

Having been at the Zoo for a month now I feel that I am starting to get a good grasp of what is required in a keeper. It is certainly not an easy job to say the least and if you're not physically very fit it is certainly hard work!

I have been lucky enough to see Rhinos up close ( I sadly cant show you any pictures from behind the scenes). They are such beautiful creatures and seem so at peace. I guess that makes it even more sad that they are becoming so rare. At the Zoo there is 10 Black Rhino and 3 Greater One Horned Rhino. The Greater One Horned Rhino's are HUGE! They look like they should have existed in the age of the dinosaurs with all their plated armor, and they have smaller horns which means there is still a reasonable (if not small) population left in the wild.

Being at the Zoo does mean that during lunch I get to wander and see all the other animals present, so, the pictures included are all pictures that I have taken recently.

The most exciting news by far though is that when I was working 2 weekends ago, we had the arrival of a new baby Black Rhino. Fara was born on Saturday 31st January at around 8.15/8.30 in the morning.
So far she is doing really well and is looking adorable. This past week she has really found her legs and is now able to run after mum with ease but most of her time is spent either asleep or feeding much like any human baby.

Her birth was put online which is some amazing footage