I used to be a docent at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. I worked mostly in the petting zoo area, taking care of the animals there and explaining exhibits to zoo visitors.
Our first duty in the mornings was to feed the animals in the petting area, which involved everything from cutting up fruit to dispensing monkey chow to fetching frozen mice from the animal commissary for the variety of snakes we had on display.
We had a baby Burmese python named "Monty" (I know, we groaned too) who was kept there due to his father trying to eat him. When I arrived, you could hold Monty coiled up in one hand. By the time I left, you had to wrap Monty around one arm, in back of you at your waist and around the other arm, because he had grown from about a foot to six feet long!
The beehive also fascinated young and old alike. There was a plastic case that lead to a tube that went out of the building. Bees were busily building a hive and producing honey and I was oh, so glad they were behind that plastic!
One Sunday, early in the morning, before the zoo opened, I took my little stroll through the area and when I came to the pen at the end of the animal building, saw some sort of cow critter (the precise species name eludes me because this was more than 30 years ago), who was obviously male stalking around the area. There were also a number of goats who were doing their level best to stay on the opposite side of the pen.
Well, they don't call it wildlife for nothing.
Peace, out, y'all. Thanks for joining me (and all of us crazy bloggers) on my (our) A to Z journey this April!
