Joshua's Birthday Zoo Keeper Experience Day

When we laid out all the options for Joshua's birthday this year he decided he did not want a Birthday party and instead chose chose to have a zoo keeper for the day experience. So although it is just over a month since he turned nine, today was his big day at Colchester zoo where he got a taster of what it is like to be a zoo keeper (including mucking animals out!). The experience was really well organised and as you can see from the pictures he got to interact with many cool animals. Due to the age limit the kids are not allowed to handle or go in to any enclosures with category 1 animals (i.e. ones that can harm you), but he still got to experience some amazing animal experiences. In fact the day was so good that now Brandon has decided he wants a zoo keeper experience for his birthday as well! 

  

Arrival at the Colchester Zoo on a very brisk wintry morning with beautiful blue skies but frost on the car.

Brandon getting some early hands on experience with a rather large bug (good job he hasn't been watching "I'm A Celebrity...." and tried to eat it.

Our 3 munchkins with a large giraffe statue.

It must be cold when even the penguins wouldn't touch the water!

Love this picture of Josh, Brandon and Holly in the seal viewing tunnel.

Riding a turtle back.

Brandon being eaten by a sea lion.

Holly looking very happy as she poses by the penguins.

Brandon with his favourite animal, the lemurs.

That's one big meerkat!

Josh, Brandon and Holly with the male lion prowling up and down behind them.

Holly has a little teddy lion and seemed to really love seeing the lions today. She didn't want to leave the lion enclosure.

Love this picture of the male lion prowling with Brandon's reflection superimposed on the lions head.

The female lion gave us a display of football with this plastic container and she had a real good left foot, but was somewhat disappointed that no onlookers joined her for a kick around.

I managed to get a great picture of an otter just as it was about to yawn.

My beautiful little Holly at the elephant enclosure.

Holly is finally as strong as a meerkat (just).

Josh on a zoo discovery. Such a waste as me and the boys would love this car for canoeing / cycling etc.

 

Holly and Brandon in the giraffe house (we did chuckle when we heard over the loud speaker that someone dropped a shoe in the giraffe enclosure!).

 

Brandon and Holly with the hippo's.

So the first part of Joshua's zoo keeper experience was to feed the parrots some pots of nectar.

Within minutes he was swarmed with parrots and it didn't take them long to polish off the pot of nectar.

Stunning colours on the parrots.

Next was a bit of hard labour as the kids had to brush the horses, but first there was the important job of scooping some poop!

With the poop cleared the kids get to work grooming the horse.

You would never guess in a million years what Joshua is feeding this horse? As a treat for being so good he eats Polo's!!!!!

Next up was Basil the goat where Joshua had to work with another boy to exercise him on the rocks. So one of them used a red target ball to attract him on to a rock and then the goat touched his nose on the ball. Every time he touched the target ball the kids rewarded him with a handful of food.

Joshua using the trainer target stick to get the goat to climb the rocks.

After all the hard work it is time for a cuddle and a handful of food.

After finishing his exercises, Josh had to walk the goat on a lead back to his enclosure.

Next up was hand feeding the Llamas, with Brandon looking on. One of the sneaky Llamas started chewing the hood of my coat.

It was pretty amazing to go inside the giant tortoise enclosure and feed them some kale and carrots.

Amazing close up of the tortoise showing his teeth and tongue.

Next was some rather large piggies. The kids had to prepare some chopped food and then wrap it in cardboard boxes to feed to the pigs. The idea of the box is to make it challenging for them to find the food and provide them stimulation.

Next was he wallaby's and amazingly Josh got to hand feed them some hazelnut leaves....

.....and then get a nice stroke of these lovely animals.

The last part of Joshua's zoo experience was the reptile house where he got to handle a 5ft corn snake (Holly and Tina wouldn't go anywhere near it).