This past Monday I decide to be adventurous in OKC. It was time to get my hands dirty and see what fellow Oklahomans do for jobs. I decide to take a trip to the Oklahoma City Zoo and job shadow a Galapagos tortoise animal caretaker. Yes you read right a tortoise animal caretaker and a very knowledgeable one at that. I met with Blake Bauer to start the duties of this adventure of the tortoise kind.
First things first this was an extremely fun, yet dirty job! I adorned gigantic knee high rubber boots and was geared for the duties ahead. Feeding was first and with the special fall holidays pumpkins were the treat of choice and let me tell you these tortoises were not afraid to chomp down. With a mix of grapes, bell peppers, squash, and of course pumpkins this was a colorful mix of fruits and veggies. An interesting fact, these tortoises are reptiles and are also ectothermic meaning cold blooded so they don’t need to eat several times day like one might expect. Generally they are feed once a day or every other day to fill their dietary needs.
Since Oklahoma has such a dry climate next on the day’s duties was polishing their shells. A Galapagos tortoise’s shell is very similar to a humans’ skin and with Oklahoma’s dry days and windy weather their shells get dry and need to be moistured just like our human skin does. With cotton gloves on hand we rubbed mineral oil onto their shells to protect them from the dry air. Not only does this moisturize their shells it also makes them shinny for visitors to admire. Shell polishing is done about once a month and I was lucky enough to join in! This part of the job was not dirty, but was a big undertaking since the tortoises don’t exactly hold still for beauty time.
An interesting fact, the five tortoises, two males and three females at the Oklahoma City Zoo have been there since the 40’s and 50’s, and when they arrived at the Zoo they where already of adult age. This makes them in the age range of 80 – 100 years old and these guys show no sign of getting tired soon either!
With the leaves changing and the temperatures feeling like fall this is an ideal time to take a trip to the Zoo. If your looking to be spooked for Halloween the Oklahoma City Zoo is having it’s 25 Annual Haunt The Zoo. Haunt the Zoo runs from October 26th through October 31st 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. nightly rain or shine. Find your creepiest or cutest costume and head to the Zoo for a goulish good time while stuffing your pockets full of candy!
For more on my time at the Oklahoma City Zoo head to NewsOK.tv for the latest Girl vs. Wild video.
Girl vs. Wild,
Jacquelyn Farris