Zoo Negara

Date : 7th November 2012, 16th November 2012, 19th November 2012

I worked as a volunteer with my other course mates in Zoo Negara for 3 days. Generally, a volunteer's job scope is to aid zoo keepers in doing their routine job. 

I was fortunate enough to be able to work in 3 different sections in the zoo.

7th November 2012

Vernny, Jun Rong and I were assigned to bear section. There were a lot of animals in the section. Other than different kind of bears, bear section is also the home of goats, cows, wallabies, pademelons, otters, Malayan tapirs, deers and flying foxes.

What we did during the day were sweeping dried leaves, cleaning animal faeces and feeding animals. The photos below were taken when we were performing our tasks.

Sweeping and cleaning in home of wallaby.

Sweeping the compound of bear section.

Feeding goats.

Feeding capybara.

Fishes - the food for little otters.

Otters were waiting for their food.

 Group photo with one of the zoo keepers.

16th November 2012

I was assigned to aquarium with Su-Xian, Vernny and Ming Kang. Vernny and I were in charged in cleaning glasses in aquarium and sweeping the floor of the entire aquarium. After that, I was assigned to assist a zoo keeper in feeding all the fishes in aquarium. 

 Cleaning the glass of aquarium.

This was where we feed the fishes and clean the inner part of the aquarium.

19th November 2012

I committed my volunteer job with Vernny in Mammal Kingdom. Here was the home of golden cats, flat-headed cats, raccoons, pumas, leopards, binturong, capybara, Brazilian agouti, otters, porcupines, tigers, lion and hyena. 

Again we swept dried leaves of the compound of the section. We also washed the animal cage and prepared food for the animals. 

Cutting fruits and vegetables for animals.

I am glad that I have the opportunity to have deeper understanding on the role and contribution of zoo keepers in maintaining the zoo.

Overall, it was tiring but inevitably, I had a good experience and learned a lot.