great! Miss Mahale did not spit on me. When I was walking by her cage at one point, she raced over to where I was but I made it to the next room (and past her cage) before she got there. Now, the last time she spit on me it was when she raced over and leapt up and got me as I was walking by. This was the same situation, and although it was hard not to, I didn't try to hurry through the doors, I just happened to beat her. At this point I thought, "okay, this has to stop, I can't work like this, and it isn't good for her". I walked in front of her and crouched down. I looked at her from the corner of my eye, but didn't directly look at her. She stared at me for about a minute, then just started looking away. After that, she didn't even go to the bars everytime I walked past. I hope that maybe we have reached an "understanding", I guess I will know next time I am there.
Speaking of next time, I need to email Ann and ask if she cares when I come in again, because I am officially DONE with my orientation, and can now act autonomously. Pretty cool!
I got to see Brutus up close today. He is the third adult male gorilla. He's a pretty young guy, and is in an enclosure with Trudy, who is an older female. Normally Trudy is in the cage adjacent to the main hallway, but today since one of the automatic doors wasn't working right Brutus was forced to be in the area with her, instead of nearer the outside door as he usually is. He wasn't really excited about me, he kind of hit the bars a little and gave me menacing looks.
JJ is getting used to me apparently, he didn't try to scare me today. He just grunted a little when he saw me. I could tell that someone strange had been in there (a guy trying to fix the door) because it smelled pretty bad, and JJ had peed over the entrance corridor. His cage is in the very front on both sides of the entrance, connected by a walkway over the hallway. So, if he wants, he can stand directly above you. Apparently he stood up there and peed. Its such a pungent smell, very far from pleasant indeed.
Ann wasn't there today, but I finally got to meet Daphne. She is the one I originally talked to about the program over the summer but then I think she had some personal things come up, so this is the first time I have seen her. She's prettty nice. On the schedule for today was "kool aid bottles". I am not sure what they are, and never found out. Daphne said that we have a crapload of cardboard tubes to get rid of, so it was yogurt bombs again. Today the chimps and orangs got lemon pie filling (!) and the gorillas got natural creamy peanut butter. Apparently the pie filling has way too much sodium, and as male gorillas don't have the best hearts around here, they got the peanut butter which has NO sodium. While I was making them, I stood in front of Fossey & Co's cage, and Mosi was sitting on a podium right in front of me with his mom. He is so cute, he just stared and stared at me. At one point he thought I was ignoring him so he rattled a metal toy (it looked like a climber's hook) to get my attention. He is so sweet and cute. He reminds me so much of a human toddler.
Well, hopefully I will be back at the zoo in a couple of days. I haven't logged but maybe 4 hours and it is already October 7th. I may start doing hours in the afternoons and weekends.
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