During the morning feeding of the Humboldt penguins, I noticed that when a penguin really wanted a fish, he would step on my boot. Most others just crowd around my feet. The two chicks, they look almost exactly like the adults despite some facial coloration and the plumage, have difficulty deciding if they really want me to feed them. They dislike and/or are unfamiliar with me as a keeper. I think they are torn between the fish in my hand and the fact that it is in my hand. Some of them are able to grab the fish in any manner and turn it around so that it goes down their throat headfirst. Others need a keeper to urge the fish down into their mouth head first and push it gently to a certain depth before they swallow it. Pushing the fish too violently will also result in rejection because the birds have a tounge with serations that go in one direction and the bird is very sensitive about using its tongue in a certain manner and directing the fish in a specific way to swallow it. One bird, Pedro, has begun his molt and thus has gained another 50% of his weight to do so. I have not gathered why they do this but I imagine it is because that molting is a high energy process. Next, there is a humboldt chick who is growing rapidly. Its weight this morning was over 2700 grams. Soon, I've overheard, it will be brought upstairs to be fed large amounts of fish to get its weight up, and then not fed until it can learn to feed itself or maybe by hand. But that is just what I've heard.
The morning was rather hectic with a sudden tour around break time taking my trainer away from me temporarily. I meandered into the kitchen to do what I knew needed to be done, and the only thing I knew I could do correctly, the dishes. I then cleaned and then we finished the chop, cut up fish, squid and herring added to krill and silverside fish that is divvied up in the morning and evening for puffin feed, so that we could go to a vet procedure after an early lunch. After lunch, we needed to gather up number three Gentoo penguin, Tracy, to take her in for x-rays and any other necessary checks. Tracy had lost about a quarter of her weight and had not been witnessed drinking fluids or eating on her own. When held, her keel is easily felt and the vet noticed that her eyes were slightly sunken and her heartbeat was muffled. When the vet arrived, he informed us that the van's air conditioning was blasting and we had placed Tracy in a trash can with a few inches of ice in the bottom. We carried Tracy to the van and I sat in the back with her and pet her neck and helped to stabilize her as the van maneuvered around the zoo to the vet hospital. She was very anxious to see what was happening just above the rim of the trashcan, just out of her view, but calmed down after a while once she was facing me and I kept my arm on her back to help her to not fall over. Penguins cannot jump so there were only attempts to stretch her neck over the edge. Upon arriving at the hospital, we unloaded her into a procedural room and placed her on the table and began anesthetizing her. A cone with a rubber donut stretched over the big end allows the birds face to be placed inside and the bird only then breathes the drug. Slowly, Tracy stopped fidgeting and then the vet techs and keepers laid her down on her belly. As they were assured that she was under, the vet placed a tube directly down Tracy's esophagus and then it is taped to her bottom beak. Then she can be moved to the x-ray room and hooked up to the gas in that room as they laid her out on the table to be x-rayed. The vet decides that the best positioning is for Tracy to be laid on her back with her wings spread. At this point, the vet tech has begun to place ice packs on Tracy's feet to keep her cool. Tracy's wings are gently taped outward and we all leave the room as the x-ray is shot. We come back into the room to view a beautiful x-ray of Tracy's skeleton and some of her internal organs. The vet then decides that another x-ray from the side will give him a better view. They move Tracy onto her side with her wings back, the top one taped into what must be a stretch. We vacate as they take another x-ray which takes a couple tries this time. This side x-ray ends up showing the vet, and the rest of us, that the bird's heart is enlarged when compared to an x-ray from March of this year. Tracy's heart was noticably larger now. Next, the vet tried an ultra-sound of the bird to see if he could determine if the heart had fluid around it. They put ultrasound transmission goo under one of Tracy's wings and proceeded to see nothing but black on the screen. Then, the vet decided to do a gastric flush. He took a syringe full of water and put a long tube on the end of it. He then fed the tube to the bird's stomach and pushed the water into the stomach and then sucked some water back into the tube. The water in the tube then contains contents of the stomach. The water is then cultured to see what kind of bacteria is present in the bird's stomach. To wake the bird up, they turn off the gas and remove the tube slowly from the trachea. The vet also took a needle full of what I assume was a saline solution and injected it beneath the bird's skin. Slowly, Tracy begins breathing heavier. The vet and vet techs and keepers all state that they think the bird is more awake than she is letting on, which I find interesting. It seems as if Tracy would rather lay down and relax than panic. Possibly she is really sick and the medication doesn't help her want to sleep. Eventually, she is placed upright and seems to be able to hold herself mostly up. She stands up, lethargic for a while until we move her back to the tub to transport her to the exhibit. During the ride back, I ended up keeping my arm behind her to help stabilize her again which she didn't seem to mind.
Also, I noticed amongst the Magellenic penguins that, well, from what the other keepers have told me, Fidget is the unofficial dominant male. There are seven Magellenic penguins, six males and one female. Fidget is the oldest and, according to the other keepers, the only one to bray in a long extended call. The other males will only bark in a short call. I have not noticed anything to the contrary of that fact. Today, I noticed a couple of penguins swimming around in the pool very quickly. Next, one penguin jumped out of the pool and ran away from where it had been. It began, and I noticed that it was Ali, running and flapping its wings rapidly. Fidget turned out to be the other penguin and also exited the pool but was not chasing Ali nor was upset in any way while Ali seemed to be in a panic. It was just an interesting situation that I happened to encounter.
At the end of the day, I hand fed the penguins some left over capelin fish, most likely left over because what we fed today was so large that the birds filled up quicker. I fed on rockhopper side for a bit and ended up hand feeding a couple of rockhopper penguins for the first time. Number 3, Tiki Wiki, took the fish from me a bit reluctantly and I noticed that rockhopper penguins seem to choke down the fish in a different manner than the rest, first gulping the fish with their head down and finally swallowing it with their head up after the entire fish is down. With Gentoos and Kings, the fish head needs to be at the top of their esophagus and they put their head up in the air and choke it down using gravity's assistance. I moved to the other side of the exhibit because I was feeding a couple of Gentoos that tend to follow keepers anyway, Double and Trouble. I moved to the opposite side and hand fed several different Gentoos and also the rockhopper chick, Woody, who is adorable. He was pretty hungry, squeaking violently at those who came near him and were receiving fish from me. I assumed that he had already been fed but I doubted that on account of his agressive want for fish. He only ended up eating five or six fish, then would shake his head when I offered a fish, puffed his feathers, and resumed his digesting spot on the top of the stairs that exit the exhibit. I fed some more Gentoos and eventually, no one approached me. I began divvying up the extra fish into the trays. I walked to the side of the exhibit where the King penguins like to hang out and, seeing a keeper with a bucket, most of the penguins showed interest in me. I put fish in the trays over on that side of the exhibit and a few more Gentoo penguins showed interest so I hand fed them. Also, a King penguin by the name of Barry was calling, which is described as a trumpet. He likes to be hand fed capelin fish and he does so very gently: I tell him to "say ahh" and he puts his beak down and just barely opens his beak. I gently push the fish head into his mouth and he waits until I am finished and then finally tilts his head back to swallow the fish. Sometimes I have to gently raise his beak to let him know to swallow. One instance, when I went to offer Barry a fish, I noticed that he was stretching his neck out, an indication that he is about to call, so I encourage him by asking him if he is going to sing for me, to which he responds with his lovely voice. I pet him and tell him that he is a good boy afterward. He likes the attention. Several other penguins were near me as I fed Barry, Kong, a King chick from last year, and a female hanging out with Kong, Iris. Also, the other King chick from last year, B.B., was near Barry, as she has been. So that is interesting that those pairs are together. Also, Iris was calling as well and a fellow zookeeper was impressed with her calling, which I took as, she doesn't do so very often. Barry eventually tired of eating and turned away from my offers of fish, and Iris didn't take to well to the capelin and wouldn't have any. I left the exhibit and locked the door behind me.
After half and hour of nothing, cleaning, feeding, everything else was finished, we closed up PPC and went home.
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