today marked the first day of being a volunteer zookeeper. i couldn't catch on quick enough to the new tasks and alien surroundings cos u hardly even get e chance to go into the animal enclosures unless ure a zookeeper. First i got to know Nasir and Prakash. Nasir was the section head keeper and i didn't really see him much but Prakash was really nice in teaching me and helping me along with e tasks altho i fumbled here and there. Subsequently i made more new acquaintances in Cheryl (from the rhino keepers section), got to know more about Eevin who's one of the commentators and Wei Wen who's also one of the keepers in the section i was attached to which covered the White Tigers, Kangaroos, Pygmy Hippos and the Wart Hogs.

the morning greeted me with a lot of... well... animal dung while cleaning the kangaroos and wart hogs enclosures by sweeping the whole areas. the wart hog cleaning was a muted one but the kangaroo enclosure was met with constant bugging by one or two emus. one of which was just there to disturb you while the other was kinda aggressive and would start kicking and pecking you or sth. later on there was the kangaroo token feeding session where the visitors were allowed to come and feed them and pat them at the same time at a cost tho. u get to do it free as a keeper. haha. the wallabies are super cute. especially the smaller ones. they hop around the enclosure in a flash. and they'd just crowd around u one u have food and just start sniffing at every part of ur clothing for hidden food. in this case... they might have swallowed my wallet, handphone or mp3. that would suck.

next was the white tiger and pygmy hippos token feeding session. there were 3 white tigers. the biggest one being the only male called Omar and the other 2 females - one is Winnie while i forgot the last one's name. Omar was bullying Winnie over food and roared at Winnie who quickly jumped away much to the horrific gasps of the onlooking visitors. The keepers just smiled and Eevin the commentator and i just laughed. the pygmy hippo feeding was subdued as there wouldn't really be much drama with hippos that walk underwater anyway.

being a keeper means u have at least 3 hours of break. well... OFFICIALLY. but unofficially u have at least 4 or 5. went cycling around the zoo to go look for my fellow colleagues like Caspar and Kun ao. Kun Yao was like super bored at the boat dock near kidsworld cos he was alone listening to his almost perfect 10 radio called the walkie talkie. and Caspar was playing with a walkie calling the Cleaners' supervisor. for what? to clean up an ice cream on the floor.

when we finished e day, we brought e animals back into confinement. this reminds me. I should be thankful i'm not confined every night or closing time. at least i will be for the first 2 weeks plus of army. but oh well... what the heck. keeping the white tigers was really an experience. Got to see them upfront. Winnie was lying down and looking at me while i sat down in front of her and looked back. it was all so cool.