One of my responsibilities in the office is to answer the general phone number of the zoo. I have a great colleague who usually is answering the phone, but when she's out of office it's my duty. And this week...
I lost a python.
Actually it wasn't quite that straightforward.
On Tuesday 25th of August Tallinn Zoo celebrated its 75th birthday and almost the whole staff was working that day. Most of the staff is working overtime as well during these big days, because we get a lot of visitors and a lot of things happen. I was organizing small events for the celebration including a lecture and a concert. I didn't spend too much time in the office, where I sit at a suitable place - in the corridor, next the the directors of the zoo. Lots of information comes through me, which sometimes is overbearing but then I get to work in the field, like on Tuesday. This obviously means that a lot of information that goes on in the office doesn't go through me and I'm not as well-informed about some things. During my 15 months of service in the zoo this hasn't been a problem.
On Wednesday morning I answered the general phone and a woman starts talking (in Russian - now, I do speak Russian, but sometimes I get lost if things get too specific). She is concerned - she lives and manages a condominium, where one of the residents keeps exotic pets such as snakes. The most awful part is that the food of the snakes - lab mice - are occasionally running around the building when the resident can't keep track of them. On Tuesday, one of the snakes got free and started roaming around the building. This lady that I talked to called the emergency number and the firemen picked the snake up, brought it to the zoo and that's where she goes on: what happened to the snake, what kind of snake it is and so on. I had not heard about a snake and just to make it more clear, a lot of animals, mostly birds, are brought to the zoo and we are used to it. Even when it's a snake, it's no scandal and no big deal - we're literally used to exotic animals, sorry.
I wrote down her phone number and started asking around. The director of the zoo mentioned, that he had talked with the lady on the phone and the request went on to the correct personnel. This lady called again during the day and I tried to explain to her, that I'm still waiting on the information. Why on earth was she so concerned? She googled.
Just like the worst nightmare of a doctor is a patient who has googled, our clients cause a lot of misunderstandings by googling. She had googled that the snake was a Queen Python. Our director kindly explained that she might be talking about the royal python. She didn't care about the name, but she was really concerned because she read on the internet that the snake kills people and is extremely dangerous. Our director kindly (still) explained, that the royal python is actually the smallest of the African pythons and is not very dangerous to people. She did not let go, because she and the other residents wanted to get rid of the exotic pets in the building, she needed to know which snake we're talking about and she needs us to tell the police that we're dealing with an extremely dangerous animal and the person is a bad person etc... We promised we'd let her know when we have the information.
Now we waited until the end of the working day for the information, the director left the office for a meeting and to tell you the truth, I was actually quite interested to know which snake they had caught and I was surprised the information was still missing. The facts I knew so far:
- The firemen had caught and brought us a snake, the manager/chairman of the housing associate was 100% sure it was a really dangerous snake
- Someone had received a snake in the zoo
- I had no idea where the snake was at that moment
- Both the director and zoo-director were working on the snake case
Then today, 27th of August 2015, Thursday started and I came to the office. The first thing when I got to my table the general phone rang and obviously I picked up as my colleague is still on vacation.
"Hi, this is Jane Doe from the housing association and I'm calling you regarding the snake and we are still waiting on information, we're extremely concerned and this is blah blah blah..." Oh dear.
"Good morning, unfortunately I don't have the answer yet, so I'll get back to you as soon as I have the information."
And that was the moment I, PERSONALLY, was responsible for losing a python.
At least that's what I understood when TWO ladies started this concerned yell/scream in the phone to explain that this python is a threat to mankind and their building, and they need to eliminate all exotic pets and at that moment I couldn't even catch what was going on because there were literally two Russian ladies talking in a very loud volume to me and I had no idea what's going on.
I gave up.
What the hell was I supposed to do? I had asked around, nobody knew anything and I'm sorry but I don't have the time to walk around the 89 ha territory to find the snake myself. As I knew the director was working on the case as well, I made the decision to give her his phone number - I just didn't know what to tell, and when she talked about police and other parties involved - "Please call the director of the zoo."
Then I started talking with my colleagues and told them about the python that we had lost, my co-worker got a call from the fire department and she forwarded them to the director as well. After 15 minutes I see the directors coming out of the cabinet with a grin on their face.
The lady from the housing association had disturbed their important meeting and did not let go, so the director had to answer the phone and talk to her. He tried to explain that we still weren't sure what was going on with the snake and then the zoo-director got some information.
The snake was NOT a python, it was grass snake (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_snake) and it was released to the forest on the zoo territory, just like we do to every other grass snake that is brought to us. Apparently what had happened was that because we are full-staff on big days such as the 25th of August, the first zookeeper who saw it, analyzed it and released it to the forest just like any routine job. The keeper did not report it to anyone, as it is a regular thing, and this caused the whole hassle. Because it was supposed to be just another grass snake - how on earth could've the keeper known?
As you can imagine, the lady was not happy and decided to scream at the directors a bit more, and threatened to make this an official police investigation because the zoo is so unorganized and unethical and whatnot.
What do you think?
Until the next adventure,
C.
Find me on instagram @cmyv
Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions, and not official statements of the Tallinn Zoo. I do not wish any harm to the lady or the housing association and the point of this blog post was to bring to daylight the everyday life we face working at a zoo in a funnier way. We do take seriously all the animals that are brought to us, and the decisions we make are based on facts, knowledge and experience. We don't underestimate any threats and fears, and we understand the seriousness of wild animals. This was written from my personal point of view and is not intended to harm or hurt anyone or anything.
