The Day I Lost a Python

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.

When an armadillo turns into a battleship

Leningrad Zoo turned 150-years-old this year and last weekend they celebrated with great parties. Tallinn Zoo participated in the celebration by some of our employees going there as well but the most important part was that our zoo gifted some animals to Leningrad - an armadillo, common marmoset and pygmy marmoset pairs. 

Not to confuse anyone - the armadillo we gifted looked just like the one above - Big hairy armadillo (Chaetophractus villosus) to be exact. Why I'm telling you this? Russian media thought we gave Leningrad Zoo a battleship. A Russian monitor Bronenosets to be exact (Wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_monitor_Bronenosets).

If you don't understand a word of Russian, the word Google Translate shows "bronenosets". In this case though Google is not wrong - as a matter of fact it means either the battleship or the animal, both are correct. Now I was not able to get information on this topic whether the ship perhaps was named after the animal or the other way around, but this was a pretty awesome misunderstanding in Russia that confused many people. Just to be clear - Tallinn Zoo did not give a battleship to Leningrad Zoo as a birthday present. The official weekly news from the Zoo confirm it too: http://tallinnzoo.ee/en/thirty-third-week/. 

Also if you check out the official weekly news, there's two pictures of the snow leopard that was born on Mother's Day this year. She's growing pretty well, I can't wait when she gets out to explore the outdoor enclosure. I will try to catch the moment and share some pictures in here as well.

Now I'm addressing everyone who's interested in the life of Tallinn Zoo - what would you like to know? What kind of topics are interesting? I would like to hear different ideas and comments, feel free to leave me a comment below to tell me what is it that would make my blog more fun to read!

Here's a fresh (a week old) picture from our bird collection:

White stork (Ciconia ciconia)

Until next time -

C.

Follow me on instagram @cmyv

International Tiger Day

Tallinn Zoo is one of the proud zoo's in the world who has two beautiful Amur tigers - male Pootsman and female Speiga. We decided to celebrate the tiger day this year to bring these beautiful animals closer to humans and to shed light on the fact, that these amazing creatures are classified as endangered animals. The organizational part went extremely well and the media fell in love with our program. At 5 o'clock local time yesterday Pootsman stepped out to his outdoor enclosure to notice that we had hung up meat and left a meaty "ice cream" for him. He did find them interesting, although he started chewing on them after it started raining and most of the people disappeared. He's a wild tiger who's never really had straight human contact so he's also quite shy. He hid himself in the bushes and only the most enthusiastic fans got to enjoy the beauty of a beast.

Tiger day itself went by very well - people were happy, tigers were happy, media was happy (which is actually quite rare) - if it were not for the rain, the day would've been perfect.

BUT. 

I woke up in the morning and one of the news I read, was about the poached lion in Zimbabwe - Cecil. If you don't know who's Cecil and what's going on, here are a couple of news articles about it: 

http://time.com/3977476/cecil-the-lion-investigation/

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/150728-cecil-lion-killing-trophy-hunting-conservation-animals/

And here's a Wikipedia page about it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_(lion)

What the hell is going on - you may ask. This whole thing is twisted, because now I'm sort-of happy that something like this happened, because this is an actual problem in Africa. Poachers are killing rhinos, lions, leopards and other critically endangered species for the fun of it. Some organizations say that the money they get for a tourist to shoot a rhino, they keep the other rhinos alive. Well for all the rich people, who have the possibility to invest tens of thousands of dollars to kill animals:

DONATE IT FOR FREE.

Why on earth would you like to kill an animal that is seriously endangered? The whole species could die because of you. Congratulations, asshole, you just ruined a lot of things.

In addition to the thought of a Cecil being killed because he was a known animal, he was also part of an Oxford study and research, wearing a tracking collar. Now that's not all. Cecil was the proud leader of a pride consisting of 6 female lions and their cubs. Usually a pride consists of 2 to 3 females and one lion, but these guys decided to be more dangerous, more serious and a bigger threat to other lions, surviving and living well with a bigger group - which means there was also another male to help Cecil protect the pride. Now the other male is by himself - he can't protect six females from the attacks of other interested males. Did you know, that when a pride is conquered by another male lion, the new leader kills all the previous cubs so that the genes from the previous leaders wouldn't go on? Congratulations, Walter James Palmer. You are responsible for the probable death of quite a few lion cubs. Feels pretty amazing, huh?

Fortunately we have amazing people who are doing their best to save and protect these animals, so help your local or international organization with your time or money - both are just as important. Share the news, tell your friends and be on the good side to fight the evil.

To brighten this rainy day, here are some more pictures from yesterday:

Kisses and hugs!

C.

Follow me on instagram @cmyv

Tallinn Zoo has a secret lab in the forest!

Most of the Tallinn Zoo is available for visitors but there are some things that are sort of secrets. The reason behind the secrets is that animals get used to people very quickly and although they are completely wild, they don't react to most people in any kind of way. A good example of this is this video of our male polar bear who doesn't really care that I'm standing 1,5 meters away from him:

In nature, this guy would've killed me or anyone else unarmed in a minute. Literally.

What happens behind the scenes in Tallinn? Although the zoo has not intended to keep one place secret, it apparently is. We have a very special group of employees at the Zoo who have saved one species from total extinction - this species is the European mink. They are the cutest little minks in the world with their white noses and fast tiny legs. We have European minks in exposition where the visitors can see them, but there is an area in the zoo which is off limits. This is called the Species Conservation Research Lab aka Lutreola. This lab has successfully bred European minks and reintroduced them to their original habitat in Estonia, where they had been extinct. The animals that live in the lab are only used to their own people, so whenever someone else comes along, you get a look like this:

Look at this cute little mink!

Tallinn Zoo is responsible for the coordination of European minks around the world, so the lab itself is a really important part of the conservation of the species. I think this is pretty cool not only because the species was extinct in the wild in Estonia but the employees that we have a doing extraordinary work. So Estonians, be proud of your country once more! 

The reason why zoo has a secret lab in the forest: that the European minks would be as wild as possible and they have all the secrecy they want when living and especially reproducing. It is not completely off limits for everyone, we are proud to show the area to other zoo employees around the world for example. What would happen if the let everyone there? These animals would get (too) used to people and when these animals would be released into wild (check out the link), the would not be scared of people anymore and could get into trouble. Simple as that.

Here's some video material from previous small tiny cute European minks (not filmed by me):

There is also a web camera at one European mink enclosure, check it out here!

Then there are the animals that react to people even though they are used to them - our polar bear cub Nora. She causes a lot of trouble as it is very amusing to tease people. Nora jumps into the pool to wet all the visitors and the more people laugh and scream, the more she likes it. Then she does this:

That is a skin off her lunch and these are the first days she started dropping the leftovers to the other side. After that, she realized that people reacted to her so she started crying to get it back. And the cry breaks hearts. Can you imagine - there are people, who climb over the safety barrier to give the leftovers back? DON'T DO IT! IT'S A TRAP!

Even though they are used to people, they still are dangerous to everyone - even the keepers always have a safety barrier between them and the bears. We are happy that nothing has happened yet, but the summer season is just starting. We are expecting the worst.

These pictures and videos are not recent, so here's a new video - from today. For those who haven't visited Tallinn Zoo, yes, really, that's how close you can see the Siberian tiger.

His name is Pootsman and he is the coolest tiger in the world if you ask me.

I'm off to my first part of my summer vacation and will be back on duty on 29th of June. Ta!

C.

P.S. No new information on the dingo case, the guy hasn't sent us pictures yet.

What to do when your dog is a dingo?

Working as an administrator in a zoo means also sometimes answering the general zoo telephone. Mostly we get questions about the ticket prices, opening hours, animals themselves and events. Springtime however is a bit different as babies are born not only in the zoo but naturally also in the wild. This means a lot of phone calls regarding chicks and other baby animals. It's good to know that so many people are concerned about the safety of wild animals but sometimes the concern is overwhelming. Just to remind you all, that wild animals should in most cases be left where they were found. 

We got a funny phone call the other day. Mostly they are about found animals in the wild, but this one call was different from others. The conversation went on pretty much like this: "Hi, we got a dog few months ago and it's growing bigger. We don't have a problem with him, but the thing is that he doesn't bark at all, only howls, his head turns around quite funny, almost 180 degrees, he's got huge ears and when we googled him... I think we have a dingo." Now I'm not a biologist or a zoologist, I'm not the person to tell you what you have, but I said automatically: "You think you have a what?". Just to explain you why I was so confused - we are in Estonia:

On the European map Estonia is here:

In case you don't know, here's Europe in the middle of the map, no point in pointing out Estonia separately:

Now if we look on the world map, you'll see that Estonia is the tiny country below Finland, next to Russia and on top of another tiny country Latvia. We also see Australia on the map. Now why I'm explaining this is because dingo is a species from Australia. This wouldn't be much of a surprise if the dog was from southern Asia. It is quite common that dingos are bred with other dogs but to find a dingo in Estonia - that's a new one! The person who called us promised to send pictures, but we haven't yet received them so we can't tell for sure anything, but here's a few tips in case your dog turns out to be a dingo:

• Treat it like a dog (not god)
• If it gets aggressive, train him
• Feed him
• Wash him
• Be a good caretaker

Dingos are dogs - just wild ones. They can be trained to be very good pets if they have not yet been used to the wilderness. No need to start hunting and catching dingos to get a pet, they like their wild lives, but if you suspect you have gotten a wild dog, you might want to let your local zoo know, maybe they'd want a dingo in their collection. Other than that, they are pretty much the same way many other dogs are. One plus is that they don't bark.

Back to the zoo life.

Our three gorgeous African elephants are now together in the enclosure. Most of the year they are separately: two females together and the male by himself, that's pretty much how it works in the nature. Those of you who are planning to visit our zoo, do it soon, the elephants will not be together for very long. When they are though, they are amazing to look at. These beautiful elephants can also be viewed from our web cameras: http://www.interactivezoo.eu/index.php?id=2. If you surf a bit around on the website, you can also find other animal web cameras as well.

Here's our male African elephant Carl:

Did you know, that all the elephants living in the zoo all around the world have to be trained? These huge mammals are too dangerous to be completely wild, so it's a safety precaution. As a zoo employee, I have had the chance to go backstage and see what it looks like from the other side, but I have to ruin it to you - it looks the same from the visitors point of view. Actually, even better. The backstage of the elephants is built for comfort and moving, so the constructions are massive and boring. All the keepers are in no direct contact with the elephants which means there's always something between the keeper and the animal. I prefer viewing elephants from the visitor's side though, the pictures are better as well. The web camera number 7 shows pretty well what the backstage looks like.

These web cameras are the same cameras that the keepers use to monitor animals and when there's something going on, the monitoring is on 24/7. Don't forget to watch our snow leopard nest camera: http://www.interactivezoo.eu/index.php?id=8 (nr 1). Our mother Deli is taking excellent care of her surviving cub so the video feed is pretty amazing to watch.

C.

Follow me on instagram @cmyv

Hatred, ISIS and whatnot

When I started writing my blog almost two weeks ago, I didn't even realize what was coming. These past days have been overwhelming and crazy. I had already written down a few things I would shed light on that have already happened during my first year at the zoo but so many things happened that the list just goes on. I am alive and well, nothing serious but something worth sharing with the world.

To start of with positive things, Tallinn zoo is looking amazing! Not only because animal babies are roaming around, but the nature is alive, finally! I'm a huge summer fan even though winter is a beautiful time of the year, especially in the zoo. For those who wonder, March thru May are in my opinion one of the best months to visit the zoo if you wish to see how nature comes to life. Some animals, such as the Siberian tiger though spend the sunny days under shades, but some animals are more than active during spring.

The picture on the left is a familiar view for many local visitors as the sculpture "Zoo" has been in its current place for quite some time now. There are generations of families that have taken their zoo picture right in front of this sculpture. Some day I would like to see all (well, not all but at least some) these historical pictures taken at this exact spot. Different storks are also enjoying the sun that we finally have. Did you know, that the Black stork you see in the picture is one of the most endangered storks in the world and even photographing it in the nature is prohibited as you might disturb it? To photograph it, you would have to get a permission to do so.

Most of my hours I am busy booking tours and organizing other things such as events. In addition to that I sometimes have visitors from other zoo and animal parks in Europe. This week we had visitors from Finland and while I showed them around the zoo, a random visitor started yelling at me for lying to these people - that our zoo animals are not well taken care of and they should be sent away. Of course I was the reason the Zoo is the worst place in the world. Now I did not get to respond to her as she ran away from us pretty quickly but my guests were not surprised. They started sharing their stories how their animal park receives negative responses all the time and just so make sure everyone understands: these visitors have cows, goats, horses and other "household" animals in their park. I do see why some people are against zoos and I understand it completely. On the other hand, zoo employees are the ones trying to save this world from its sad destiny and this is why we need zoos. Amur leopards are an excellent example. People have almost destroyed this beautiful cat from nature as there are less than 50 Amur leopards in the wild, while more than 150 are living the Zoos. A lot of things could be done better, but to remind you - I am here to go some good too. 

Look at this beautiful cat! Help save these animals: http://www.altaconservation.org/

Next topic: ISIS alias International Species Information System. Just to be sure: NO, Tallinn Zoo or any other zoo that we know is not a member of the terrorist group but are members of the animal species related organisation. Apparently this has been confusing to some people as well as to some higher organisational parties in the world. More information about the organisation: http://www.isis.org. These guys are the good guys, please don't be confused!

In addition to the busy work life, I sometimes get to pause my work and rest for 10 minutes. One day I decided to spend my lunch with the animals from the Children's Zoo. Here's the result: 

 Just a normal day at the office during lunch I guess. My suggestion: always share your lunch with a chipmunk if possible! Best job ever!

Until next time,

C.

Follow me on instagram @cmyv

P.S. Is there something you'd definitely like to know? Comment below and let's see if it's a dream come true.

Zoomagination - how it all started

In spring 2014 I was busy writing my final thesis and just like everyone else, pretty much unemployed. My dreams were big and I had thought of many different possibilities on what to do after school. I've always been a huge animal fan, worked with animals in a very small scale but I never thought I would work as a animal caretaker. At that point I lived in Tallinn, Estonia and used to be a golden client at the Zoo. Then I stumbled across a job opening - to the Zoo itself.

You got a job WHERE? Was probably the most asked question my boyfriend, friends, parents, relatives and apparently the cat we took care of asked too. I studied to be a cultural producer, event manager to be exact and everyone thought I was going to clean elephant poop. I can't blame them, it wasn't quite clear what was going to be my position and job description. After a while all those question marks turned into "Yes, I can see you working at the Zoo".

Today I have worked for exactly one year. I started on 14th of May 2014 and yes, I have looked back a few times. Not to blame anyone, but the job here is pretty hectic. Maybe not in a same way as somewhere else, bankers, schools or big-ass corporations but you know, different kind of hectic. In case you have a pet, you can imagine what it's like to work in the same area with 10 000 pets, some of them are just a bit more wild than others. My luck, won't tell if it's good or bad, is that I work with people and try to manage them.

Shortly put: I work in the environmental education and PR department as an administrator. Trailer Park Boys fans can now smile and giggle, yes, administrator at a zoo. My main job is to organize and coordinate events for visitors and private parties, book tours and guides and help whenever I am needed. I have helped to move alpacas from one place to another, scrubbed floors and also did a customer survey. All of these fill my day from pretty much dusk till dawn and I'm pretty sure my boyfriend Tommi is soon going to do an intervention.

My decision to create this blog was influenced by many people. I have thought of keeping a personal diary but then I realized that maybe these happenings and stories might be of interest to other people as well. I'd like to sit back one day and read all the funny and crazy things that happened in Tallinn Zoo, with people and animals. I hope my thoughts and my imagination are something to keep people happy and smiling. Just in case - this blog is my personal and my writings are not official opinions of Tallinn Zoo. There, now I'm free to tell you everything I want!

Want to find out what happens when a Finnish girl is working in an old 75-year-old municipal organisation where are more than 10 000 animals from over 500 different species and more than 200 employees? That's what I'm here to tell you.

Please enjoy some pictures from Tallinn Zoo while I'll tell you some pretty amazing news,

Last Sunday, on 10th of May our snow leopard family grew! These are some fresh screenshots from the webcam that our keepers use to monitor them. Our female snow leopard Deli is taking excellent care of its two cubs that both seem to be doing well. Although I do not work with animals, all births of these amazing (my favorite) felines are extremely important. If all goes well, visitors will be able to see them in a few months when the cubs will be let out to explore the world.

I'll definitely write down if something really exciting happens - if our keepers are willing to share any news with me after I post everything online. Let's see what happens...

Oh and no, my goal is definitely not share all the zoo secrets but to describe what it's like to work in such large and interesting place.



Here are some more pictures from the Zoo, just for fun!

European bison
(Bison bonasus)

Siberian tiger
(Panthera tigris altaica)



Name: Pootsman
Age: 4
Male

Amur leopard cub
(Panthera pardus orientalis)

Born 3rd of April 2014
















I will now end my official first blog post and thank you for reading! More information about the zoo itself: www.tallinnzoo.ee. Until next time,

C.

Follow me on instagram @cmyv