Blair Drummond Safari Park

Today again proved to be an excellent day on this rotation! We got to go to the Blair Drummond Safari Park for the day! It was seriously so much fun, and we had great weather again
(touch wood it lasts). Its closed at the moment for the winter, so we basically got a private tour around some of the animal habitats, speaking with the keepers and learning how they keep the animals healthy, how they train them for vets to check them, and how they are used for breeding to keep captive populations for some that are endangered. We started off with the sea lions and got to see how they train them to be still for their examinations by the vets, how they check their teeth, and a few random tricks just for fun. They were really fun to watch and so well behaved! Then we went to go see the giraffes which was a surprise, and got to get really close to them while we learned about keeping them and some of the problems they have there keeping them. They were so tall so close up it was amazing. Then we went to the elephant enclosure and learned about the elephants they have there. They have had a really tough life before they came there from the sound of it, so they are working with them a lot to get them to be happy and healthy despite coming from places that didn't treat them very well. It was interesting to learn the different ways they have to work with the animals to keep them happy and where they were planning on going with their training once the elephants got more accustomed to vet training. We even got to see ones feet inspected and teeth for an oral examination. Then we went to the raptor enclosure and saw one fly for an audience for the first time, he did a good job so the keeper was pleased. We then went to the rhinos where we saw them being fed and then got to pet them! So now I can saw I've touched 2 white rhinos, and there are only about 20,000 in the world, so these are part of a breeding programme to ensure that there is a strong captive population. Then we went to the tiger enclosure and got to help the keeper put out meat in the trees for the tigers to go find so that feeding is exercise and enrichment. We also got to see one do its veterinary training and got to see her massive claws. All in all it was a super day!