Maryland Zoo Volunteering Again

 For almost six years now, I have been a volunteer at the Maryland Zoo, and because of issues with my back, I haven't been able to be there since last February.  In June I had corrective surgery, and have been on the mend over the summer months.  Today was my first day back.

I volunteered at a special guest event: Breakfast with the Elephants.  It happens before the zoo is open to the public.  Tables are set up with a buffet in the proximity of the African Elephant habitat.  There's always tons of food: scrambles eggs, O'Brien potatoes, sausage, bacon, yogurt, Danish fruit roles, muffins, fresh fruit, juices (apple, orange and cranberry), tea, coffee.  Today we served 65 guests.  While eating, a keeper does a presentation and then takes questions.  There are artifacts that volunteers share like a huge ball of dung (dried and shellacked), a molar, and there are interactive discovery stations for the children.  Kids are also invited to color a brown paper bag with greetings to the elephant.  Then a keeper fills it with carrots and cheerios.  The top is folded shut and then tossed to the elephant who grabs it up with their trunk and eats the whole thing like a piece of candy.  All participants also receive a plush baby elephant stuffed animal.  

The zoo hosts a series of these events during seasons with clement weather and others focus on our lions, giraffe, otters, rhinos, chimpanzees, penguins, and farm animals.  I'm working a Farm Breakfast next weekend.  

My main job today was to guide guests through our main valley area down the path to the area we call Zoo Central where another volunteer was stationed to help them navigate the next leg.  The Zoo's main valley is no longer home to any animals.  It was abandoned around 2002, because the habitats either were archaic and an anathema to modern best practices, or just entirely too expensive to upgrade/repair.  It is; however, an amazing window into the past.  Enclosures and buildings found there date from 1876 (the year the zoo was founded) right up until the 1980's when the most recent habitat was constructed as a home for Tigers.  In the Around the time the main valley shut down, the Maryland Zoo scaled back it's collection to remove all of the Asian species and refocus it's limited resources on animals from North America and Africa.

So I positioned midway in the shadow of the historic 1925 Elephant House--home to the zoo's very first Elephant, an Asian Elephant female named Mary Ann.  As the guest arrived and traversed the main valley in dribs and drabs, I had plenty of time to appreciate the birds and other animals that also call the zoo home.  Among them was a lovely little doe.   The zoo and surrounding Druid Hill Park is home to a herd of white-tailed deer with a pronounced diminutive stature.  What a lovely way to start out my return.

My view looking up the valley.

When I first saw the deer in the space between the old Sea Lion habitat and the old Polar Bear habitat.

Fully grown, not 3 feet tall at the shoulders.