One of the elephants thought this was great, and jogged and ran all over the place. Several year ago the wanted to try a behavioral study of letting all the plains species into Giants of the Savannah run around together. We have a family pass to the Dallas Zoo, so we're there every other month or so. To say the snake was lethargic is an understatement. #3's eyes got big as sauces as they started fishing the bushmaster out of the cage. Then the curator got the special snake hook. They are kept in basically an old walk-in frig that they can keep them relatively cold (slow). Turns out only 2 of us knew what a bushmaster actually is, and #3 wasn't as snake happy as my officemate and myself.
There were 3 biologists from TPWD, and the curator asked if we wanted to see the off exhibit Bushmaster. Damn jaguar hated me for some reason.Ībout 12 years ago I got to do a behind the scenes type tour with one of the curators of the Dallas Zoo snake house. Only thing he could figure was that the jaguar knew him very well (he worked with it every day), and saw him as his superior.įreaked the hell out of me once he told me the story. Basically, he grabbed the jaguar by the scruff of the neck and slowly pulled it back inside the back enclosure (where they were kept at night) and got the other keeper out of the exhibit. At this point, he cautiously does about the stupidest thing he could and approaches the jaguar softly calling its name from behind (he and another keeper had hand raised the pair of Jaguars we had at the time). He comes out to see the jaguar stalking me (behind me by about 50 feet). He had gone to the commissary to make his diets while I was training one of my raptors. He and I had come in at about the same time. Of course, she didn't follow protocol and call someone on the radio. The new keeper was huddled In a corner crying knowing what she had done.
He tells me that apparently, a new keeper, while cleaning the jaguar exhibit forgot to lock the shift gate, allowing one of the Jaguars to get into the exhibit, and subsequently, out of its enclosure. He then asks me if I remember the time period I mentioned previously. I never saw anything, but could always remember that day (as with major events like 911 when you remember where you were, what you were doing, etc).Ībout 2 months later, one of the zoo keepers says he wants to talk to me about something, but that I have to promise I'll never tell anyone. The hair on my neck stood up, and it was about the closest thing I've had to having "animal instincts" that I couldn't explain. I kept on looking around, not seeing anything. My most interesting story - one day I was walking in to the office (my education building was at the back of the zoo) and I felt that someone or something was watching me.