A Week at the Zoo

Miller Park Zoo’s Guest Services staff recently documented what goes on behind the scenes at the zoo for a typical week. Some market research was also done to determine where our visitors come from. Buckets were placed in the zoo’s entryway to collect visitor’s tickets during the last week before school started. The results indicated that our zoo has an impact on visitors from across the state, country and even globally.

Results:

Bloomington-Normal-781

From IL, but outside Bloomington-Normal-1042

From US, but outside IL-97

Outside the US-39

Every Tuesday, veterinarians from University of Illinois come to ensure the best care for our animals.  We have an on-site vet tech to monitor our animals in case something comes up in between vet visits.  This particular Tuesday, it was time for our flamingos’ annual vaccinations and wing clippings.  It was a group effort from staff as flamingos can be a little tricky to gather!  They were released from their indoor holding one by one until the job was done.  Staff waited outside of the door holding a cloth screen so the flamingos could only get so far.  One staff member was inside the barrier to scoop up the flamingo.  From there, vet staff gave the vaccine, clipped the wings, and off they went!

We had a total of 30 volunteers put in time this week!  Their tasks include preparing diets and medications, data entry, animal care, rainforest attending, grocery shopping, and other various projects around the zoo.

Our Education Team had just finished their final program of the summer. The week was spent debriefing and preparing for the upcoming fall education programs and junior zookeeper program.

Private tortoise feedings also happened throughout the week. Anyone aged 5 or older can participate.  They happen at 11:30am every day.  Even in the winter!  We also have gift certificates available for purchase.  Our Galapagos tortoises, Gala and Pagos, know when these feedings are about to happen and almost “run” to the guests!

As far as behind the scenes administration items go, our Guest Services manager, Sandra, takes care of a lot of it. She gathers staff’s credit card receipts and invoices, then sends them to the city’s finance department.  This week’s receipts included fresh veggies from Kroger, many items for upcoming events, and Epsom salt for veterinary needs.  Invoices this week included an order for new signage from The Copy Shop, toys from Safari, and more.  She also orders most items requested from everyone at the zoo.  This can vary from new door hinges, sunshades, and carts, to vet items like centrifuges, vitamins, and medical gowns. She also orders everything for the gift shop, concession stand, and custodian items.

Other administrative tasks such as processing memberships and Zoodoptions are done by The Zoological Society staff. When not working on administrative tasks, they are planning fundraising events. This week they attended the monthly Board of Directors meeting and a monthly committee meeting to plan for ZooDo(annual gala/auction). Friday was spent building baskets of donated items to be auctioned off at ZooDo.

Every Wednesday, zoo staff have a meeting regarding the goings on at the zoo.  They discuss safety concerns, upcoming events, animal care concerns, incoming and outgoing animals, projects, and anything else that might arise that week.  There are also a few committees, and this week the Inclement Weather Committee came together to discuss needs that will improve the process if power goes out during extreme temperatures.  They had asked keepers in their particular areas to submit what kind of items they needed, and the committee compiled the lists to see what we already had at the zoo and what still needed to be purchased.  This will be presented to the director for approval.

This was just a brief snapshot of what goes on at the zoo in a week.  Every day has something different going on, and it takes the whole team to keep it going!