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So as anyone who visits my page knows, I am a Zookeeper who works with herps and big cats. The other day, I had cause to think about fear and how it such a good thing to have--within reason. We are in the process of switching male lions with hopes of cubs in the future, and on Sunday, it was time for our young male Luxor to be transferred to his new zoo in Peoria, IL. When it comes to animal transfers, the majority of institutions want the animal awake when they are placed in their transport crate, and with Lux, it was no different. The unfortunate part was that the door of the crate has to fit between to little side pieces to lock him in--No biggie--except that the crate door ways about 25 pounds, you have to lift it above the crate (4.5 feet), and make sure its in its little side pieces...Ok, I'm only 5'5", so guess what, I had to climb on top of the crate, which held a 345 Lb lion (who was NOT happy) and try to get the door in its footings...Fun. As I was jumping onto this crate, I realized exactly how insane this must have looked to anyone who does'nt work in this field...Mind you, that he was fully closed in the crate by a secondary door, but still... In any case, there was a little bit of shakyness when I got off the crate; the whole process made me think---I climb on top of lion crates, I take care of a number of venemous snakes--a couple have to even be occasionally be tube fed-- and there is always a bit of fear--not mind-numbing, stop-in-your-tracks fear, but enough to make me stop and be aware of surroundings and what I am doing. This is good, cause the moment I get complacent is the moment I get bitten by a snake or mauled by a tiger. Oh yeah, Lux's farewell went well, and he should be in Peoria by Thursday, meanwhile his replacement, Kamau, will move in with Lux's sister, Cleo, tommorrow---Good Times.

It has been a crazy month out here, first the reptile show, then school, and then, the big gala stage show at the Sacramento Zoo, "Wild Affair". I love my job; and being an zookeeper, especially with reptiles, is a dream come true for me. It also helps that I am working at the zoo I grew up visiting--it has a special place in my heart. That being said, the proof of how much I love my zoo is in a big furry frog suit, named Gus. I became the frog. I am now the frog at most events on zoo grounds (there's a second gus), as well as a special appearance at a baseball game--minor league, but still... The most recent event was the forementioned Wild Affair--the biggest fund raiser every year. The people who buy tickets get behind the scenes tours(in every area), a wonderful dinner, they bid in an auction, and they get to see the stage show, starring us, the zookeepers. Great acting, well written skits, and masterful props...are not seen in this show! The truth is, the keepers do get into it, and we have a great time. This year was no different, except for the skits containing the giant frog. I am glad it is done, as the nights of rehearsal and endless luches lost to MORE rehearsals are now finished, but I do have to admit, it is fun being a frog on the stage in the spotlight!

While I have been wandering around this great site, I often see pics of people having get-togethers at their homes, with or without reptiles. I have also seen pics of people getting ready to go field herping and such things. SOOOO, I would love to have something like that here in Sacramento( and surrounding areas)! Admittedly, my work schedule is a bit wierd, but I am sure I could get a day off to host a reptile friends BBQ at my house, or go wandering around somewhere looking for herps, or even go to herp specific shops, shows, or zoos. I am sure there are others out there who would like to do this....If you are one of those others, let me know, or just go to the sac area herpetology group and join up. Let's get together and have some fun!

Anyone who has gone to an AZA zoo within the last year has heard about "the year of the Frog". This is an event that we all are taking part in to educate the public about the importance of frogs and other amphibians to the ecosystem. Anyway, my zoo has been adding frogs to our collection pretty much non stop. This last week, we recieved Panamanian Golden Frogs---pics on my page if interested---These little guys are officially extinct in the wild, and zoos from South America, Central America, and Northa America have been researching, breeding, and raising awareness of these little frogs. What makes them interesting is the fact that they do not communicate through vocalizing; instead, the will wave their arms and legs to attract mates (my husband and I call them kung fu frogs, cause you can imagine them making the kiai sounds like in kung fu movies!). they use these behaviors because they tended to live near waterfalls that were far louder than their little frog voices.Due to the fact that they are very habitat specific AND rare, I am a little nervous about keeping these guys....Luckily I have a bunch of resources for info on their husbandry. If you are anywhere near the Sacramento Zoo around mid September, these guys will be making their exhibit debut--Stop on in and tell me what you think.

In the reptile house at the zoo, we very rarely get to breed animals(usually because we only have one sex of a species), in some cases we are told to seperate animals to make sure breeding does not occur (No other zoos interested, we dont have the facilities, etc...) Just yesterday, Our Bengal Monitor laid 10 eggs--3 of which look quite good--in the past, all of the eggs have been in poor shape and never were viable. This wasnt terribly bad because we never had permission to hatch them. Til now! My supervisor actually said to go ahead and incubate them and try to get hatchlings. With these three eggs looking decent, both myself and the lead reptile keeper are going to do our best to hatch these little buggers! Wish us luck, as this would be a first for both of us!

Yesterday, I took a trip out to the Big Basin Redwoods State Park. From what I had read, its a great place to find California Newts, Pacific Giant Salamanders, and occasional Rubber Boas. First off, the best part of this was that it was not as hot as Sacramento valley (103 degrees---UGH!!!), not just temp wise, but there was'nt a covering of smoke from all of the wildfires---I could breathe!!! This park is absolutely gorgeous! giant redwoods, open space, plenty of hiking, I cant wait to go back and camp out for a few days! In any case, due to it being July, and very dry, there were no California Newts to be found; scratch the Salamanders too...well sorta...When I looked around in the creeks, there were tons of Pac Giant Salamander larvae--the largest one I saw was about 7 inches long!!! That was pretty cool. I never saw any sign of rubber boas--or any snake for that matter. Oh well, its a perfect excuse to go back in the springtime...stuff should be hoppin then!

In celebration of being both on vacation for a week, and quitting my part time job (YAAAAAAY!!!!), I have decided to take a couple field trips. This started today, by going to Stubbins Cold Canyon, right outside of Winters, California. I have been to this place before, as it is a great site to find California Newts and the occasional aquatic garter snake. Because it is July though, I did not expect much...I was happily mistaken! Not even ten minutes into my hike, I found a California Kingsnake basking in the middle of the trail--cool, I had never seen a wild one before---too bad I left the camera at home....as I continued walking, I was continually distracted by Western Fence lizards running everywhere, until I saw a common garter snakehanging out on a bush bordering the trail. At the end of the trail, there is a creek that pools up in there, and in it, I can usually find newts in the spring plus a few leopard frogs, because its July, there were none--I thought. When I looked really close, I instead found old egg masses as well as a bunch of California Newt larvae---WOW! I have never seen those before, that totally made my day! So, there is my first field trip. I have got two more planned, first one is to Big Basin Redwoods State Park, (with a possible stop in Butano State Park), then a trip up into the Sierra Nevadas (Highway 20 off of 80) to a PG&E trail in which I have seen Ensatinas before...We'll see what I find in those spots!

One of my all time favorite herps is the Tokay Gecko. In fact, my first reptile was a tokay, and I have always had one or more within my collection. While I have heard how many tokay owners tame theirs, I always let mine do their own thing--this usually meant they were angry, skittish s.o.b's, but if nothing else, they were entertaining. I had a huge male named Spike, he would love to get pinkies, and even though he would recieve them fresh killed, he seemed to enjoy bashing the mice against the wall, the branch he was on, or whatever was closest. At one point I had lost all of my tokays to some weird bacterial infection; as a result, I decided I would not keep any--it just hurt too much. Well, I still had other herps, which meant they needed food, so off I went to the little reptile store that I preferred....The owner had recieved a tokay from somebody who decided that they just didnt want a lizard that they could not handle. Of course, the owner knew of my love for tokays, and had saved this little female gecko---he knew I would take it. I did. I named her Stick--she was a little skinny--and she has lived with me for about four years. She was a firecracker though--even for a tokay. I f I entered her room she would let out a bark at me to let me know she was there, she was hungry, and if I got too close she would attack. When I came home from work late last night, I checked in on everybody, and to my sadness, she was sitting at the bottom of her enclosure, dead. I don't know the cause, there was no noticeable reason, she just was gone....With the circumstances of my aquiring her, I did not know her age, so she might have been old when I took her in; either way I am glad I was able to give her a home to live in. Even though this was an animal I could not handle, or even get very close to, I still cared for her--she was one of my herp "children"; I will miss her.

I recieved a message from my supervisor yesterday: one of our docents had a beardie who needed a home; knowing that I have many reptiles and that I am a sucker, she suggested me to the docent. I have a pretty good sized collection considering that I have a small house and I work with reptiles on a consistant basis, however, I was as giddy as if I getting my first herp! I picked up Taido today--looking at him, I'm pretty sure he's an Eastern bearded dragon...Cool! Its just sorta funny, I was happy with only a couple snakes and my Tokay. Then a beardie needed a home, THEN, a tegu needed a home...Every time a friend tells me about a herp needing a home, I will most likely take it in. So I told my husband: OK, I think we've reached our limit of reptile holding... and yet...he heard about a little Russian tortoise that may need to be adopted...HMMMM, I guess I better start building a tortoise enclosure!