After snacking on peanut butter cookies and a can of Pepsi from the cafe, I met Lisa in the back of the kitchen.
“We need to get some fish together for No Name,” she informed me.
“No name?” I ask.
“Yes, sea lions. That’s his name,” she grinned.
“Is this a regular comedy?” I joke. “Like ‘Who goes first?’”
She laughs, “I know it’s weird, but somehow he never got a name, and so No Name stuck. You will get used to it. Let’s go to the freezer.
Lisa carried an empty bucket and proceeded to the second entrance located to the left of the refrigerator entrance. Here we have more shelves filled with food, and she walks over to the fish shelf.
“We’ll take the fish from this freezer and put it in the fridge to defrost,” she said as she pulled the frozen fish into her bucket. When it was full, we walked together to the entrance right next door. “It was one of yesterday’s buckets,” she pointed. “Pull that down, and I’ll put this in its place,” she pointed to one of two buckets placed side by side on the shelf. She explains: “No Name feeds twice a day, so whenever I pick up a bucket of defrosted fish, I replenish it with a bucket of frozen fish.
I grabbed the bucket and followed her back to the kitchen. She put some fish on the island. “We’re adding protein powder to his fish diet and I need more medicine and vitamins, so I’ll open a few fish first and pop in a little of each.”
I watched as she placed some pills in the stomachs of two fish and split the protein powder into two more, then placed these four on top of the rest of the fish in the bucket.
“I’ll give him these four first to make sure he gets what he needs,” she explains. Then she burst out laughing, “It’s not like there will be leftovers, he’s a good eater.”
I feel very grateful to Lisa for all the information she imparted. She treated me as an equal and it was as if she were training me for her position. I later found out that not all goalkeepers are teachers like Lisa. Some barely said anything.
Again, we go to our cart. We put the trash cans in an industrial-sized trash can near the employee entrance. I can understand why the gate is big enough for a car as I assume one has to drive through it to empty the trash from time to time. We put our empty cans back in the cart with our fish buckets and rakes
and brooms, then we drove away.
Before Lisa could open the sea lion gate, No Name started barking. It’s the funniest sound, like a dog but not like a dog, and I just enjoy hearing it. Is he happy too? I was hoping so.
Lisa asked me to stay while she entered the pool area. I watched from the sidelines as she made No Name a habit for the zoo-goers who had gathered in front of his pool. There have been many announcements about sea lion feeding times, and this is the “morning show”. I had a close and personal look at it
from within the gate, it made me feel privileged and blessed at the same time.
With a gesture, Lisa asked No Name to go around the pool. He jumped into the water, swam quickly, then jumped out again as soon as she threw him the first fish he caught with ease. As she guides him through some of the other routines, the crowd applauds, and I watch in amazement from my close-up. I wonder how she learned
work with him. She’d let him hold her hand and kiss her cheek, hit a beach ball, hurl his body around and wave to the crowd. Each time he did as she asked, he was rewarded with a fish.
After his feeding performance, the crowd slowly left. Some of them wandered over to the raptors, and I can’t help but remember their feeding time early that morning. I wonder if there are any parts of the animals visible on the bottom of their cages. My thoughts return to the upcoming task as Lisa and I proceed to clean up the area around the pool. ARE NOT
The name was written on the back, mainly for my safety.
“Have you worked with seals before?” I asked curiously.
“No Name is a sea lion, not a seal,” she explained. “A lot of people confuse them, but the way it barks, that’s the hallmark of sea lions. Seals only make soft grunts. And did you notice how he can sit on his front flippers and wave his arms? Seals are mostly prone and their flippers are not that big.”
“I didn’t know they were different animals,” I said.
She continued, “A quick way to tell if you’re looking at a seal or a sea lion is that sea lions are brown and their earlobes stick out,” she snapped her own.
“How did he learn to do those things?” I ask. “Did you teach it?”
“He knew all that when I got here. I’m the one who has to learn his habits, but I’m trying to teach him new things,” she cheered. “The crowd loved it.”
“His pool is a bit small,” I remarked cautiously, not knowing how she would take it. I was staring at the oval water like a small backyard pool, only his end was deep with no shallows. It has a few steps that lead to a podium where Lisa stands for his performance.
“I suppose. . .” she stopped. “I want it to have a companion, but they say that a male sea lion needs more than one female and the space is too small. The zoo is trying to get recognition so they are slowly getting rid of those. smaller barn and try
to set everything up to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) standards.”
I’m glad they’re working to meet accreditation standards, but I wish No Name was not alone. I guess that’s better than having many sea lions in such a small space.
taken from The Age of Spider Monkeys: And Other Revelations From Behind the Zoo.
Image of TheOtherKev from Pixabay
