Ipswich in Spring 2019

BEHIND THE FENCE AT THE IPSWICH NATURE CENTRE

Hard working zoo keepers can be found walking the board walks of the Ipswich Nature Centre from sun up to sun down rain, hail or shine. Staff do a lot more than cuddle animals all day. When they are not feeding, cleaning or checking on the animals, they are spending time working on ways to enrich the animals’ day. Cleaning out pens and making sure the animals have dry beds is a constant job. Most pens are hosed out, raked, bowls cleaned, fresh hay provided and droppings removed. About 16 wheelie bins of rubbish are removed per week. It is a mixture of dirty bedding straw, leaves and debris from the enclosures and faeces.

You think dinner time is manic at your place, how would you feel about facing 200 hungry mouths a day? The shopping list alone involves 30 kilograms of fruit and vegetables per week and 140 kilograms of dry feed such as seeds and pellets per week. Then there are all the different stores to visit to collect food for the lizards, bilbies and insectivorous birds. Imagine the shopping bags needed to carry the array of carnivore foods such as rats, mice, quails, chicken necks and wings, bones, kangaroo mince and pilchards. Once home, who is going to help carry all that inside let alone store it, weigh it, and cut it up to varying sizes? For the staff and volunteers at the Ipswich Nature Centre their time spent caring for the animals is worth the effort.

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