Zoo Keeper for a Day - Part 1: Keith has a great day out at the Adelaide Zoo in the Adelaide City region of South Australia

After its massive multi million dollar make-over, the Adelaide Zoo puts on a brand new face to welcome us into its new 21st century exhibits. I'm a Zoo groupie because every time I visit there's a new experience in store and today's no exception. I'm 'clocking on' as a Keeper for a Day.'

It's all good fascinating fun as I go deep undercover with real keeper, Katrina Boardman. Our first stop is the Hippo enclosure where, as a keeper you get up close and personal by going behind the scenes. This really is a 'warts and all' kind of gig as Katrina hands me a shovel and tells me to muck out the enclosure.

My reward is a close encounter with the resident hippos - Brutus and Susie. As Brutus stands with his gigantic mouth wide open, I get to feed him a bucket full of carrots.

Katrina Boardman, Zoo Keeper: "As you can see they have that rather large tongue and massive teeth at the front. The big teeth are really only used for fighting. Their main feeding or chewing teeth are the molars up the back."

While feeding the Hippos looks and is lot's of fun, it also serves a practical purpose. It's all part of a planned 'conditioning program' which gets these magnificent creatures used to human contact. Very handy when the Zoo vet makes a house call. These slow moving, gentle giants look harmless enough, but Katrina tells us they are one of the most dangerous animals in Africa. They are most at home in the water.

After a brief stop to feed the very hungry Otters we head out the back of the Siamang enclosure.

Keeper: "This is the Siamang family you are meeting today. We have the mother and the father and their 16 month old baby." Irian and Suli and their baby, Zane are the largest of the Gibbon species. Siamangs live in the tropical rainforests of South East Asia. Sadly, they're on the threatened list thanks to ongoing logging and land clearing.

The day has many highlights but one in particular is truly memorable. You get to walk through the bamboo forest to spend some private time with the zoo superstars - the pandas. We get to watch Steve, one of the panda's keepers scatter food around Wang Wang's enclosure.

Katrina Boardman, Zoo Keeper: "We feed them specially prepared Panda Cake which is made up of mulched up bamboo leaves. It's mixed with a powder containing their vitamins and minerals. It's all mixed up, made into a big round cake then steamed for 3 hours.

"They are solitary animals and they only come together when it's breeding time. We're not actually sure when that will be because this is the Southern Hemisphere. Hopefully, when she comes into season which is only once a year for between and hour and 36 hours she's ready for mating. So there's a fair bit of hope involved when it comes to the breeding but we hope happens."

Only time will tell, in the meantime Wang Wang and Funi are proving to be the big hit as expected - and you can see why.

It's all part of the Keeper for a Day Experience. It's one of a range of behind the scenes options - check out the Zoos SA website for details. Meanwhile, the zoo's open every day from from 9.30am until 5pm. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au

Adelaide Zoo
Open daily 9.30am-5pm

Published 6th July 2010