College is Approaching

[TenebrousNova]

Around next week, I go to college for the first time- the Summer has flown by.
I must say that it's quite a scary thought that I've left school already. But on the bright side, the people there want to be there.

I'm going to be taking a three-year course in Animal Management and Care, which will be fun and interesting. They've got loads of different animals there and I'll be learning how to take care of them. Madagascan Day Geckos, Dogs, various amphibians, possibly even insects. It would be wonderful if ants were part of it, unlikely as it seems.

As part of the course, I believe that there will be visits to zoos and sea-life centres. I'm very nervous, but I'm looking forward to it all.
I've no idea what kind of job I want, but I expect I'll find out within the next three years. Should be interesting!

[Jenny]

Good luck with it all, I am sure it will lead you down a new exciting road and open more doors after the 3years, perhaps a job with the RSPCA or a wildlife trust

[TenebrousNova]

Thank you Jenant, it should do.

I will be doing: animal biology, animal anatomy and physiology, exotic animal management, animal health, work-related experience in animal management sector and animal handling and husbandry in the first year.

Second year: wildlife rehabilitation, animal behaviour, animal breeding and genetics, business, animal nursing and animal welfare. As well as a 4 week work experience.

Oh yes, on Thursday my tutor will be having a trip to a zoo called Monkey World. I can already tell that this will be quite a pleasant course.

[IceWhyte]

Sounds like an interesting course. I wish I had done something like that. Honestly don't worry about what job you will get, just keep doing something you enjoy and are interested in and the rest will follow. What ever it is, it will be more exciting than being stuck in an office doing 9-5.
Good luck with College.

[TenebrousNova]

Thanks Icewhyte.

[Wood~Ant]

Sept 11, 2011 11:21:14 GMT TenebrousNova said:

Oh yes, on Thursday my tutor will be having a trip to a zoo called Monkey World. I can already tell that this will be quite a pleasant course.

You will enjoy Monkey World as they have many of the larger apes there like Chimps and Orang-utans, and at the Lemur enclosure it borders on a large sandy conifer wood where loads of Formica rufa workers forage. So not only apes and monkeys, but ants and other interesting wildlife too; and it is a lovely part of west Dorset.
I still have a leather spectacle case I bought from the gift shop there. From the road it doesn't look very big, but it stretches back into a really large area and has a good record for rescuing apes and monkeys which have suffered abuse, plus they are breeding well too which is helping their conservation programme
www.monkeyworld.org/

[TenebrousNova]

Formica rufa? I've never found them in the wild before, so I'll be sure to keep a lookout for the workers.

I admit that I never paid as much attention to apes than to other forms of wildlife, but their intelligence and behaviour always interested me. I prefer the smaller ones such as Lemurs.

I start college tomorrow.

[TenebrousNova]

I apologize for the lack of updates.
The college is huge and I felt a bit overwhelmed at first, but I'm slowly settling in now. My favourite class is probably Exotics, since its very interesting and I found myself to be quite knowledgeable about exotic animals. We had to watch a power point presentation with photos of different exotic animals, and then guess what it is and the country of origin.
I got just about all of them right, except for one occasion when I mistook a Nile monitor lizard for a komodo dragon. I was also the only person to recognize the Axolotl, a female of which I keep. I quite enjoyed sharing my knowledge about them.

I did offer some of my many baby stick insects (For free!) to the animal care unit, but they politely declined- they know how quickly they breed, otherwise they might well have accepted. ;D

The Monkey World trip was fascinating, although it lasted for eight hours and I was tired by the end of the day. Baby orangutans and newborn golden cheeked gibbons are a nice sight. I did not find any Formica rufa, but I did see some Formica fusca workers, along with many spiders.

Pictures!



Compiled them as a single image to save time. Hope you enjoyed them.

[Welsh Ant]

Monkey World looks interesting, it's a shame you never found any rufa there but I hope you enjoy your college days and make a few new friends

[TenebrousNova]

I'm settled in now, people are very nice there.

Meet my patient for today, a leopard gecko.



I spent a lot of time trying to remove him from his health report. ;D

Here he is again.



There was a funny moment when he approached a nearby girl after walking around and started wagging his tail at her.

At any rate, I'll try and take more pictures during practical lessons.

[Jenny]

It looks like college is going to be mighty interesting, and can't wait to read more

[TenebrousNova]

On Friday, I will have completed my first term of college.

I must say that its been fun. We even had some owls come in from a birds of prey sanctuary, and it was interesting to fly them- they recognize their names and will fly onto your hand when you call them (If you have a treat for them ;D ).

I also had fun when I was put in charge of cleaning out the Quail's aviary last week. They're cute and quite calm.

Here's a bearded dragon also from last week:



He was very lazy and was trying to sleep throughout the class.

[TenebrousNova]

Fed a big corn snake earlier. It isn't something you get to do everyday, so I took a photo (I have linked it because although you can't really see it, the snake is eating a dead mouse). Here it is.

The idea was to pick up the mouse with a long pair of steel tweezers, slowly lower it in (The snake being in a plastic carrying tank), and once the snake grabs it you let go. The snake then slowly swallows the entire thing after coiling around it.
This snake was one of the eager few who poked their heads out in their excitement. ;D

The snake here and most of the others were female, and were given two mice. This is to prepare them for the breeding season, whereupon they won't be eating. They're being fed up before that time comes.
This one has a few lumps of fat along her, apparently she was overweight when the college bought her. She's more or less back to a healthy weight now.

There were enough snakes for the entire class to have a go feeding. We carefully scooped them out of their cages into the carrying tanks to start with, but we had to gently tip them back after they had eaten, to avoid the chance of them regurgitating their food again.

Quite an interesting class.

[TenebrousNova]

More pictures, as I just finished my work experience at the animal unit in college.

Timmy & Wiggy, my favourite guinea pigs.

Pregnant female with three babies. The babies belong to the mother of the pregnant female shown here, and were born yesterday. They can now eat solid food.
She is going to have her litter either today or tomorrow, but it looks like there's at least four waiting to happen.

Size comparison of the babies and my hand. They're adorable.

Leopard gecko.

Madagascan day-gecko turning his nose up at a locust. ;D

Tortoise.

Imperial scorpion making short work of a cricket, which she grabbed in her right claw and placed in her mandibles.

Hope you enjoyed these pictures.

[IceWhyte]

Guinea pigs are brilliant. I used to have 8 of them when I was younger. They can be really smart creatures.