Rain, Rain, Go Away

"He had read somewhere that the Eskimos had over two hundred different words for snow, without which their conversation would probably have got very monotonous... Rob McKenna had two hundred and thirty-one different types of rain entered in his little book, and he didn't like any of them."

- Douglas Adams, So Long, And Thanks for All the Fish

A former boss of mine once told me that, apart from farmers, no one watches the weather more closely that zookeepers.   There's certainly a element of truth in it.  For one thing, we have to pay constant attention to the temperature and weather conditions for the well-being of the animals under our care - is it too hot, too cold?  For another, there's the annoying fact that, whatever the weather, we have to be out in it.

There's snow and thunderstorms and droughts and many other things we have to cope with.  Some pose an actual danger to our safety as we work with our animals.  And some are merely annoying.

Like rain, for example.

The Rainforest exhibit at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo provides occasional rainstorms on some of its habitats, which presumably allows the animals to spend the rest of their day reminding themselves of how lucky they are that they don't actually live in a rainforest.

It's my greatest source of frustration that my zoo just doesn't work in the rain.  Anything more than a gentle drizzle turns our paths in streams, our exhibits into ponds.  Just the other day, I put a food bowl down in one of the keeper areas.  It actually floated away.

It's important that the animals be provided with shelter, although to be frank, I've never noticed many of them actually using it.  There are few things more exasperating that looking at a torrential downpour, and seeing all of your animals sulking in the rain when they have perfectly adequate shelter right next to them.  It's also not adequate to have a dry head - you must provide for dry feet as well.  It's no good giving the animals a roof over their heads if under that roof is a flooded mess.  Also, the animals must be provided with a place for their food to go where they will not be soaked in the rain and turned to mush.  There are few smells that I have encountered that are fouler than a bowl of Nebraska Bird of Prey meat that's been sitting out in a downpour.

Whether they use the shelters or not, the animals at least have the option of staying dry.  Keepers don't.  We have to be out in the rain, if only to get from exhibit to exhibit (unless you're one of those smug reptile house keepers).  To my intense dismay, no one has ever invented rain gear which actually keeps its wearer dry.  Just yesterday, I was wearing three raincoats, one under the other.  I still ended up soaked.  So do my socks - even if the boots are waterproof (and it's only a matter of time before holes and tears develop), some rain inevitably comes in over the tops.  The neck develops a painful crick from being held down in an attempt to keep the rain out of the face.  And that's not nearly as annoying as the welts that I wind up with on my legs from the constant smack, smack of the sides of the rain boots on my calves.

A little rain can be fun when you're visiting a zoo.  It thins out the crowds, cools the air, and often makes the animals more active.  A little of anything, of course, can be fine.  It's a lot that gets to be problematic.