The Stupid Season

Winter, at most zoos in the United States, is something of the slow season.  Especially at zoos without lots of indoor exhibits (and excepting those that are in the hottest parts of the country), it's when we tend to have the lowest visitor numbers, many animals are less active, and in general life is as quiet and calm as it gets when you work in a zoo.  Fall and spring are what I think of as "the stressful seasons."  These are the times of year with a lot of activity.  Breeding and birthing among the animals, lots of transfers between institutions, field trips, construction - there's a lot going on.  These are the busiest, most productive times of the year, and early spring and late fall tend to be my favorite times of the year.

Summer is the stupid season.

It's wretchedly hot, which not only makes the animals as slow and soggy and bugs caught in sap, but it makes every movement of the keepers a sleepy, sweat-soaked torment.  A lot of activities are put on hold at this time of year to reduce stress - not many animal transfers, for example, take place in the hotter months.  Unlike the winter, however, we can't just roll down the gates and wait it out.  Because summer tends to be the busiest time of year for visitors.  It's when we see the greatest number of folks on vacation, for one thing.

And whether they're coming from just down the street or the other side of the globe, a lot of these folks seem to leave their brains at home.

I used to find field trip season to be the most stressful time of year with visitors, due to the ratio of children to adults.  But no, now I'm settled that it's the summer tourist season.  Some people (a small minority, I wish to point out - most of our guests are lovely) seem to think that if they're on vacation, their fun takes priority over all else, all rules be damned.  They get hot and cranky, however, and don't always understand that animals might not want to be active in this sort of weather.  This is when we have the most fence-hopping, animal harassing, and other obnoxious behaviors which can negatively impact people and animals.  Just yesterday, a teenage visitor climbed a tree past a barrier at the Columbus Zoo to get a better view of a cheetah.  Just minutes later, an adult visitor at that same exhibit crossed a barrier and tumbled 15 feet down into an enclosure.  Thankfully, no one - human or animal was harmed.

To top incidents like this off, we have to worry about the health of the visitors in the weather - lots of sun stroke and heat exhaustion.  I swear, I have seen a mother with a baby that must hav just gotten out of the hospital from being born a day or two earlier, prancing around the zoo on a 100 degree day in the full sun.

It's early August now, which means that some folks are in their last hurrah of summer, trying to squeeze in a few last adventures before the school year starts.  Personally, I'm looking forward to welcoming the field trips back.  If I make a blogpost in a few weeks complaining about how exhausting those can be, feel free to throw this post in my face.