#docent classes

Nicobar Pigeon Caloenas nicobarica

Aviary, LA Zoo

Los Angeles, California

2019

Started LA Zoo docent classes yesterday they run every Saturday, all day, for 6 months. If you miss more than two you are out of the program

The classroom is full of weird animal shit - skulls, taxidermied heads, bones. Yesterday I posted a giraffe skull and an elephant foot. When I was taking a picture of the foot, one of the lecturers came over and taught me about the physiology of an elephant foot. I’d never given it much thought. A bull African elephant weighs about 14,000 lbs. (6,500 kilos) that’s a lot of weight to offset. Elephant feet are rather delicate for their size, they don’t have a heel, so they walk on their tiptoes and the weight is supported with lots of cartilage and fat which provides a cushion. The foot splays out under weight, and contracts when the foot is lifted, which also makes it easier for them walking through the mud.

Half the class is lectures, half the class is out in the Zoo learning about specific animals. There are tests and if you don’t pass then you are out. You also have to participate in 3 “follow-me” tours, where you shadow a tour in progress. And at the end, to graduate, I will have to lead 3 tours, 1 is a joint led tour, one is one-on-one with a mentor, the final is you and a group of docents. There’s a final and then you have to put in 70 hours between graduation and the end of the year. 100 hours every year thereafter.

I love this kind of thing and will likely be insufferable, fair warning. I used to run an animal blog on Tumblr which was far more successful than this blog has ever been or will ever be, which is fine. I loved running it but some asshole photographer got mad that I posted a photo of his angelfish - with attribution + copyright and a link to his site. It was widely reblogged and eventually someone stripped off the attribution. The photographer rather than coming to me reported me to Tumblr and they threatened to suspend my account. I had until then had very good luck with NOAA (in regards to running bio-lumiecsent animals), several researchers let me post their photos and info. which was great because the average joe can’t just dive 500 feet to take their own photos. Or run out to snap a photo of a pink armadillo. So anyway, that was then.

We will be learning plants as well as animals, as the Los Angeles Zoo is also a Botanical Garden. There are cycads at the zoo worth thousands of dollars. Before you decide to steal a few, they are all closely guarded, tagged, chipped and monitored. These are the oldest known plants on earth. Herbivore dinosaurs ate them. They are interesting, but most people don’t even notice them as they walk past.

The intro meeting for the docent program was maybe 200 people. Then there was an interview with a panel of 6 people. And from there they chose the members of our class. There are two classes, ours is only about 25 people. The other I’d guess is close to that. I didn’t recognize anyone I’d spoken with at the intro meeting.