Work, rest, and play.

ZSL London Zoo 

 Clips I've taken at work at ZSL London Zoo over the last year or so.

Either from behind the scenes or from the visitor's side.*

 Xenopus longipes in ampexus

Xenopus longipes are a poorly know frog of the Pipidae family, these frogs are currently housed at the Herpetology department of ZSL London Zoo which is one of the only collections to hold them. Although seemingly easy to care for very little is known about their breeding. We are getting set to trial different sex ratio groups, different temperatures and water levels. Watch this space. 

This was one of the few times we have seen them in amplexus, and look at little Sebby hang on!!

 Scheltopusik

These scheltopusik or European glass lizards Pseudopus apodus have been in the zoos collection for years, soo much character and soo interesting a story.

Nothing too exciting in the clip, just hunting crickets and showing how surprising it is that they manage to catch anything.

Philippine crocodile Crocodylus mindorensis

The pair of Philippine crocodile Crocodylus mindorensis at the zoo are going to be introduced for breeding, and as they've been kept separately we wanted to house them near each other so we could judge their behavior.
The slightly larger female is very bold and we were worried she may dominate (i.e. try to kill) the male.
 The male, seen here on the right, asserts himself straight away giving us more confidence in a successful outcome.

You can just hear me using my radio to call my colleagues to come and see as I'm soo pleased at his behavior.

Varanus komodoensis, the Komodo dragons at the zoo.

Raja and Rinca have been put together for breeding a few times now but with no success. This time we tied a carcass to a tree to hopefully get them used to being together.

My colleague Grant and I enter to get a better view, it's without a doubt the closest I'll ever get to
Jurassic park!

"And at that point"...

 Grant and I re-enter the paddock to see how they are getting along.

As we get near they have had their fill and start the mating ritual again,
(basically chasing and biting, we've all been there.... )
And its at that point, discretion becomes the better part of valour and we beat a hasty retreat.

 Puff adder, giving birth.

The Bitis arietans at the zoo recently gave birth on exhibit. We have planned to move them that day so we could monitor the female but as always, things go faster than planned and the call went out the the female was giving birth.

You can see the first youngster cruising around the enclosure but then at 53 seconds in, little Sebby makes his appearance.

 

 

*On my Kodiak play-sport, the screen is a bit cracked so I cant always see what I'm filming, so you may see more knees and walls than you'd expect.....

Mr Grant, in person.

Here are a few work videos of me taken over the years at my job at ZSL London Zoo.

Here you can see some of the fantastic animals I've worked with, and the super cool hair cuts I've had during this time.

The first clip is of the giant anteaters Myrmecophaga tridactyla. Here with my short "silver fox" hair,
 (grey..) 
I chat about something that doesn't really need any words.

 

 The next clip is of the two rheas we had, Lefty and Bert. The same hair, the same day. 

Naked mole rats Heterocephalus glaber are possibly one of the most complex species you can get. The more you know about them the less you feel you understand. This is the colony I worked with at the BUGS! exhibit at the zoo.

The Galapagos tortoises are one my favorite animals, and I think my enthusiasm, and hair stand out.

    

This is the annual stocktake we make of all the animals at the zoo each year, I'm only in a few seconds of the film (not worth watching you cry? Well check out 34, and 115 seconds in) but theres lots of other fantastic animals and amazing people to see.
(But dull hair cuts...)

And lastly, for now, here's the two newest additions to our tortoise group, Polly and Priscilla,

as for the hair? Well, I'm now wearing a hat a lot....

Birgus latro, the robber crab.

Here are a few videos of the Birgus latro that recently arrived at Chessington World of Adventure Zoo.

The first video shows him being removed from his temporary quarters for him to be checked (and for me to get excited over!) He has been housed offshow while his main enclosure is re-themed and "crab proofed"!

                                                                                  

The next video Keith talks about trying to reward the crab when it's taken out of its enclosure, the aim to be making it a pleasurable experience not a stressful one.

                                                                              

The final video has an even shakier camera while I move to stroke the crab, Keith's observations make me love this species even more (even if it hates me...)

What can you say? One of "The list"..

:)

Budgetts frog, Lepidobatrachus laevis.

This is my male budgetts frog, which I am about to brumate. This is his last meal, a small trout.

As mentioned in the YouTube info, he normally gets fed fresh water fish or insects, very rarely mammalian prey items. This is because I doubt he would eat many mice in the wild.
But who knows?
Look at the way he uses his hands to manipulate food, what an amazing animal!
:)