Wild Day..=)

Hao hao yeah!

Last Saturday  was an exciting day.Me,Syatrah,Athirah(reng) and Fatin went to the Zoo Negara!!We were not there just for fun,but we went there to become volunteers..!Yeay!!!(Wow,I'm too excited about it huh?!)So our journey began at 7.30 a.m.(suppose to be 7.00 a.m.but someone showed up very late..ahahaha..sorry FATIN..huahuahua)

Walking from our 12th Residence College to University LRT Station then heading to Wangsa Maju LRT Station and took a cab from there to Zoo Negara.We arrived at 8.30 a.m. Luckily, Fatin had called The Education Department of Zoo Negara earlier(using Syatrah's cell phone -she's the only one who got credits to make call..Thank you Syatrah!), informing them that we're going to arrive late.

The athletes (Fatin and Syatrah) were walking so fast that me and blurry Reng were left behind.!Fatin sat at the passenger seat in front and said “Pakcik,laju sikit boleh x?”

We enter the Zoo Negara using Gate 3(the employees’ gate).Hohoho..Guess what?We don’t have to pay anything!!Weeheeeee..=)

We had to undergo the usual procedure - signing up our names,jotting down our cell phone numbers, in & out time ,bla bla bla~ Once we're in, we headed to the Education Department of Zoo Negara office and we were briefed by Mr...err..well,I forgot his name..hahaha..=P

There are rules that we need to obey..Sheeshh...List of the rules that I remembered: 

1. We can't capture/record any animals in the Zoo while doing our work except we had the permission from the officers in charge.
2. We can't roam(roam?I think I'll use the word wander)in the zoo compound without the permission from the officers in charge.
3. Cell phones must be in silent mode all the time. If you want to use it, well, ask permissions from the officer in charge.

Let make this simple,everything that is listed in the rules and regulation ,can be done with THE PERMISSION of the officers in charge.

The guy that briefed told that we’ll be working at Bear Complex today!I was like YEAY!!!
On the way to the Bear Complex, we saw some BIG animals.

Syatrah : Badak eh?

Me : Xlah!hahaha
Athirah(reng) : Kerbau lah!!(dengan yakinnya!)

Me : Hahahaha(sambil mencari nama haiwan tersebut dalam kotak fikiran..XD)

Mr.-that-I-forgot-his-name : Seladanglah...(sambil tersengih)

Me : Ha,itulah perkataan yang aku cari(yeah right~haha)

Fatin : ....(tengah penat kot...tu dia diam je tu..)

 Energetic Syatrah..XD

 Cheerful Reng and me..=D

As soon as we arrived at the Bear Complex, we met cheerful Kak Lai, an enthusiastic, and gung-ho officer! Kak Lai asked me to record a bear movement the moment it came out from its cage into its (err..What’s that word..hurmm) ‘natural habitat’ or ‘garden’ or whatever it is called. The bear came out lazily (just like human when they get up in the morning) ,sniffing around as if it is enjoying the morning fresh air. I guessed Kak Lai took a video of the bear everyday because she said something like this.. ‘Ala,nape Girl x aktif arini..Dia x jilat ye garam yang aku tabur tu?’ I was like..(beruang makan garam ke...)

Kak Lai took us to feed the ‘Seladang and family’ after finishing recording. Guess what.. ‘SELADANG’ EATS BREADS FOR BREAKFAST!!!(Just like human..At that moment, I don’t feel like I want to eat bread anymore. Just at that moment.hehehe)

 Reng,Fatin,Me

We changed our shoes into boots and wore gloves.Obviously,it’s working time! We went to the Holding Centre (where the animals are quarantined) .There were 2 otters,6 tigers(newly imported from India!)a noisy parrot,2 Bantengs and other animals in different cages. We had to clean up the whole area except inside the cages, of course! Actually, even volunteers are not allowed to enter the Holding Centre. We were the lucky ones! Like Syatrah’s roommate always said..Untung la...hahaha.=))

Syatrah cleaned up the left side while I took the right side of the narrow path behind their cages. Fatin and Reng were cleaning up another area. I was raking the leaves between the path  happily until I was right in front of the 2 active tigers. At first, I wasn’t brave enough to look at the 2 tigers so I just took a peek. Eventually,the tigers were staring at me (like I was the meal of the day!) and both of them slammed the metal bars of the cage. Being a normal human, I gave my best reaction to the situation...

Me : Syatrah!!!!!!!!Tolong!!!(lepas campak pencakar daun dan berlari kearah Syatrah.)

Syatrah : Kau kenapa ha??
Me : Teman aku..harimau tu nak makan aku..(mak aih..cam budak kecik!)

Syatrah : Hahahahaha.Yelah,yelah.tunggu aku habiskan ni kejap.

Me : Ok.(menunggu sambil menjeling kearah 2 harimau tersebut.)

Gee, my heart feels like it’s going to explode.(dah lama x exercise kan..hahaha)

Yes, Syatrah did accompany me but...

Syatrah : Sarah,harimau tu pandang kau lah.
Me : Mana ada!
Syatrah : Yelah!tengok tu!Eh,Sarah,sarah..!dia bangun la..

and it happened again..The tigers slammed the metal bars once again.. Yeah, Syatrah ran off, leaving me alone. Pffftt!!! Hence, we came up with a theory.   

Tiger = big CAT. They play like normal cats (ala macam kat rumah yang suka main gigit-gigit tu..).So ,if you stare at them, eventually these big cats (the active ones!) will think that you want to play with them! That’s why they were slamming the metal bars (that’s our theory) Freaky huh? Tigers are adorable.. but..they are bigger than our cats at home or wandering cats at street..I mean..BIG!

Unforgettable  incident.

Tiger caretaker: Hey!apehal korg bersihkan longkang tu?(dengan suara yang kuat dan lantang)

Us : Errr..aaa..kitorang kena sapu daun..(dengan muka blur dan pandang sesama sendiri.)

Tiger caretaker: Siapa suruh sapu?Bos yang suruh ke?
Us: .....(masing-masing buat muka innocent)

Tiger caretaker : La,xpayah la.Xpenah kitorg sapu dlam longkang melainkan kalau bos suruh.Haih..dalam sejarah la volunteer sapu longkang.Dah dah dah..xyah buat dah!
Us:..ooo...(menganggukkan kepala.)

Thanks to Kusess for teaching us to be sensible and fussy about cleanliness. (Masa GOTONG ROYONG PERDANA je...masa lain xde lah nak bersih mana pun..hahaha)

After finishing our work,Kak Lai allow us to wander around in the Zoo compound for free!!hahaha. That’s the benefit of being volunteers and was supervised by a kind-hearted person. We went to Penguin House, Children World and so on.

 Penguin House

After performing our Dzuhur prayer, Kak Lia introduced the bears to us.

The brown bears-Boy,Girl,err..can’t remember.
The sunbear – Amoy,Jumac,Tina,Ema,Rupert and so on.

The Asian-thick black bear – Boy and girl.

 Girl yang dah tua...

Bears do have huge appetite. Their favourite food is Gardenia bread (plain,butterscotch,chocolate raisins) dip with honey(gedik betul!),fruits and other sweet things. They have limited source of protein, so we had to wrap some cod’s liver oil pills (supplementary pills) in the gardenia bread and dip it with honey.(which is a little bit fussy).The cute bears also eat fish and expensive Science Plan(dog food) pellets.

A bear (Rupert’s sweetheart) wanted more food, so it stood up and waved its paw towards us.CUTE!!!!XD

We also fed the otters.After getting their fish,they’ll clean it up in the water and ate it by the edge of their pool.Huyyooo..Freaky hygienic, huh?

Last job that had to be done before going off was feeding and bathing the tapirs! Tapirs like to eat bread too.They aren’t even 2 years old yet but their size is bigger than Syatrah!=D

Jesse is the male and Taffy is the female. Taffy is quite aggressive because being a female, it is more protective. Meanwhile, Jesse was a flood victim once in Johor, so it was a little bit ‘manja’. Kak Lai said that tapirs like to be massaged.We rubbed Jesse belly and its neck which made it lie down, feeling sleepy and cozy.

At 3 p.m., we were allowed to watch the zoo show.The last part was when the emcee asked for any volunteer to give donation which a parrot will fly and to the person’s arm, take the money and fly back to its keeper. I volunteered myself and this was the result. :

sakit woo burung tu genggam!

We went back at 4.00 p.m. except for Syatrah who went back earlier. I felt extremely exhausted but it was nothing compare to the experience that I’ve gained! =))

 Proud Volunteers

*No worries Zoo Negara. We’ll come again!=)