Here’s what the animals at the Singapore Zoo are getting up to while no one’s around during the circuit breaker
SINGAPORE: Walking about the park without a leash, the five creatures run up and down playground slides, curiously sniffing at bushes and wagging their tails at leaf piles.
While everyone is staying dwelling house amid the "circuit breaker" measures, the ring-tailed coatimundis at the Singapore Zoo are getting a chance to explore the park freely.
With the circuit billow in identify until Jun ane, at that place are no guests visiting the Singapore Zoo, and zookeepers are complimentary to engage the animals in creative ways.
For Ms Nurfarehan Khair, an assistant supervisor in animal presentation, this means taking her charge of v male coatimundis out for walks and preparing for new presentation routines with them.
"They are very curious animals, they carry just like dogs," Ms Nurfarehan told CNA over a video call.
The keeper, who has been with the zoo for 16 years, said the coatimundis are "pretty much unaffected" by the lack of visitors, and have gone through training to be handled easily in open areas or uncontrolled environments, making them very suitable for walks effectually the park.
"They just love venturing, and so working with them is very, very interesting and it keeps y'all on your toes because they get bored very, very fast," she said.
Coatimundis, unremarkably known every bit coatis, are native to Central and South America. The band-tailed coatis, or Due south American coatis, unremarkably move around in big groups and females are the dominant species, Ms Nurfarehan explained.
"Normally the boys are solitary. Then our boys are kept together in a social setting because of how we need them to work together for shows."
According to their keeper, coatis are closely related to racoons, and with their long tails and banded markings, many people confuse the ii. The mammals, which are "very sweet" and "extremely agile", are commonly kept as pets in the The states only are rare in Asia.
As part of the animal presentation team, Ms Nurfarehan'southward duties cover the shows presented at the zoo, and preparation the animals for husbandry or show behaviour purposes.
"And so apart from that, what nosotros do most of the time, which a lot of people seem to not know, is we exercise husbandry for our animals, and that would of course include cleaning up after them, feeding them and providing enrichment for them."
Earlier the excursion breaker, the keeper and her team of five coatis normally put on four shows a day, which adds up to two hours of work. Just at present, she can employ the two hours to play with the coatis, let them explore the park or work on husbandry training, which refers to behaviours that would arrive easier for the vet to carry out checks without sedation.
Aside from the coatis, Ms Nurfarehan also looks subsequently otters, primates and the Patagonian maras. With social distancing measures in place across all of Wildlife Reserves Singapore's (WRS) parks, she rarely sees her fellow zookeepers and other colleagues.
"I think for me it gets lonely sometimes, because now for the team I'm working with, there's only five of us and nosotros're so used to working seven or more," she said, adding that there are about 120 people notwithstanding going to work across the four WRS parks.
"Nosotros have to practise social distancing, meaning that we don't bump into each other. So I might be working with a crew of five, but I don't actually meet them. Or if we do encounter each other, we continue a distance."
Although the animals are yet brought out to "castor up" on their presentations once in a while, she misses getting to acquit the fauna presentations to a live audience.
"Yous miss the hype of having people in the oversupply. That, for now, would have to exist on hold, hopefully for not much longer," she added.
The 36-year-old started working on beast presentations and coatimundi grooming well-nigh one-and-a-half years ago.
"I beloved presenting. I love the mic work. So one day information technology just happened by blow. I was training, or mayhap just trying out training with a primate," she said.
"And I had fun, surprisingly, and then the bug just caught on, and at present it'south coatis and otters and maras. And I thoroughly enjoy it."
Different animals take dissimilar amounts of time to master different behaviours, Ms Nurfarehan added, and this could vary between one or two days and one month.
"Information technology'south very, very difficult to gauge (how long it will take), merely every time nosotros railroad train an animal, nosotros brand sure they are set upward for success, meaning we don't make them experience like it's not achievable,
"The planning for every animal is different. You lot might want to simply make the objective a lilliputian bit more than achievable for some, significant we intermission it upward into much smaller steps. And then for others, they can just get it at one go."
With no guests at the zoo, all of Ms Nurfarehan's time at work is now focused on the animals, which she considers an opportunity to explore new things with them.
"And I'k very sure if COVID gets cleared, nosotros are never going to get the same opportunity to be with our animals at this magnitude.
"We're just making full use of the time that nosotros have, and so when the zoo reopens, and when the guests come in, they would be in for a squeamish feel with our animals."
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