- Welcome to Riverbanks Roundup.

(upbeat jazz music) Good morning.

Welcome to Riverbanks Zoo.

I'm Magen Sier and it's about 7:00 a.m. here.

The sun just came up and no one's in the park except for our staff.

We actually have a few people that come in before the gates op to get everything ready.

And let's go set the clock and see what's going on for the We are starting out our morning in the commissary with Dave, our leader here.

And what's going on for our normal morning routine?

You're the first people in the z - Well, Magen, these people in the commissary come in at 7:15 every morning.

They need to be here to get the diets delivered throughout the zoo so that when the keepers come in they have their diets ready and and can get the animals fed and out in exhibit on time.

- So chow truck is first order o delivering everything throughout - That's right.

They hit the ground running and one of the things that is really important is get that morning delivery of We call it the a.m. chow run.

And we come in and get the truck We gotta be outta here and have the last diet at the last barn no later than 8 - All right.

So now that the diets are delive what's next for you guys?

- Well, there's a flurry of acti All these people come back in and they all have different groups of diets that they're working on.

These are some bird diets right in front of us that are in prep.

The meat diets and the fish diet are prepared on the other side of the counter.

And then we have the vegetable and fruit diet being prepared ov So we have about half the diets that are made today will actually go out tomorrow, and those will go out in the morning chow run.

So we have a set of what we call the a.m. diets.

We have the p.m. diets.

And cat, and bear, and bird diet are the four general groups of diets that we have.

- So everything's set up.

And for today, when you leave to everything will be ready to go for tomorrow's a.m. run?

- That's right.

We'll come in here, we'll mess the whole place up, and then we will do it again tomorrow all over again, but we'll have a lot of diets in the cooler they'll be waiting for tomorrow.

We'll have diets that are gonna be assembled over to my right and those will go out this after We also have a mid-morning drop where we take diets over to the bird department around midday.

- So a lot of running around, a lot of deliveries, and a lot of preparation.

- Yeah.

We have about 300 individual diet cards that we use.

You might want to grab one of the diet cards that Rob is working on there.

We can take a look at that, but we have these cards that may or an entire group of animals.

And the weights on there are all We use gram weights.

It's sort of like a recipe card that you might use, but everything is as precise as we can make it.

We try to weigh ingredients wherever possible for accuracy so that the vet staff knows what's going into that animal and we can keep track of that.

- Thank you so much.

That is a lot of work.

And you have a lot of things going on today.

- Yeah.

There's about 1,500 items actual that they have to prepare every That means not just weighing out but cutting to certain sizes and portioning.

Some animals have to have the pieces sliced a certain way so they can grasp and eat them.

There's a lot more to it than might meet the eye, but you know, you normally think about keepers, I think, when you think about th but there's a lot of work going on here all day long to help support animal health.

- All right, well, we're gonna g and see if we can follow some of those diets.

Every morning at 7:15, our commissary staff loads up our chow truck to deliver it throughout the zoo We go all the way around and make sure that everyone has their diets for the morning.

By 8:15, all of the food has been delivered throughout the zoo and our staff gets back to the c to start setting up all the food for the afternoon run and also for the next day.

So now that we have all of our diets delivered, it's up to our keepers to start We're here with Maggie, one of our bear cat keepers, and we're in front of a lion exh where we just are gonna get a ch to go out and see what they have So what's the first thing you do in the morning?

- The first thing I do is I come and I check on everybody who's i just to make sure they're all he and I don't need to call the vets down or anything.

And when I'm about to shift animals in or out, I will check locks about three or four times just to make sure everything's s 'cause that's the most important part of my job other than animal safety is huma And so once I'm sure everything I'm positive everything is secur I will bring the animals in.

So in this case, I'll bring the and then they will get a treat as they come in as a reward.

And then we'll go ahead and close the exhibit door, and lock it back up, and go ahead and feed 'em their - [Magen] So when you feed, is it just handing everything out or do we have a routine?

- [Maggie] There's a routine.

Obviously, we don't go in and fe because that would be very dangerous and bad.

So we'll push the meat underneath the mesh, but sometimes, we'll use this time to do our training.

- [Magen] Training, what's train - Training is what we do to make the animals' lives easier on them and on us.

So we'll do a lot of husbandry b which just means we'll do behavi that help us take care of them b So my lions know how to open their mouth on cue so I can check their teeth to make sure there's no problems They can show me their paws to make sure that there's no scr or scrapes or anything on the bo They can stand up so I can check out the underside.

They can lean in for hand inject if they ever need a shot.

So they can do a lot of things that makes their lives a lot less stressful.

- [Magen] This sounds very easy for us and for them.

- [Maggie] Yeah.

- [Magen] Now, they're inside.

We've got everything fed.

What's next?

- What's next is I make sure they're all secure again.

You see a pattern emerging here.

And then once everything is secu we go out onto the exhibit to do our cleaning.

So we pick up the poop, and we put out food, and make sure that the exhibit is secure again to make sure everything's safe for them to come back out.

So we make sure that the moat is clear of any debris that they could use as a new esc We make sure nothing's fallen in that could hurt them.

So there's a lot of different things in our routine that make sure that they're safe, and we're safe, and they're happy and healthy.

- So while they're inside, this is also your chance to do any projects and set anything up.

What do you usually set up for t - Enrichment wise, we'll put out a lot of different food options.

So we'll hide their meat to make 'em forage for it and look for it.

Sometimes, we'll put out different scents like coffee.

They like the smell of coffee 'cause they're very scent oriented animals.

And so we'll put that out to mak that they have something to snif Sometimes, we'll put out big toy so they can use their prey insti or predator instinct.

- Sounds like a great way to start the day.

Well, thank you so much, Maggie.

- You're very welcome.

Thank you.

- [Magen] While our keepers run our animals through their morning routine, our horticulture staff gets out to be able to set up everything they need to do with their plantings for the wee We're here in the lion exhibit with Megan from horticulture and it's pretty early in the mor so you can actually hear our sia going right across the way.

And we are doing some plantings this morning.

Now, how often do we plant here?

- In this exhibit, we plant maybe once or twice a year.

We're in the process now of trying to get something more to grow in the exhibit, so that's why we're out here tod - [Magen] What do you mean more Like, the type of species of pla - [Megan] Yes, we are trying to plant perennial grasses that we won't have to come back and reseed every year.

We're planting some native grass and some grasses that do well in this climate to try and mimic as closely as we can the habitat that the lions would live in in - [Magen] So what plants are we What are the names?

- We're planning some (indistinc and some feather reed grass.

- [Magen] And how do we figure out what we're planting?

How do we know it's safe for the - [Megan] Well, we always make s that the plants that we are plan aren't on the toxic list and we do research on that.

And then we also try to look for that are going to do well in the - And you were one of the first people in the zoo with our commissary staff, and why are we here so early?

- Well, we try to get as much done as we can when the public is not here so that we're not in their way and we can kind of make a mess and clean it up before the public gets here.

- [Magen] And of course, the lions aren't out here with us, of course.

They're inside.

- Thank goodness.

- [Magen] Yeah, it would be real to have them out with us as well - [Megan] Absolutely.

I like them on that side of the when I'm gonna be out on their e - [Magen] Well, thank you very m We're gonna head on to another a By 8:15, all of the food has been delivered throughout the zoo and our staff gets back to the c to start setting up all the food for the afternoon run and also for the next day.

It's 8:45.

The zoo is about to open, so all the animals are out on ex Riverbank Zoo opens at nine o'clock every morning.

Each year, we see over a million getting to enjoy the zoo.

Many of our animals prefer to sleep inside overnight.

Once the day starts, keepers set their sights to cleaning these inside backups.

When the animals are ready to re the insides are already clean.

Right now, we're looking inside of our gorilla barn.

At our penguin exhibit, once the exhibit is clean, it's time for feeding.

Every morning at 11 o'clock, we have of a public feeding show that everyone can enjoy.

(upbeat piano music) Another one of our public presen starts at 11:30 with our gorilla food toss.

Also, with an interpretation by one of our docents.

We are in the macaque exhibit in the Riverbanks Conservation T back with Sarah, our keeper, talking about the ways we clean and feed these guys.

And it looks like we're kind of I've got gloves, and face masks, and boots on.

Why is all that?

- It's a very important part of what we do here at Riverbanks.

We always want to make sure that we're safe when we're working with the anim And some species can actually have certain germs in their syst that actually might not affect those species at all in their day to day routines, but if we were to pick them up through our cleaning, working with the exhibits, we could potentially get sick.

So we always wanna be very, very What we have on are some element of our personal protective equip that we always have to have on.

Now, this particular exhibit, we have a little bit more than we would normally have for the other species.

And that's just because of the particular germs these animals could carry.

So what we have on, we have gloves to make sure our hands are always nice and cl boots to make sure we're not tracking anything into other areas, and the face shields are actually very important because as we're hosing, we might have the water kick up some of the debris that we are trying to clean out.

It might get into our faces, so that's why we always wanna ma that our faces are protected as - Well, I feel very safe.

Other than that, when you're cle do you use certain chemicals?

Do you change it up?

What's the daily routine?

- We do.

We always wanna make sure that we kind of stay one step ah of any potential germs that we h So we do, we rotate through what chemicals and disinfectants that we use on a daily basis because just like with antibiotic resistance, you can get resistance to the different disinfectants that you use.

So we kind of wanna keep changing things up, make sure that everything's alwa and safe for the animals as well as for us.

- Well, thank you so much, Sarah We're gonna keep moving on and see what's next.

(upbeat funky music) At 12 o'clock, our aquarium keepers start setting up the food for our 12:30 diet.

The diver has the lots to do before he is able to get in the First, he's gotta get all of his For a diver to go in the water, even though they're in a warm ta our divers still wear their wet It keeps their body temperature since they're gonna be in the ta for such a long period of time.

Because our diver has to hold his breath for over an hour, he actually uses a regulator.

It's a hose that hooks up to the very top of the tank so that they can breathe.

You'll also notice that they're wearing a couple ot to help them get through the wat The gloves will help them so that they can get around the They also need to make sure they have the food with them, so that big bucket right there carries enough food for everybody in the tank.

Our sea turtle is one of the hungriest guys in the tank.

We often throw his food first so he has something to do while everybody else gets a chan Once the diver dives in there, we'll also get a chance to clean the windows and make sure it's sparkling clean for everyone to see in.

At 12:30 every day, we have an interpretive talk with our dive show, getting a chance to see what we and who we feed in our big tank.

Let's check in with one of our k to see how much work it takes to put on this show.

Throughout the day, our keepers take a break from all the feeding and cleaning to do different presentations, shows, and animal encounters for the public.

Right now, we're at the aquarium with Christine.

And at 12:30 every day, we have a dive going into our largest tank, 55,000 gallons for Indo-Pacific.

Now, how often do you go in?

- For the Indo-Pacific, we go in at least twice a day, once for cleaning and once for f - [Magen] All right, cleaning.

So what does that take?

- It takes a lot of scrubbing.

It takes hydro cleaning, which is kind of similar to vacuuming the gravel.

And we're also cleaning the wind - Cleaning the windows from the inside and the outside or just from the inside?

- We do both every day.

- Every day.

So that way, everyone can see in and somehow the fish can see out - Seeing out is a little more di but you need to be able to see i - Okay.

So now that we've got everything cleaned up and set up, what is the 12:30 dive for?

- The 12:30 dive is for feeding.

We have to feed all of the diffe We have sharks, we have a sting we have different bony fishes.

Lots of different diets.

- [Magen] So do the diets come from the commissary pre-prepared for you or do you have to do some work b - We have to do some work back h - Okay, so what comes into the prep for you?

- For us, it's actually cutting the gel food, putting the bags together, putting all the different foods vitamins, et cetera.

- [Magen] Now, you said gel food What's gel food?

- [Christine] Gel food is the main staple diet for all of our omnivorous fishes It has all the crude protein and all the good stuff.

- Ah, so that's the stuff we'll see floating around in the different size chunks for different sized fish?

- Yes, exactly.

- I got it.

Okay, so we've got the diver in, they're feeding, and what are the fish that usually come up for the show?

- [Christine] That's when you see everyone actually.

We have all the sharks.

We have sing rays, different snapper, the trevally.

You'll definitely see, you'll see everyone during the feeding show.

- Now, Diver Dave is going in to and he's got to get all tanked u but we don't actually use a tank - We do not, no.

We use what Hookah compressor.

It's a little easier to get around the exhibit that way.

You just have a yellow line attached to you and the compressor, and you can get everywhere that a fish can get to.

- That sounds really convenient.

Well, thank you so much for checking in with us and we're gonna head off to anot There's always something going on at Riverbanks Zoo.

We move out into plaza.

Our "Wings of the South" show starts at 1:30 every day.

All right, so our bird show, "Wings of the South," has all raptors in it.

Now, raptors are carnivores, so we need to get everybody toge Who usually starts out the show?

- Actually, believe it or not, it's a whole entire team.

Everybody in the department has a very important role to pla whether it's the music that's being played, setting up the props, and getting the birds ready, and then at show time, and we actually include the audi - [Magen] Ah, see, that sounds like a lot of fun to be included in the show, be part of the show.

And what is the whole theme of t What do we try to talk about?

- [Lisa] The show is all geared on native birds.

It's called, the title is "Wings of the South" and every bird we have would be found right here in South Carolina.

- [Magen] That's really cool.

And this is all about birds you'll see in your backyard to be able to identify 'em and see what they eat or where t tell the difference between some of our vultures aro - That's right.

And not only what they look like Also, have a listen for them.

- Very cool.

Checking back in with the commis our chow truck is ready for its For p.m., we're delivering all the afternoon diets for the animals throughout the borders of the zoo.

Another really important thing we have at the zoo is making sure all of our animals are healthy.

One of the ways we do this is keeping a good weight on them.

So let's check in on the lemurs and see if they can show us how to get that weight.

We've jumped across the moat to our lemur island and I'm here with Windsor and Em doing one of the important thing that we do here every day is weighing our animals.

Now, we are with our ringtail le And why is it so important that we get weights?

- Getting weights on our animals is a very important thing that w It's a daily part of our husbandry in some of our areas.

In our area in particular, we actually weigh our animals once a month.

And as you saw today, we weighed our three ringtail lemurs.

And we did that because it is very important to keep track of how much food they're consumi Maybe some of our animals are actually getting a little to and maybe some are not getting e And also, weighing our animals can also keep track of a progression of a pregnancy even, and so that's super important.

And so we really take pride in weighing our animals and keeping really good records.

And it really helps us maintain healthy body condition with all of our animals.

And that is super important for them in captivity.

- So when you're talking about animal weights, they don't tell you when they're They don't go, hey, I don't feel good today.

So one of the easiest ways for y would be to check what's been going on from the past.

You have a record of everybody's You can look it up.

- Exactly.

- All right.

And how do we weigh?

I mean, we just can't say, hey, step on the scale, or can w - Not quite.

Some animals would be intrigued by putting this big, shiny metal thing in front of them.

And some might actually jump rig But in our case, we sometimes use this handy tool.

It's called a target pole.

And you kind of present this to And you know, Magen, if I were to present this to you, you would probably just go ahead and grab it.

And that's kind of what we hope.

And we also condition our animals to respond to a clicker, which I have in my pocket if I can grab it.

It's a click.

And this little device here allows us to train an animal to respond to this, knowing that they're going to ge - [Magen] So it's all through tr And training at Riverbank Zoo is all operant conditioning.

And Emily, can you tell us a little bit more about operant conditioning?

- It's just a step process.

So like she explained about the we literally just click and feed click and feed, so they start to learn that every time they hear the cl they get food.

So the clicker becomes a very, very positive thing.

And then like she explained with the target pole, if they even go close to it, they sniff it, if they touch it, we click and they get food.

So then they realize that, oh, maybe I have to touch my nose to the target pole and then they get a reward every So maybe Pie can show us.

Let's see if I can do it.

Target?

Oh, good job.

So you can see that Pie touched - [Magen] So a click is the, hey, I'm doing it right.

- [Sarah] Yes.

Target.

- [Magen] What if you move the t - Target.

He knows to go for it.

So then, we go up to the target.

Good job.

- There you go.

Well, thank you very much.

I'm glad we get to know how we take care of these guys and make sure that they're a healthy weight.

And we're gonna head off to anot Our keepers and curators are constantly checking on our e to see if there's any way of imp And animals need a lot of things to make sure they're living happy and healthy.

Let's see if there's any really that our curator can give us on how he keeps our animals' exhibits looking so great.

Another really important thing w is set up the animals' home.

And I'm here in the middle of our arc with our reptiles here with Scott, Curator of Herp So what do we have to do to set What do we have to think about?

- Well, it could be kind of comp and you have to take into accoun the natural history of the anima So in this exhibit here, we're going to display baby Komodo dragons.

And baby dragons are very arbore so we have to give them perches up off the ground so they can feel comfortable being off the ground.

They also thermoregulate because there's a thermal clime cooler at the bottom and hotter as they go up.

And these dragons need it really so we have to have a thermal gradient of about 110, 120 degrees for them.

Now at the same time, they have to feel comfortable.

So the animals are on exhibit, but also, you want them to feel at ease in their exhibit.

So we have these lush plantings so the animals can go down and hide in the shade if they wa And we have to balance that and the animals being comfortabl with our visitors being able to see the animals.

- So it's always a balancing act making sure that they've got everything they need and that they can be seen.

- Right, absolutely.

And we have to provide things fo like not only a thermal gradient but lots of UV light because these animals need UVB at a certain wavelength.

And we have to provide artificia that not only provides them heat but also provides them the UVB r that they need to grow.

- Okay.

So when you say the radiation gr how do you tell how cold the bot You just stick your feet in there and see if they get cold?

- Well, we have temperature guns They have a little laser pointer and you point it down at the gro and pull the trigger and it tells you what the temper And not only do we take temperatures of the ground, and the substrate, and the perch but also of the animals.

So when the animal's basking, we'll point the laser at his bac and then get a temperature reading of that.

- Okay.

So you have arboreal animals here, ones that climb.

What if you have an animal that just likes to be on the gro - Well, we have an example of that right next door.

Now, in this exhibit, we're going to display baby Galapagos tortoises.

So adult tortoises, galaps, weigh about 500 pounds, but these guys only weigh about a 100 grams and they're very small, so we have to do a couple of thi They're terrestrial, so they don't need a perch.

And they're very small, so we have to let people see the So we confine them to the front of the exhibit.

So we put structures in the back that hopefully they can't get ov and areas at the front where they can rest and climb around.

They're diurnal, so they move during the day.

And we have little things in there they can feed on like these grasses, which they c And they also will have thermal but much lower than the Komodo d So we want theirs to be about 90 The dragon's gradient will be 120, 130 degrees.

- Okay, so we've got the two exh Who decides all this?

I mean, do you look it up in a b and your word is the way it goes - Well, you have to know a lot about the natural history of an to simulate what they need in ca And that can be very difficult.

For some species, we don't have a clue what they need in the wild like our Bowlin's pythons.

But these are two species that there's a long history of having them in zoo.

Got the cookbook, so to speak, worked out on what they need so that they can grow and thrive in a zoo environment.

- So it's really important and a lot goes into making all the homes here, especially for each species.

And they're species specific for every animal we have.

(upbeat rhythmic music) It's five o'clock.

All the gates are locked.

We're done for the day.

I hope you guys had a great time learning the routine and some of the things that go i to making a great day at Riverba If you want more information, check out our website at www.Riverbanks.org.

Have a wild day.

(upbeat percussion music) (upbeat funky music) One of the things we have to mak is that our animals are always h So how can we tell if a snake is - Well, it's not that easy because snakes don't have facial expressions like we do.

You could look at another human and tell if they're feeling good and you really can't do that wit And with some of our reptiles and amphibians, it's very fortunate that even though they're a wild animal, we can actually pick them up and manipulate them and it's not bad for the animal like this snake.

And a lot of snakes aren't aggre as people think they are so we can handle it and it's no problem to us either Now, this is a harmless snake.

So if we were gonna give this snake an examination, we could just pick it up.

And if you were the veterinarian then you could look at it and see what's going on, listen to its heart.

You could draw blood if you need open his mouth and look inside, and do the types of physical exa that a veterinarian would want t to examine an animal like this.

How do you give an examination to a really fast, aggressive, and dangerous snake like a Green Mamba?

Well, there was a technique developed a couple of years ago using these clear acrylic tubes.

And what's the dangerous part of especially a venomous snake?

It's the mouth and that's where the fangs are and the venom glands.

So what we would do, if you hold this tube.

- [Magen] I can hold.

- We get a tube like this and then we get the snake's head and put it inside the tube.

And then if you hold the tube he and hold the snake at the same t now the snake is immobilized.

- [Magen] And she can't bite me?

- She could not bite you through She can't go forward.

The snake can't move back.

And now, the vet could give this animal an examination, do the same things.

Listen to its heart, draw blood, or whatever it is they need to d