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PHOTO BY CLARE JENSEN

MEATY MAYHEM. A team of zookeepers (right) race against the non-zookeeper staff (left) in the first annual Zoo Olympics “Meat Molding Mayhem” event. The non-keepers took the prize in this event, with their rendition of a sea horse made of beef July 22.

Zookeepers put skills to the test

By Clare Jensen

There is no better way to appreciate employees than to have them perform their most loathed daily tasks faster, harder and in the eye of public ridicule.

At least that is true in the eyes of the zookeepers at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium (PDZA), who spent day two of Zookeeper Appreciation Week competing against their non-keeper counterparts.

The first annual PDZA Zookeeper Olympics yielded lots of fun and laughs July 22, as the teams of four participated in a variety of animal husbandry tasks.

It also was a way for non-zookeepers to get an appreciation for all the behind-the scenes work the 20 or so Tacoma keepers do on a daily basis.

“We all do different things here,” said aquarist Dave Smith, who placed in the “Whose Scat Is That?” animal droppings contest. “It’s cool to be able to see what others do. It’s the daily grind.”

While zookeepers might not actually shovel hay into wheelbarrows at breakneck paces, or worry about visual presentation when preparing meals for the animals, all the events were derived from actual zookeeper tasks.

For instance, competitors were put under pressure while asked to identify which piece of fecal matter corresponded with which mammal. They were also required to do an impromptu “keeper chat” for zoo guests about unusual fairy-tale creatures, such as an unicorn and a fire-breathing dragon.

At the end of the day, the non-keepers came out just a hair over the zookeeper pros.

The non-keepers took the prize for the food preparation, meat sculpture, zookeeper chat and salt-water siphoning events. The zookeepers showed their expertise in the fecal identification, the weighted walking and wheelbarrow races – arguably the most closely related to the keeper job description.

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