THE ZOO ENVIRONMENT ABIOTIC ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

Small mammal keepers need excellent observational skills to identify individual animals and determine changes in their condition and daily behavior, because these parameters are scaled down to the sizes of the small mammal species under their care. Animals might be identified through passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags, individual characteristics, tattoos, or body part clipping. Even the least visible identification method (PIT tags) requires the keeper to have the time and expertise to get close to the animal with a digital reader. Condition changes are relatively easy to observe in large animals like deer and antelope, but difficult to observe in small mammals, unless the keeper takes the time to observe each animal as it moves toward food and around in the environment; these observations need to take place at the appropriate time every day. It is difficult, for example, to determine the condition of a sloth or mouse housed in a diurnal environment if that nocturnal animal is asleep in a nest box every time the keeper tries to observe it. So it might be better if occasionally the keeper were scheduled on an evening shift (e.g., during an evening event at the zoo) to observe the animal while it is active