Behind the Scenes at Amazonia: Working the Urban Jungle
by Debra Solomon
As they roam around the re-created rainforest of Amazonia, visitors can peek into the field station of a fictitious research scientist, Dr. Brasil. The elusive doctor always seems to have just left, venturing out into the field while visitors stay behind to peer at his tanks of specimens and peruse tacked-up newspaper articles about the most recently discovered species of the Amazonian rainforest. The field station is always full of new information and meticulously laid out--so much so that you would swear someone really is spending hours each day there. That "someone" is the exhibit's staff. Keepers, those animal lovers in shorts and hiking boots, are the real Dr. Brasils, setting up the field station in the early mornings for each new day of visitors.
Amazonia's lush forest requires constant attention and keepers are always on the move. "So many of our activities are out in the public," explains Amazonia keeper Blake Rushin. Whether they are hanging over walls to pull away dead leaves clogging water filters, balancing on rocky ledges to lower bundles of lettuce and other vegetables into the simulated river for large schools of tropical fish to nibble on, or rapelling down walls to clean the acrylic tank-view windows, keepers often find themselves part of the exhibit as well.
Keepers play a variety of roles in Amazonia, from animal handler to teacher and tour guide. They answer questions about plants and animals, point out shy or camouflaged animals to visitors, and guide children and adults through Dr. Brasil's research station. "We don't have labels on plants; we have people out there to talk about them," says Rushin. "That was a choice." In addition to keepers, Amazonia also has specially trained FONZ interpretive volunteers who roam the exhibit in order to help visitors see the often hidden creatures.
Keepers work with the public most at Dr. Brasil's field station, where visitors often raise questions while they come face to face with piranhas, red-footed tortoises, and dart-poison frogs.
Keepers find that their role as educators is necessary in Amazonia--though the exhibit is filled with information, very little of it is obvious to the untrained eye. "Since this is a habitat exhibit, to maximize your view of animals you need to look for them a little harder. If you're used to doing birding outdoors, you'll enjoy it," says keeper Ed Smith. "Otherwise you might find it frustrating, because the sloth might be sleeping under some leaves and then you don't see anything. So, take your time." Amazonia also comes equipped with detailed "field guides" hanging from railings; zoogoers can try to identify which of the twelve or so bird species--hummingbirds, honeycreepers, tanagers, sunbitterns, and red-crested cardinals--they see flitting through the foliage or streaking past.
Keepers enjoy their interaction with zoogoers, but they also cite working in a mixed-species exhibit as a major Amazonia attraction. "The nice thing about working with a mixed-species exhibit is you really do learn about all different types of plants and animals," says Ed Smith. And while every keeper has his or her own area of expertise--Rushin works primarily with fish, keeper Melanie Pyle primarily with plants, and so on--everyone eventually learns to do everybody else's job. "It's like being a jack-of-all-trades," notes Supervisor Vince Rico.
All seven Amazonia staff have volunteered or worked in other exhibits before and recognize how different Amazonia is. Amazonia is the most species-rich exhibit at the Zoo, housing not only mammals, birds, and reptiles, but more than 2,600 fish. With more than 350 plant species, the Amazonia exhibit also houses the Zoo's greatest botanical collection.
By working largely with plants and fish and filtration devices, Amazonia keepers don't always have the same personal connection with the animals they might have working with elephants or other large mammals. Amazonia's Goeldi's and titi monkeys have managed to make some personal impressions, however, as has the exhibit's scarlet macaw, Mac. "He can say hello in maybe twenty different subtexts," marvels Smith. "He has these begging, pleading hellos, he does a query hello--it's the same thing we do when we walk into a house."
Although they work hard out in the exhibit, Amazonia keepers find that most of the work is, in fact, behind the scenes. "Visitors always ask if Amazonia is a 'balanced environment,'" says Ed Smith. "If it's at all balanced, that's only because we keep tweaking it." Keepers not only spend a large portion of their time cleaning tanks and filtering out the fish's water, they also spend two hours every morning hosing off Amazonia's plants to rid them of insect pests, and they regularly prune tree limbs to keep the plants from overcrowding. Careful attention is lavished upon the foliage because pesticides and herbicides, which would likely harm the animals, cannot be used. Keepers also monitor the animals' eating patterns and behavior, making sure to keep the entire Amazonia staff up to date by leaving notes about individual animals on a large dry-erase board.
Amazonia keepers may be out in the open, right there for visitors to watch and question and learn from, but they are also there in the background, doing what keepers always do--making sure everything runs smoothly and seamlessly, making it seem as if there were no planning at all, so that both Zoo animals and Zoo visitors can fully enjoy Amazonia.
(ZooGoer 26(2) 1997. Copyright 1997 Friends of the National Zoo. All rights reserved.)
