00:00Look at these metal hippos.
00:03Yeah.
00:04Hippos are my favorite.
00:05Oh really?
00:06Then you're going to like our next job.
00:07What is it?
00:08You're going to have to find out.
00:09Okay.
00:10I'm guessing it includes hippos.
00:11It might.
00:12Here you are.
00:13Wow.
00:14What's over here?
00:15This right here is our hippo viewing.
00:16This allows our guests to get an underwater view of our hippos.
00:17Wow.
00:18Where are they?
00:19They're inside right now.
00:20They're getting ready for their house to be cleaned.
00:21It's going on its mom's back.
00:39That's not a hippo.
00:40That's a human.
00:41Right.
00:42So hippos spend most of their day in the water.
00:45And so a lot of what we do to take care of them is we have to clean their water.
00:51Are you ready to get to work?
00:52Yes, I am.
00:53Well, to do that, we need a couple of things.
00:55Okay.
00:56First, this is for you.
00:57Ooh.
00:58You get your own name badge.
00:59Yay.
01:00I'm going to put this on right now.
01:01Welcome to the zoo crew.
01:02Thank you.
01:03Well, guys, I guess now that I'm a zoo crew, I'm going to be needing to do some of the
01:08zoo work.
01:09That's right.
01:10And last but not least, you're going to need these.
01:15These are some big boots.
01:17Huge boots for huge poop.
01:19Now that you're ready, let's get going.
01:21Let's go.
01:22Here we go.
01:23Hey.
01:24Hi.
01:25Hi.
01:26I've been waiting for you guys.
01:27I'm Brooke.
01:28Nice to meet you, Brooke.
01:29Nice to meet you.
01:30I'm Caitlin.
01:31All right, Brooke.
01:32So Caitlin is our animal care specialist for our hippos, so she is our hippo expert for
01:36you today.
01:37Wow.
01:38I'll try.
01:39You ready to get to work?
01:40Oh, yeah.
01:41Wow.
01:42This is a pretty clean cage.
01:43It is.
01:44These guys spend a lot of time in the water, so that's where a lot of their poop goes.
01:45But look, we got plenty here to clean up.
01:47So let's get started on that.
01:51Excellent.
01:52There we go.
01:55Perfect.
01:56Get that poop of people ready.
02:01I'm ready.
02:02There we go.
02:05Now, Brooke, think if these hippos were in the wild.
02:08Yeah.
02:09These guys spend all night eating, and then they go and sleep in the water and hang out
02:11in the water during the day.
02:13And when they go to the bathroom, that poop goes in and it feeds the fish and helps give
02:16nutrients to the entire ecosystem.
02:18Wow.
02:19That's amazing.
02:21These guys have a really important ecological role.
02:22It's pretty cool.
02:23Yeah.
02:24Uh-huh.
02:25So here in our pool, not only do we house hippos, but we have all these tiny little
02:28fish in there.
02:29Can you see them?
02:30Yeah.
02:31What are they called?
02:32Those are African cichlids.
02:33They're beautiful.
02:34They're gorgeous.
02:35But what's really cool about them, my favorite thing about them, is they have a symbiotic
02:39relationship with the hippos.
02:40So both species benefit out of living and kind of working together.
02:44Wow.
02:45That's amazing.
02:46Yeah.
02:47So when they go to the bathroom, they put all that poop in the water, the fish will
02:51eat it.
02:52Yeah.
02:53And it helps us keep the habitat nice and clean.
02:54How do you not catch any of the fish?
02:57They're really good at staying out of the way.
03:00I've never managed to get one in here before.
03:02Really?
03:03Nope.
03:04Now, twice a week, we'll actually get in the water like you saw my friend Esther earlier.
03:11We clean the windows and we can go in and help scoop the hay from in the water too,
03:14which sometimes is a little easier.
03:16You want to give it a go?
03:17Yeah.
03:18There you are.
03:19Okay.
03:34Wow, this is really hard work cleaning all the hippo poop.
03:47Now that the hippo enclosure is nice and clean, it's time to get the hippos back into the
03:55water.
03:56It's so special to be able to get this close to such amazing animals.
04:05His tongue is sticking out.
Comments