Fans of the “Dirty Jobs” show on the Discovery Channel — have you thought about the dirty jobs at Santa Fe? The Zoo Technology students are working on one of the dirtiest jobs on campus this week: “mucking” the pond at the Teaching Zoo.
Every other semester, first-year zoo students remove debris and soil from the bottom of the pond.
“This is a manmade pond with storm runoff and leaves, and we get accumulation of debris on the bottom — the students get the fun of mucking it out,” explained Jonathan Miot, Associate Professor and Assistant Director of the Teaching Zoo.
“We want to keep the depth at an optimal level to create a good habitat for our animals. It’s a local environment with local wildlife — snakes, turtles, birds and fish. We maintain it for them.”
Maybe not such a bad job with temperatures in the 90s.
Photos – web gallery
SFC Teaching Zoo – webpage