Submitted Photo Giraffes browse during construction at Roosevelt Park Zoo in Minot.

Combating fear is one of the greatest challenges for young zookeepers to overcome. It is not necessarily the fear of working around potentially dangerous animals, but the fear that something they do or do not do will negatively impact the animals they care for and about. From my experience, it is often the “what ifs” that ends up haunting you the most. We cannot protect the animals from every imaginable problem. The best that we can do is to discuss, plan, prepare and repeat, until we as a team have minimized any risk to the animals without limiting their ability to perform natural behaviors that make them unique.

This perseverance is on display in the way that the giraffes are being acclimated to their new habitat and the new work going on around them. For the giraffes, change is learning to shift into a new habitat while watching their previous enclosure go through a transformation due to the construction of the African Plains Building (APB). For the lions, the change is more focused on the cub JaKiya as she learns about the world outside of the lion building.

As plans for the coming flood mitigation project progressed, one of our goals was to keep the giraffes in Minot during the project that will remove the entire north side of their enclosure. The APB itself was designed to create a safe space for the giraffes to reside during the wall construction and throughout the cold North Dakota winters. With most of it already funded through donations, and construction on the horizon, zoo staff developed a plan to provide an outdoor habitat for the giraffes that would still allow space for contractors to do their work.

With fencing in place and a list of potential concerns addressed, the zoo staff began the process of acclimating the giraffes to this new space. Initially, we provided access to the space between their barn and the feeding platform. It was a wow moment for them as they walked outside into this new experience. The yard as they knew it was gone and the new fences limited the space they had to roam. By the end of last week, we opened the barrier separating the giraffes from the renovated zebra exhibit, offering them a lush, new habitat to enjoy. They did not rush over by any means and spent plenty of time suspiciously studying this new change, but led by Kioni, eventually shifted across this invisible barrier and into the new space. One step at a time, the giraffes acclimated to their new situation, without too many changes at one time. This week, the sounds of construction added another challenge as the contractors started working in the area again. So far, they are acclimating well, after realizing that the machinery on the other side of the fence was not a threat and the sounds of the work become routine. The contractors understand the delicate balance we are working through and work with us to ensure the well-being of the animals, especially during this period of acclimation.

Each step along the path has its challenges but providing time for them to acclimate at each step has enabled staff to be more successful and make any minor changes needed to ensure the well-being of the giraffes as well as the progress of the project.