Surprising Day in Zoo Negara (Yee Lin)

Surprising Day in Zoo Negara (Yee Lin)

I was quite surprise when I found out we had a course called Social Engagement. Some of my seniors told me that we could gain a different experience through this activity and some told me otherwise. We were divided into groups and had discussion together. After discussing with our group members, we came out with a plan that is to become volunteers on 8th May 2015 and 15th May 2015 in Zoo Negara and also volunteer in Tadika UM on 22nd May 2015.

Zoo Negara, the place that I have never visited before is the first destination for us to fulfill our task here. I was allocated to work as a team with Nabillah, Zi Huey and Sivaneswary . This was the first time I cleaned the shed by splashing the ground filled with grass using a pipe and feeding the bull with fresh grass. During this activity, I found that we gain lots of knowledge about the bull including the habits of the bull from the zookeeper. This is quite useful because the tourists may ask us about the animals when we were feeding the bulls. How old are these bulls? Are these bulls only eating grass since they are so big? These are the questions that the tourists were asking at that moment. Involving in this volunteer program make us felt really proud of what we did at that time.  

It’s still the same for our second day as a volunteer in the Zoo Negara. The only difference is I was in charged in the aquarium site. Abang Ahmad, the zookeeper has assigned me to work with him in the kitchen. Small fishes, clamps, vegetables such as cabbages and corns are the foods that we prepared for the fishes. Abang Ahmad said that the fish scales will become shiny and more colorful if the fishes consume lots of vitamins from the vegetables. This was the first time I heard of such facts which I can’t learn from the textbook or during classes. After feeding the fishes, we also explained the food that the fishes consumed to the tourist and help them took pictures too. Most of the tourist from overseas was surprise and they praised us, since the students in Malaysia are not only focusing in their studies but they are active as a volunteer that contribute to the society.

As a volunteer from 8 am till 4.30 pm, others may assume and think that we did not actually associate with the community since most of our time are spent with the animals. In my opinion, animals are also part of our society and our nature environment as well. Most of us always contribute our time and energy to the orphanage house and the old folks home, and how many of us actually remember our responsibility to pay back to our NATURE.