Thank You James Bugea & Marissa Young

James Bugea
Jim is a dedicated volunteer that helps our Pony Wranglers as well as our Australian exhibit.  He is a fan of our feather friends – the budgie birds – and does a great job of helping out the keepers with their care.  Thank YOU Jim for lending a hand and helping support the Zoo!

-  Megan Hudak – Volunteer Services Manager

What’s your favorite part of Cheyenne Mountain Zoo? 

My favorite animal at the zoo are the wolves. My favorite area is Australia (matte!)

How long have you been a volunteer?

I have been volunteering at the Zoo for just over a year. 

What are some of the activities that you’ve gotten to help with? 

One of my favorite activities I was involved in was when Thea and Nichole were weighing the wallabies. That was fun and exciting to see how Thea was catching the wallabies by the tails! She was good at it. Then at the Big Backyard, it was also weigh day for the turkeys. Jeanne tried to catch a turkey and the turkey flapped her big wings and it slapped Jeanne across her face with a loud slap. Jeanne didn't think that was so funny at the time! Nichole & I took the goats out for a walk one day and that was cool. So I have enjoyed being entertained for over a year at your Zoo. Thanks for the memories!

Marissa Young

It’s great to have Marissa on the Zoo’s volunteer team!  We know we can always count on Marissa to do her best in Aquatics.  She has such a positive attitude and I enjoy seeing Marissa every week.  Thank YOU Marissa for being an awesome volunteer! 

- Megan Hudak – Volunteer Services Manager

Favorite zoo animal:

I think it's really amazing that the zoo has a snow leopard. Considering it was only within the last decade that we were able to get them on film (Planet Earth series) because they are so elusive, it is pretty cool that we can see one in person! 

How long have you been a volunteer?

I've volunteered at the zoo for about a year now.

What are some of the activities that you’ve gotten to help with? 

Feeding the hippos is always fun. It's cool to see them smash a melon in their mouth so easily. Feeding the penguins is also a lot of fun. They are all such characters and it's always fun to see what is going on in "penguin world", it's usually such a soap opera with that bunch. I mostly help with the hippos, beavers, penguins, and sometimes the cranes each week.   

 Do you have any funny/good stories about your volunteering experiences? 

One time I was cleaning out the beaver exhibit and letting Ginger and Duncan roam around in the little back area. As usual, Duncan was content to sleep the entire time, but Ginger was up and checking things out. They had a bunch of tree branches to munch on that were ready to be cleared out, so I moved them out of their exhibit to make room for the new tree branches to be put in. This was not ok with Ginger, though. Every time I moved something out, she would go and bring it back into the exhibit. She got her way and had a huge mixture of old and new branches to munch on for the day!

Just the other day, I got to watch the hippos play in the snow. I didn't think that hippos would like the snow, but they loved it! Their favorite thing was to eat the snow. They were very funny, walking around and scooping up piles of snow just like snow plows!