[OVR] See What Happens

Keeper Steve was mucking out the off-exhibit yard for the Fynbos exhibit and the mosquitos were eating him alive. Normally they weren't too bad until the afternoon and evening, but today they were simply murderous. 

He swatted at them, but ultimately just had to keep working through it. The yard was sandy, with the typical dark grey-green fabric covered chain link fences and the overnight barn to one side. Through the barn was the exhibit space where two bonteboks and the female eland were currently on display. There was a shade cloth covering a corner of the yard, but naturally the spaces he needed to clean were directly in the sun.  A few plants poked through from the exhibit side, but mostly they had been nibbled to the stems by the occupants of the yard. The wide gate closest to the barn clanged as he opened it to move the now-full wheelbarrow through. 

Now was time to shift the animals to the barn so he could clean their exhibit. Normally that would have been done earlier, so the animals wouldn’t be off exhibit where the guests couldn’t see them, but Madame Bovary hadn’t wanted to come into the barn the previous night. It wasn’t too hot or too cold and there was no inclement weather expected so they’d left her outside overnight. It wasn’t good to let her get into the habit of refusing to come inside, but every once in a while it happened. 

Since she had been out in the exhibit at the start of the day, the keepers hadn’t filled the feeders in the exhibit. She was bound to be getting hungry. Hark and Vigilance, the bonteboks, had gotten dinner in the barn the night before and were fine. 

Hungry was good. Hungry would make it easier to tempt her inside. Steve waved off a few more mosquitos as he pulled apart an alfalfa flake and laid it on the floor of the barn. He made sure to wave it around a bit first so she could smell it.

Madame Bovary made her way to the door of the barn and peered in. She smelled it alright. She was the size of a draft horse but built like a bull. Though she didn’t have the thick neck or dewlap of a male Eland, she did have the same soft nose and big brown eyes. Her expression said she wanted the tasty treat, but she didn’t want to step inside the barn.

Hark and Vigilance had no such inhibitions. Perhaps it was because the bonteboks were smaller than Madame Bovary and thus the wide open barn door didn’t seem like a place they could get trapped. Vigilance was the slightly smaller of the two and wove her way inside the door. Steve was still to the other side of a chain link fence from them inside the barn, and tossed his alfalfa over the barrier and in her direction. Vigilance perked two white ears and gave a soft snort, drawing her slender neck up tall. Hark lowered his wider head and gave a small answering snort. He stomped his grey hoof on the ground in an “all clear” call and followed her inside, white tail wagging. 

Madame Bovary continued to stand in the doorway and blink her bovine lashes. Steve pulled out the target training stick- a long stick with a ball on it, which the animals were trained to approach for a reward. Madame Bovary recognized the stick. Some pull of the training short circuited whatever thought was preventing her from entering the barn, because she came forward to press her nose onto the ball and got herself a carrot slice as a reward. 

Quickly Steve shut the barn door behind the ground before Madame Bovary could change her mind. He dumped the wheelbarrow in the compost pile and brought it around into the exhibit to start his scooping. 

If anything, the mosquitos were even worse out here. Hark gave a snort, as if hearing Steve’s thoughts and agreeing. Steve looked up to see all three ungulate’s tails swishing furiously, warding off the mosquitos. 

Steve scowled. They tried not to get pest control to spray if they could help it, since it caused poisoning up and down the food chain. Where were the mosquitos coming from?

He stumbled on his answer. Since Madame Bovard hadn’t left the exhibit last night, their water trough hadn’t been emptied and refilled. The shallow water was absolutely wriggling with mosquito larvae. With a disgruntled noise, Steve dumped the trough and scrubbed it out, rinsing a few times before he refilled it with clean, mosquito free water. 

“See what happens when you don’t let me do my job?” he asked Madame Bovary. “We all pay the price.

She wiggled her ears as if agreeing, or at least conceding the point. Or perhaps just as if a mosquito had found them.