Sleigh Ride Test Run

Steve pondered the golf cart.

The hoofstock, who rotated enclosures and pastures seasonally to reduce grazing pressure, had just been moved to their winter spaces. The large hoofstock of the Acacia Expanse were now in the off-exhibit back pastures aside from the hartebeests, who had been butting heads with the new topi herd. He wasn't sure yet if they would have to be seperated permanently, or if they just needed time to stake out their territorial claims. Oftentimes the most similair species were most likely to spar, as they were competing for the most simialir food and microhabitat resources (even in the zoo environment, where the only limited resource was the space they had access to). 

Generally the back pastures were not shown to guests. They weren't "prettied", being just open pasturage with some copses of oak trees for shade and chain-link high-fence to keep the animals in. Grasses grew knee to hip high if the animals hadn't been around to graze them down, like they were now. Utilitarian at best. There were shelters for the rain, but they were plywood and tin makeshift spaces, not painted barns like the tour-friendly spaces closer up to the exhibits. 

So, if he was being asked to show a guest around they were probably either A) a big donor who felt they were entitled to an "off-menu" custom tour experience, or B) some bigwig in the industry that wanted to see the nuts and bolts of things and actually knew how to evaluate what they were looking at. Since Steve had arrived to the instruction by email before dawn, he wouldn't get to check up with his supervisor and see which it was until later in the day. So, he had to prepare for either.

He gave the golf cart a quick wash, and polished it to as much of a shine as it could give him with just soap and water. There wasn't much in the way of decoration in this part of the zoo (most parts of the back pastures didn't have power, much less anything fancier) but on his way in he had snagged some of those car antlers and a string of bells from the education station. That would have to do. He fitted them on; it wouldn't be impressing anyone, but the effort had been made.

The visitor wouldn't be arriving until a bit later, but Steve wanted to take the golf cart through the pasture first, to make sure everything was in ship-shape. The animals in the back pastures were left more to their own devices than those in the exhibit areas, and you always wanted to find the unsightly things and take care of them before the VIP visitors (or your boss) did. 

There was a typical circuit that the keepers made with the golf cart, and he followed it. Since the pasture hadn't been grazed the previous season, it was a bit overgrown and he had to take the golf cart around slowly.  He was leaning forward, looking at the ground in front of the cart and trying to make sure he was still on the trail when the cart rocked with a "bang"!

The male topi, the organgest of the group, had charged the golf cart and hit the back pole. He backed up, picking his legs up high and shaking his sturdy horns either to clear his head or charge again. "Whoa, whoa, back off!" Steve called to him. 

The herd of topi had arrived recently and gotten out of quarantine not too long ago. They had proven to be a bit skittish. The two females, one a mellower tan and one with piebald patching, stayed a ways off and watched nervously. Topi were some of the least sexually dimorphic antelope, and he'd had to learn to identify them by smaller marks and color variations rather than size and bulk. The male continued whisking his tufted tail anxiously and stamping his feet. His head was lowered, so Steve knew he was thinking of charging again.

The cart pole was metal and wasn't at risk of being damaged by the antelope. The male topi, however, would probably not benefit from hitting the cart repeatedly. And Steve wasn't protected by a door if the topi decided to charge him instead.

Steve knew they came from another zoo, probably a smaller one where they were attended by a keeper on foot and not in a golf cart. He curserd under his breath. He should have known this might be a new stimulus for them, and that they might react unpredictably. They were still adjusting to a new zoo, and a new pasture; the golf cart was probably extra scary in the face of all that change and uncertainty in their lives. 

There was a shovel in the back of the golf cart, for any manner of uses but most relevant at the moment was that it could be used as a barrier or deterant to keep the topi from charging Steve and the cart. The keeper had been charged before and the bruises were fairly magnificent. Hard topi horns and skulls were designed to take blows from other topi, but his fleshy human torso and ribs were not.

He was twisting in his seat, trying to figure out how to reach the shovel from the back without exposting his legs to the aggitated animal. Steve was so focused on forming a plan to defend himself and discourage the topi from hurting himself that he didn't hear Doakes approach.

The gemsbok was another species with little sexual dimorphism to tell them apart. Doakes was their resident male, older and darker than the two females sharing the pasture. His long, tasseled tail put the topis to shame. Doakes had been bottle-raised, and had no fear of humans. This was a double edged sword, as he did tend to come too close for comfort for a creature as heavy and heavily horned as he was. 

However, the untroubled and calm Doakes didn't even flinch as he forced his way between the topi and the golf cart so he could shove his way up to Steve and beg for food. The smaller topi danced backwards, before darting off and rejoining his females under cover of an oak copse. They banded together tightly, seeking reassurance that neither the big gemsbok nor the scary golf cart were coming after them.

Steve gave Doakes's chin a scratch before shoving the bull's head out of the passenger's seat so he could continue on his rounds, and breathed a sigh of relief. For this afternoon's tour, he decided, he would take off the scary bells and antlers from the golf cart, and make sure he knew where all the occupants of the pasture were before they ventured in.