"Look at them!" Sukari chuckled as he watched the Cape penguins waddle along, leaping in and out of the water, "They fly, but only in the water and there's so much of it!"
They were only a few minutes into Sukari's outing and Bryan was already getting an idea of why so many of the other keepers liked him. He was curious about everything and because he never really went out of his enclosure everything was new to him. He was full of questions and enthusiastic, eager to learn about everything he saw and all of the other animals.
Tail held high Sukari crouched down to watch the penguins swim back and forth, mouth open in a toothy smile.
"They're our Cape penguins," Bryan explained, "We've got three pairs of them now thanks to a zoo out of state lending us two males. Hopefully in the next year one of the pairs will mate and have an egg."
At that moment one of the penguins let out a loud call and Sukari leapt backwards with a shrill giggle.
"They're loud for how small they are," he snorted, looking back and forth Bryan and the penguin. "I've heard the sound before, but never imagined it came from something like that. You make a big noise!"
The transformed hyena let out another laugh at the penguins. Used to guests making noises at them, the penguins didn't respond, much to Sukari's delight.
He walked back and forth in front of the penguins for a little longer before sniffing noisily and licking his lips, "How do they taste?"
"They what?" Bryan was taken aback and had a hard time parsing exactly what Sukari was asking. Fortunately Sukari was more than happy to elaborate.
"I like the little birds that sometimes fly into where my family lives, but these ones are big and fat. Do they taste like birds or do they taste like the food you give us?" The hyena smiled innocently at him, bouncing slightly on his paws as he waited for an answer, very excited, but also very much a predator.
It was a shocking reminder of what Sukari was, but at the same time Bryan was glad for it. He might have changed Sukari mentally as well as physically, made him smarter and more like a human in how he acted, but he was still a hyena with everything that came with that. All of the predators in the zoo would try to eat any wildlife that managed to get in their enclosures, the lions having recently managed to catch a goose that landed in their habitat, but the hyenas were especially successful hunters, often enriching their diet with birds, squirrels and anything else they were able to.
"We don't eat the animals here," Bryan explained, "We take care of them so people can come and watch them."
Sukari looked at the penguins again and nodded, "That makes sense. If you ate them there wouldn't be any left and they're very fun to watch and I'd miss people if they stopped visiting."
"Do you want to see more animals?" Bryan asked, wanting to make the most of the time remaining before the zoo opened.
"How many do you have?" Sukari asked, looking around, "I hear lots of things before the people show up and after they leave. Are they all the animals that live here?"
"All of them and more," Bryan smiled, "Some of the animals here don't make much sound."
"There are ones here I don't know about?" Sukari's brushy tail stood straight up with excitement, "Can you show me?"
"Sure, the otters should be out and people love them."
Working at the zoo gave Bryan an advantage of knowing where to take Sukari next. The gorillas and wolves hadn't been let out for the day yet because of their specific diets and enrichment needs. The bears tended to sleep in, but the twin North American river otters, Dextral and Wes, were always active in the morning.
As they walked bast the other enclosures Sukari lifted his head and sniffed, taking in the scents of the other, unseen animals. It seemed that the sounds and smells were enough to make him happy, especially the lion habitat. It was close enough to the hyena enclosure that he must have heard and smelled them before, butting the chance to learn where they were was a delight for him. The hyena was adamant that he wanted to see the lions because of how loud they were, but his excitement about the otters kept him moving.
The moment he saw the long, not-quite-oval shaped otter habitat Sukari was excited, "More water! Are they more birds that fly in the water?"
Built into the natural slope of the land the otter enclosure consisted of a gentle hill with a man made stream winding down it into a large, glass walled pool for guests to watch them swim.
As Bryan had expected, both river otters were out, one of them picking that exact moment to come out of their den area and amble into the stream. Sliding down the incline he splashed in the water and began to spin beneath the water.
Sukari's dark eyes went wide in wonder, "They have fur like me! But they're so small and they fly in the water like the penguins!"
Nose pressed to the glass Sukari let out a series of huffs and grunts, the vocalizations off a curious hyena. The otter in the water swam back and forth in front of him, curious about the strange visitor.
In fact, Sukari's behavior was reminiscent of a curious little kid with how his muzzle and paws were pressed against the glass. Bryan was definitely gaining an appreciation for why Sukari was so well loved, all the behaviors he was showing being qualities that were innate to him, the Chronivac not creating them, but merely enhancing what was already there.
Sukari's smile grew as he watched them, "Look at their paws! They have such big paws for how little they are, and they run with them in the water like birds fly in the air. If there was enough water could I do that?"
Did hyenas swim? That was an excellent question, one Bryan didn't know the answer to. He knew that several other zoos gave their hyenas large tubs of water to sit in, but nothing large or deep enough to actually swim in. Later he'd have to ask one of the other keepers who was more familiar with hyenas about that.
"I've got no clue," Bryan answered honestly, "We can ask though."
Sukari nodded, brushed his mane out of his eyes and went back to watching the otters, alternating between chuckling at them and letting out excited hyena sounds.
For his first experiment with the Chronivac this was far better than he could have expected, which only got him thinking of what to do next. It was something to think about as he watched Sukari watching the otters playing. They seemed as interested in Sukari as he was in them, much to the hyena's delight.
"They're so little!" He repeated, not taking his eyes off of them, "Are they children? Will they get bigger?"
"That's as big as they get," Bryan said. The two male otters were young though, "That's Wes and that one's Dextral."
He pointed to the smaller and larger of the two otters in turn.
"Hello Wes, hello Dextral," Sukari said quietly, tilting his head as he continued to watch them, "You are very strange."
Sukari's large ears swiveled and he stood up abruptly, turning around.
Bryan did the same and saw Danni, a fellow zoo keeper step around the corner.
"Hi Danni!" Sukari said happily, "Bryan is letting me meet the other animals"
Danni blinked, momentary confusion showing on her face.
Bryan tensed, wondering if he'd made some mistake with the Chronivac's settings until Sukari walked over to her.
Danni smiled and without hesitation reached out to scratch Sukari between the ears, mussing up his thick, coarse mane. It was an open secret that, despite there being a strict 'no contact' policy with the hyenas, many of the keepers would reach carefully through the mesh of the fence in the back area of their enclosure to scratch their necks and backs. Nosipho was especially fond of getting her neck scratched and rarely allowed Sukari anywhere near the keepers, but now that he was out and away from her he was free to enjoy all the attention he wanted.
Seeing the anthropomorphic hyena, at least a head taller than Danni, bend down so that she could better scratch his head and neck, his eyes closed in an expression of pure bliss was as hilarious as it was disconcerting.
"You're such a handsome boy," Danni cooed at Sukari.
Sukari whined and huffed like an happy dog, shifting his weight from paw to paw as Dani ran her fingers through his thick, coarse mane.
"It's nice that you're letting him walk around some," Dani laughed as Sukari rested his head on her shoulder, "I wish more of the animals here had the opportunity to get out and explore. Really, it's a shame that we didn't start sooner."
Bryan nodded, watching as Dani rubbed the transformed hyena behind his ears as though there was nothing out of the ordinary about the situation. His first test of the Chronivac had been a stunning success and he couldn't wait to try more.
"Why don't you finish checking on the rest of the animals while I take over with Sukari?" Dani asked.
Sukari looked up hopefully, "We can meet up later if you want so you can show me more on the animals here. I'd really like to keep watching Dexteral and Wes."
"No problem," Bryan said with a small smile. It was well known that Danni's favorite animals were the hyenas and she was especially fond of Sukari. Being able to spend time with Sukari would make her day and Bryan had no intention of neglecting his duties as a keeper. To the contrary, he was already thinking about how he could use the Chronivac to do an even better job of taking care of the animals. Enrichment was such an important part of keeping them happy and healthy and the Chronivac could certainly help a lot there.