This week I have properly found my feet. I do not get lost around the zoo anymore and have mastered the animal inventory.

I have made time to get to know each of the keepers on my sections - cats and hoof stock - and have spent a morning working with each of them, to see where their strengths and weaknesses lie, and how the husbandry of the animals can be improved.

There are only little things that need to be sorted and I have written protocols and shown the keepers what needs doing. They have accepted them with no hassle, which is good.

I passed my online GIS training course, so now have to put it into practice by mapping the zoo and all the electrical and water pipes around it.

I have also started taking control of feed and tool stock takes, as well as ordering new things when the staff need them.

The lion cubs are really cute. It takes a bit of time for them to get confident and then they are all over you. I have a scratch down my back where one decided to pounce on me from behind.

From next week I will be doing my first postmortem examination on a springbuck that died last week. I am not sure if I am looking forward to that or not really.

At the weekend we got up really early to knock down three male cheetahs and collect sperm samples from them via electro-ejaculation, to see who had the most viable sperm.

We then knocked down the female who belongs to the president of the United Arab Emirates, and a specialist from the US performed an artificial insemination procedure on her.

It was really interesting to watch as we saw, via a video screen, the ovaries with follicles developing on them and the sperm being inseminated straight into the oviduct.

Fingers crossed it will have been a success.

On Tuesday, June 15, I had my first day off so I went into Dubai city which is about an hour’s drive through the desert.

I went up to the top of the Burj Khalifa, which is the world’s tallest building.

The views were amazing but looking down did make my legs go funny.

Needless to say I did not stay up there for long.

The temperature is steadily increasing as summer moves in, so hopefully I wont have melted by the time September comes.