‘We have to be careful about noises; you listen to the animals. These guys know what’s going on all the time.’

As a mischievous kid, Curt Transhu and a pal used to sneak into the zoo for fun, throwing an occasional rooster into the bear exhibit. Now , he’s a San Diego Zoo security guard who watches for the pranksters and intruders who manage to scale the 10-foot fence. He didn’t plan it that way--he began as a zoo maintenance worker and had been moved up to the construction crew when his 6-foot, 4-inch frame was bent by a back injury. Returning as a guard, he discovered a new world after 12 years there--the zoo after dark. With pops and creaks and dozens of glowing eyes, the 100-acre site was suddenly a spook house that fueled “funny” thoughts, he says. The 39-year-old Transhu likes the nights now, although they took getting used to. In the beginning, even the sound of falling tree berries as they struck metal picnic table umbrellas was a puzzle. He was interviewed by Times staff writer Nancy Reed and photographed by David McNew.

When you start here on the night shift, they don’t tell you a lot of things, you just find out. Like the camels. When you go by the camels, going back to check the locks, you’re not told that when you go by, the camel is right there at the fence and he has got a tongue about this big around and he will stick it out and go kinda blabble blabble. It really frightens you because you just don’t expect it.

There is one big drill (mandrill, a primate) down here that will run around and, boom, will really jump against that wire, hitting it with all four feet. The first time he does that, you are clean across the street. At least I was. It is a very intimidating animal, a very big fellow.

We have to be careful about noises; you listen to the animals. These guys know what’s going on all the time.

They can tell you a lot of times when someone is here who shouldn’t be. It might be a fox, or a dog or a cat or a person.

If you’d walk in front of the flamingos right now, they would start chattering. You learn what animals to listen for. The monkeys and the peacocks let out a sound that really wakes you up. It is like a scream.

Sometimes, we get some drunk sailors, or transients. If somebody came over the fence, the peacocks would just screech.

I really have areas that I feel funny going into at times, mainly because they are darker. There is just something about them. Like the snake house, just because of snakes being what they are. I go in there, but still it’s in the back of my mind. I don’t care much for snakes.

This is something really funny to say, but I am not an animal person. I have never had a dog or cat. A lot of times we are called to stand by if an animal is hurt, or we have to transport an animal to the hospital. That I really enjoy, to help the animal. But to have an animal, to say it is mine to take care of, I am not that kind of animal person.

Last time I had the walking shift, a guy who was relieving me wanted to know where the alarm was that would go off if the water got too hot for the crocodiles. These are pygmy crocodiles that are really a rare animal.

And when I came down here to show him, we looked in there, and this guy (the crocodile) looks like he is caught. I got a broom to push him down. He had gotten his paw caught in the drain overflow and he was underwater, couldn’t get any air. So I jumped over the wall and drained the pool just enough where he could breathe. I was afraid if I drained it too much he’d break. It was a freak thing. The keeper came and we had to cut away part of the drain while holding the croc’s jaw shut.

This time of year there are newborns. Sometimes you are the first one to notice that a baby is being born. I was watching for quite a while, just recently, for an antelope to be born, and it just seemed like it was never going to happen. They were beginning to worry about it a little bit. It was born and everything was fine with the baby, but it was born on a day that I had off, so it kinda makes you feel funny on that.

My little boy asks me what it is like at night and do the animals scare me, and I say no, nothing scares me. He knows. He really likes to ask me. If I come home with a story, he is big man on campus the next day at school.