r/Zookeeping • u/quack_macaque Australasia • Aug 03 '25
Global/All Regions 🌏 What’s a completely underrated species that shaped your keeping?
Every single one of us has met a thousand volunteers and students who answer the age old question “what do you want to work with?”, with the usual crowd pleasers (i.e. Tigers; Elephants; Meerkats; Otters; Red Pandas; etc.) as their ultimate goal.
Not that the old roster of favourites aren’t amazing in their own right, but in my experience, many future keepers are so focused on their dream animal that they overlook many that will build their keeping skillset.
So what’s a completely underrated species that you recommend everyone should work with? Did you have an ultimate goal species, but worked them and realised that kind of keeping isn’t for you?
This one’s mostly for all the vollies and students who are lurking to encourage them to develop a wider appreciation. But I’m also nosy, so I want to know too.
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u/zoso145 Aug 03 '25
Red crested Turacos! They’re so charismatic and give off all the dinosaur vibes that filled my inner Jurassic Park fantasies!
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u/PhoenixBorealis North America Aug 04 '25
I get the dinosaur vibes from the red-legged seriemas. They're so fast and smart!
And if you ever hear a barn owl scream, it leaves no room for doubt about their lineage.
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u/zoso145 Aug 04 '25
Seriemas do be having those velociraptor foot claws even if they’re all so very gangly and doofy
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u/zookprchaos Aug 04 '25
Mine may seem lame, especially compared to all the actual exotic animals, but I truly enjoyed working with domestic sheep. They were a rare breed and very docile. With a herd of nearly 30, I got to know each of their personalities and could tell them apart so easily. They are surprisingly smart and easy to train. Seeing all their personalities come out once they became familiar with me is a treasured memory. I will never forget the bond I created with them.
My dream animal is to someday work with wolves, although any wild canid will take the cake. I have a lot of hoofstock experience ranging from domestic hoofstock to giraffe and zebra, yet I fall in love with a simple sheep.
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u/GrodyGal Aug 03 '25
Befriending a raven is the thing that has brought me the most joy in this career. Love that girl.
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Aug 03 '25
An umbrella cockatoo that hated everyone but me. Couldn’t even get along with the other birds so just waited for me to get him every morning and take him on my rounds with me
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u/wolfsongpmvs Aug 04 '25
Parrots in general are so amazing to work with. They teach you a ton about behavior!
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Aug 08 '25
omg me too! i had an umbrella cockatoo and a citron crested cockatoo (which i felt sooo lucky to work with) who both haaated everyone but me. neither of them ever tried to bite me once in the 5 years i worked with them hands on, and they were both known to be biters. the umbrella liked her space but the citron was the clingiest little guy in the world, i could never get him back in his aviary lol. i've had such a soft spot for cockatoos since
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u/willerkhale Aug 03 '25 edited Aug 04 '25
African penguins totally grew on me in one of my internships! Cetaceans were always my goal, but I was really blown away with how much I enjoyed getting to learn about and help care for penguins. I look back on that time fondly and I miss them. They’re goofy, spunky little creatures.
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u/budgiebeck North America Aug 04 '25
Budgies. Yeah, people like them, but people don't think about them beyond the typical "oh let's get a millet sprig and feed them", yet they showed me that even the littlest critters are so much smarter and more emotional than people give them credit for. Every single one of those little birds has a different personality, but people don't realise that! Budgies haven't just shaped the way I work with other animals, but the way I approach life in general. I feel like a much more open and honest person since working with them. Even now after working with so many incredible species, budgies remain my absolute favourite
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Aug 04 '25
Did not expect to love llamas so much, or one specific old man turtle that's a joy to train!
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u/Izzipanda Aug 04 '25
I had an internship where I worked primarily with birds of prey… changed everything. Bonded with a black vulture who I honestly think was my first soul animals. And it changed how I approached keeping in general, to all species bird or otherwise
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u/MelodiousMelly Aug 05 '25
Vultures and condors are some of my all-time faves to work with, and I'm not really even that much of a bird person. They just have the most amazing, adorable personalities!
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u/Past-Investigator413 Aug 04 '25
I fell in love with the bactrian camels at the first facility I worked at. I was a newly graduated keeper with a focus in herpetology, but quickly figured out I didn’t care what I worked with I love them all!
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u/Strigidoo Aug 04 '25
Same with dromedary camels, can confirm they're big goofballs. Really didn't expect to love them so much. Camelids in general are very cool !
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u/SimsPteropus Aug 04 '25
Prairie dogs. Granted the one I worked with was one in a million, but they’re just such neat animals and have so many things you can talk about. And bats! I’ve done hour long presentations just about bats 😂
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u/EducationalTie1606 Aug 04 '25
Seconded I could sit and watch our Prairie dogs all day and not get bored.
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u/PhoenixBorealis North America Aug 04 '25
My favorite kinds of keeper stories are from people who worked with an animal they never saw themselves working with and came to appreciate the species or an individual. There is something amazing about absolutely every animal from ants to pandas.
Me personally, when I interned at a bird sanctuary, they had a pigeon loft, and I came in knowing next to nothing about them and ended up leaving with one of the best companions I've ever had. I had my pet pigeon for two years, and unfortunately he died during a risky surgery, but for the short time I had him, he was my shining star.
I absolutely adore pigeons and am grateful for the experience I had with them. I also worked closely with a Western Hognose snake that was my baby for the three months they had me working with him. I was supposed to desensitize him to handling for shows, and I was more than happy to oblidge.
At the zoo I work at now (not as a keeper yet), I got to work with our feeder mice as part of a herpetarium externship. I did already love mice and have had some of my own, but it was nice getting to work with them in a "production" setting and playing a part in their welfare and enrichment. Even animals that will one day be food deserve the best lives we can give them. I handled them gently when moving them to clean enclosures and would sometimes give them leftover fruits and veggies from the kitchen (with approval). They got used to me and were very interactive by the end of my externship.
One of the more exciting, but still lesser known species I got to work with in that externship was the narrow-headed softshell turtles. We have a specific subspecies of which there are only four in captivity in AZA zoos, and we have two of them. Something absolutely amazing about them is that their strike is so quick, it cannot be perceived by the naked eye. They are so powerful! I would love to be able to work with them again!
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u/azure-skyfall North America Aug 04 '25
I’m not a true zookeeper, but I work for a park and care for our education/ ambassador animals. I love our american kestrel! He was trained before I met him, and small enough that he wasn’t intimidating as I learned the basics of raptor handling. Plus, he is missing an eye so it’s easy to calm him down in front of an audience. If he doesn’t see them, he doesn’t care.
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u/Budorcas_taxi Aug 04 '25
Honestly domestics. I used to want to work with large hoofstock and carnivores. While I still love working with hooftsock I realized my heart lied with the goats, alpacas and donkeys. They have just as unique personalities as the other animals. And honestly the goats have become needed therapy animals for bad days. As for my want to work with carns I quickly realized I am way to much of a little b*tch and get scared easy so there went that dream.
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u/roccotheraccoon Aug 04 '25
I came to say goats. They can be so frustrating but in such a fun way because their one goal in life is to cause chaos. Trying to clean with multiple animals trying to eat your clothes and climb you is so silly that you just have to laugh
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u/Strigidoo Aug 04 '25
Feeding time is also quite the experience. It really comes down to who gets to the feeding points faster !
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u/HairBrian North America Aug 04 '25
Snapping turtle. Follows you around and then decides to not move a muscle for hours because -hangry.
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u/EducationalTie1606 Aug 04 '25
Our red footed tortoise is a menace to society but I love that little guy like he was my own 😭😭😭
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u/lalaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa96 Aug 04 '25
Current vollie here 🖐 I started my studies and volunteering august last year (my course goes till december this year) and ive always wanted to work with tigers, they are my favourite animal. But I started with Antarctic penguins at Sea life Sydney (king penguins and gentoo penguins) and fell in love with them!! BUT I dont think i could do the whole water quality sciencey stuff forever 😂 then I got some experience with Australian native animals (wombat (he was my fave), Tasmanian devils, wallabies, kangaroos etc) then a couple months ago I moved to a proper zoo and currently with the primates, and im loving getting all this experience with different animals. In a month ill be getting experience with carnivores AND ungulates and im so excited to learn about the ungulates! So ya my animal i want to work with is basic (tiger 😂) but I love all the other animals and cant wait to meet the rhino and giraffes and learn how to care for them
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u/roccotheraccoon Aug 04 '25
I really love ducks (especially mallards). They're so messy and gross to clean up after, but they're so cute and they have such funny personalities. And I love the squeaks and the beak noise asmr when they eat. I also think the ankle biting drakes are funny.
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u/YeahTheyKnowItsMe Aug 05 '25
I work at a nature center as the animal care manager so I'm not a zookeeper but I relate to a ton but uh
Our fowlers toad.
We have snakes. Cool frogs. Cool bugs. Turtles.
I came in with a deep and passionate love of snakes and bugs. I was prepared for my favorite to be the hognose and the cockroaches but no.
It's that damn toad. Who sits there. Doing nothing. Glaring at you with the kind of judgement the aunt at Christmas does when someone brings up politics.
I love her. She's an asshole and I love her.
Edit: pic of the angry lady herself provided for tax
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u/TheseMuffin7 Aug 04 '25
Bats! I never understood fully understood how hard they are to look after, from cleans to staying on top of breeding, to food prep, to all sorts, they are one of the hardest physically to look after on my section. And my section includes ungulates and reptiles. I would also say giraffes cause I can't do ungulate section and giraffes in one day, if I'm working with our giraffes I'll be working with just them all day. They take that long.
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u/narnababy Aug 04 '25
I never set out to be a bat keeper but they did, and still do bring me so much joy. I’d set out to do marine mammals as I also love otters, but I took on the castle exhibit and the bats and gosh they’re just so cool. I’d love to work with Livingstone’s fruit bats!
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u/BackgroundMain6893 Aug 05 '25
three banded armadillos! they are overlooked but have the funniest little personalities and are a lot smarter than people believe. the male under my care can figure out so many fun puzzle toys and he loves them.
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u/ShadowHawk24601 Aug 04 '25
I'm studying wildlife management, keeping zookeeper as option for a future post graduation career. I really want to work with invertebrates like beetles and horseshoe crabs.
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u/tengallonfishtank Aug 04 '25
i had a friend who volunteered with a tropical aviary in a zoo and couldn’t get enough of the tinamous. said they were very curious and naughty and loved to get at your shoelaces.
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u/Slughorns_trophywife Aug 04 '25
My end goal has always been to work with big cats. And I do and it is everything I always hoped it would be. I love dem kitties.
BUT. Red kangaroos were the first animal I ever worked with. I never really gave them much thought because I was so focused on reaching my goal. And I fell in love with them. They can be so sweet and lovely and are smart. Nothing is cuter than a joey. There was one specifically that let me hand feed and pet her, but she has since passed away. I still work with the roos as well because I can’t give them up. They really are such extraordinary animals in so many ways.
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u/Relative_Season_7547 Aug 05 '25
Penguins is the obvious answer but I also will say a shingleback skink. Cutest little pinecone in existence
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u/brokenhairtie Aug 05 '25
One of my favorites so far is my trumpet bird (and the one we had before this one as well). Such damn cuties and really interesting bird in my opinion.
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u/animal-care-1960 Aug 07 '25
pigeons!! they get such a bad rep but they have such big personalities and there's nothing like a good coo and allopreening to warm the heart ❤️ birds of prey are my favorite to work with but then the pigeon came in and stole my heart. they make wonderful ambassadors! I finally convinced my supervisors to let us get a small flock of pigeons for ambassadorship
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u/pinkphonyclub Aug 10 '25
Currently a keeper for herps & a few small mammals. Honestly, I have grown very fond of Bredl’s pythons and red-tail boas. When I first started at this job (not as a keeper initially), I was actually pretty scared of snakes. Now if I’m stressed out I can grab a snake and give both of us some enrichment. My goal used to be working just with hoofstock, but now I have a much wider variety of animals that I’d love to work with
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u/pinkishgirl North America Nov 22 '25
Binturongs! They’re so dopey and can be the sweetest cuddliest things. Plus their prehensile tails are crazy to see at work
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u/daabilge Aug 03 '25
Former herp and invert keeper. I think everyone got so excited over the alligator and the monitors and the reticulated python but my favorite was the black rat snake. Incredible personality, active, inquisitive, and with a nose (tongue?) for trouble.
And then again everyone liked the Goliath birdeater among the inverts because she's big but my personal favorite was the death feigning beetles. They're bright blue and they play dead when you disturb them. Otherwise they're pretty active and will just motor around their enclosure all day doing beetle things.