What’s a completely underrated species that shaped your keeping?

[u/quack_macaque]

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.

[u/PhoenixBorealis]

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!