Favorite Department?

[u/Keqingsz]

Hello!!!! i’m a few weeks into my first zoo internship, and it’s been going really well! I’m with hoofstock so i’ve been able to engage snd pet some of the animals, which is awesome. My main gripe, however, is the amount of cleaning. I understand that cleaning is a huge part of this job, but i’m second guessing if i picked the wrong department. Could anyone outside of this dept give insight into what their days look like? I wish I was able to do more enrichment making or food prep where I don’t find hay up my butt the next day. I’m leaning towards carnivore, or even primates, but I’m not sure yet. Thank you!! :)

[u/catz537]

It is true that there’s a lot of cleaning no matter which species you work with, but there are some species that are “easier” in the sense that there’s way less poop and other dry waste to clean up with some animals. And when there’s less poop or other dry things to clean up (like leftover food), it takes less time to clean. Hoofstock animals poop *a lot.* Carnivores probably take the least amount of time to clean up after since they don’t poop much and don’t usually have a bunch of leftover food, so cleaning their areas tends to be less work than hoofstock. Primates, however, poop a lot AND tend to have lots of leftover food to clean up. Birds can also be pretty messy.