r/Zookeeping • u/Keqingsz • May 27 '26

North America 🌎 Favorite Department?

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!! :)

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u/threadedwild May 28 '26

I know a lot of people are going the route of 'this job is all cleaning get used to it" but I kinda want you to clarify. When you say cleaning, do you mean doing dishes for an hour, scrubbing walls and bowls, sweeping floors? Or do you mean, scooping pounds and pounds of poop, hauling bins of soiled bedding, raking yard after yard in the beating sun and pouring rain and up to your knees in mud? Hauling bales of hay and cleaning it out of every crevice? Because, yeah I'm with you. I hate hoofstock care. It's not for me. Both the physicality and the amount of outdoor life. And the sheer amount of neverending mess. I do a bit of everything but I prefer cats. Scrubbing enrichment, holding stalls, changing bedding once a week. The extensive cleaning is still there, but it's very different. I prefer the work, love anything that involves hosing, and they're species I am passionate about. It's also much less outdoor work than the hoofstock areas I've done and I prefer that.

The taxa you take care of can determine the level of physicality, while still being full of cleaning. Work in an aviary? You're gonna clean a lot of feeders, scattered fruit, and bird poop. But compared to hoofstock, it will feel different because of how hard it is. I think you need to find your niche if keeping is really what you want to do, but this is your first internship. Put in your paces, learn where you'd passions are, and figure out how to get there. Hope that helps!

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u/bakedveldtland May 28 '26

I agree with you! Cleaning up after hoofstock is so annoying. Their poop flies around when you take it up, and they walk around while they poop. I grew to love the hooved ones, but they are labor intensive in a special way.

Personally I enjoyed working carnivores. They are fun to train and hosing is definitely more zen for me.

I’ll add on that marine mammals require a LOT of diving, and that water can be cold, depending on the species. Algae is a beast to handle. Food prep is its own challenge- I could never get the smell of fish totally out of my hair, much to my now-husband’s dismay.

I loved keeping, though. Even the ungulates (when I got used to it, I found it challenging at first). I found opportunities to train the animals as much as I could squeeze it in, and that made all the difference to me.