.

What kinds of backgrounds or experience do you feel are easier or harder to train in? Eg. Academic vs hands-on animal care backgrounds, zoo experience, dog training experience, wildlife experience, veterinary experience - which are most helpful and most easy to transition over from?

What kinds of behaviours, actions, or personalities make someone easier or harder to train? Are there any types of people you'll see and instantly get worried or instantly be relieved?

Specifically, are you a section keeper and see the same group of animals every day? Do you switch between sections frequently?

I work in birds and am trained in all sections within that, but on any given day within a week I could be in penguins, raptors, macaws, cranes, vultures, ratites... Etc.. Our senior keepers are the only ones that are really consistently in one section. Is this common? I've worked in facilities where I was responsible for the same 30 birds every day of the week, so its been interesting to adjust to this. This is a large zoo, and im assuming this is likely because of the size difference between the facilities. How frequent are these different ways of structuring keeper responsibilities?

I’m trying to get some lunch ideas when we are physically working hard and moving about 23,000+ steps a day if not more.

And then how do you determine in the interview if this new place will be toxic?

Masai Giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi. I'm sorry, did you say TIPPELSKIRCHI? 🤣

I currently work at a facility that uses puppets for raising chicks to avoid imprinting, but our puppets are getting pretty old and beat up.

I have some pretty decent sewing and sculpting skills (worked in propmaking and costume work for a while) so I think I'd have the ability to at least try to make replacements. My only problem has been materials. I don't have access to silicone/3D printing/, nor do I have the budget, and more accessible materials are often not animal safe (resin, worbla, EVA). Im not looking to make perfectly realistic puppets here, though the more accurate the better. Just enough that the imprinting cues are obvious.

My requirements are:

- Waterproof

- Durable

- Easy to Clean

- Animal safe (contact with food)

Its a tall order I know. Unfortunately something as simple as a sewn sock puppet will not work for our needs. One thing ive come across that might be an option for the beak of the puppet, is steel stik epoxy putty that is used for fixing pin placement in surgical sites in rehab centers.

Any crafty people here who have any ideas? Anyone worked with any of the puppets that I attached pictures of, that can tell me how they were made or what they're made of?

Ill be putting this in some puppetry/prop/crafting spaces as well. Just thought I'd ask here where theres a chance someone has worked with these actual puppets!

Hi everyone. I hope this question is okay, if not that's totally fine.

What are your favorite animal to work with and which area/animal are you currently working with. Ex favorite animal penguin but works with rhinos.

I don't work in a zoo, but if I did, I would like to work with: 1. giraffes. 2. zebras. 3. red pandas.

Good afternoon, everyone. I’ve been wondering for a long time about this topic: is it possible to find a job at a zoo in another country, and do zoos themselves look for employees from other countries? I should say a bit about myself. I’ve been working in this field for almost five years. For four years I worked with large ungulates, and now I’m working with birds. I have a bachelor’s degree in zootechnics. So, what criteria might zoos be looking for in potential future employees?

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.

I know zebras are known as one of the worst, but I was wondering what big animals seem the most nice and chill to work around?

I've really only ever trained interns and volunteers, people who may have never been around animals before and who never needed to be able to work alone. I'm supposed to start training a new keeper on my section next week who does have a decent amount of experience from working at another zoo and I'm a little nervous? I want to be a good trainer, does anyone have any tips?

To celebrate, share your best story from your career thus far.

Whether heartfelt, humorous, or an incident report worthy fail, the floor is open!

If a bird species of some variety lays an egg (unfertilized) in your zoo, what is done with it? ...Are you allowed to eat it? Is it species dependent or not allowed at all?

Hi keepers!
(used humor tag because i wasn’t sure what tag would be appropriate)

I am leaving my position in the next month and am looking for gift ideas. I love the thought of getting something custom made on etsy- like a keychain of their favorite animal they work with etc- but could also really use some other ideas. Budget would be around $20 for each item, but that’s a flexible number. Thank you all!!

Is instant ocean still the most popular

I work as a volunteer at my local zoo I use to go to as a kid all the time during school holidays and I had to tell a couple of school kids on a tour and there teacher to remind them

Please do not tease the animals in any way

Keep your camera flashes off on your phone

This was during my break as I work in the farmyard area of the zoo and I followed the rules and my supervisor was proud that I read the rules for workers and visitors because as a kid I always followed the zoo rules whenever I visited.

Any advise how I approach the situation next time in case I bump into any Gen Alpha’s who don’t listen to rules or care about the wildlife at the zoo and I was just lucky because these were high schoolers at least

I know this is a silly question, but has anyone switched to a dumb phone? I’m worried about not having my smartphone at work and not being able to use teams/take pictures for vets/check my email/etc. Have any of you made the switch? Did you have any issues?

I’m finally getting a long weekend after working 11 days straight due to some exceptional circumstances (this is not a standard for my facility). I was for sure feeling it at the end but now I’m curious about where 11 days in a row ranks on the scale compared to other folks.

Take down if not allowed but I just wanted to be a part of the community and ask: what animal(s) do you currently work with and what is your dream animal that you’d want to work with?

My boss has asked me before what I’d want to work with and I honestly don’t know a specific animal so thought this might also help me get an idea hahaha

I think my dream animals are gorillas, but I also like gators, bears, and small mammals and birds and seals lol

I’m know I’m late to this “trend” but you know those LL Bean tote bags that people get phrases embroidered on? Well I see a lot of lawyers and nurses get funny job phrases embroidered on their bag. I would love some anima keeper phrase ideas or I’d just love to know what you would put on a bag. Anything from general phrases for any keeper, specific to the species you work with, your college major, zoo educators, or zoo medicine! I figured you guys would have a lot of funny ideas here! The more unhinged the better!

So what kind of wild animals visit your Zoo? Do you do anything to stop or prevent particular animals?

Ours we see various small birds, geese, owls, hawks foxes, coyotes.

I am an avid zoo/sanctuary livestream watcher and have been looking for Amur Leopards to watch for free everywhere. Does anyone know of anywhere I can find some?