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Ask a zookeeper (1 Viewer)

Mario Kart said:
Would the San Diego Zoo be like the summit of Mount Everest in Zookeeper achievement? Is that zoo still the #1 zoo in the country? If yes and yes, than huge congrats on that move. From Washington, I believe that is where you are, to San Diego, that is a pretty good distance as well.
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It's pretty far up there in terms of prestige. I don't know if it's the"best" zoo in the country or the world, but it definitely one of the most well known. It never looks bad to have a place like that on your resume. Every zoo has it's problems, I'm sure I'll learn some of the ones this zoo has fairly soon.
 
valence said:
Abraham said:
Do you generally think that zoo animals are well cared for? I realize that's a bit of a subjective and open-ended question, but considering they are in captivity I'd like to know if you think most zookepers have the animal's best interest at heart.
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I believe that most zoo animals are well cared for. Most zookeepers definitely have the animal's best interest at heart. There are always your few outliers that to them this is just a job, but Of all the people I've met in this field I couldn't say that about more than a few.One thing people don't realize is that there isn't really any "wild" left anymore outside of possibly Antarctica. Even Africa the last place on earth you can really see megafauna running free is mostly wilderness preserves. The populations are managed in some regards. In the preserves there are poachers that kill thousands of animals a year. In Borneo and Sumatra, forests are being cut down and turned into palm oil plantations. Those forests are the only place in the world where Orangutans live. They could easily be extinct in the next ten years.Captivity isn't as terrible as it is sometimes made out to be.
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well that's depressing
 
valence said:
Abraham said:
Do you generally think that zoo animals are well cared for? I realize that's a bit of a subjective and open-ended question, but considering they are in captivity I'd like to know if you think most zookepers have the animal's best interest at heart.
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I believe that most zoo animals are well cared for. Most zookeepers definitely have the animal's best interest at heart. There are always your few outliers that to them this is just a job, but Of all the people I've met in this field I couldn't say that about more than a few.One thing people don't realize is that there isn't really any "wild" left anymore outside of possibly Antarctica. Even Africa the last place on earth you can really see megafauna running free is mostly wilderness preserves. The populations are managed in some regards. In the preserves there are poachers that kill thousands of animals a year. In Borneo and Sumatra, forests are being cut down and turned into palm oil plantations. Those forests are the only place in the world where Orangutans live. They could easily be extinct in the next ten years.Captivity isn't as terrible as it is sometimes made out to be.
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:lmao:Thank you for the reply.
 
How did I miss this thread??? I've read all 15 pages and found it both interesting and entertaining and appreciate your time, candor and humor. I think I may have laughed out loud at one point over comments about the "heavy petting zoo".

That said, here's my questions:

1. When a giraffe is being transported to or from the zoo, does someone have to tell him to "duck" when about to go in a tunnel or under a freeway overpass?

2. Do you ever come home from a long, frustrating day of dealing with animals and want to kick the dog or throw the hair dryer in the fish tank?

3. Referring to the hippos in Seattle - Gertie, Lily and Lupe - has Lupe been asked to provide her immigration documents to validate her U.S. citizenship?

Ok, ok... on a more serious note....

4. How do you like San Diego? I live a couple hours away and have always thought San Diego to be one of the west coast's most beautiful cities. Congrats on the new gig...

5. How do you deal with the emotional side of animals dying that you have formed a bond with or an attachment to? I think I would find that part of it very difficult, that is unless I'm overstating it. Maybe deaths among zoo animals are not as common as I think, especially one's that you work closely with. Do you have any first hand experiences with this? Several years ago I considered making a career change to become a vet (until I took a chemistry class at the local JC to get my feet wet and found out how much chem is the suck)... the one part I wasn't sure I could handle is telling Mrs. Johnson and cute little Betty Sue that their family dog was going to have to go night night forever. I was afraid it would go something like this:

Me: Mrs. Johnson, I'm afraid I've got some bad news. :( ............. :no: ........... :banned:

Mrs. Johnson: :banned:

Betty Sue: :banned:

Again, thanks for a great thread! :confused:

 
Leonard Skinnard said:
How did I miss this thread??? I've read all 15 pages and found it both interesting and entertaining and appreciate your time, candor and humor. I think I may have laughed out loud at one point over comments about the "heavy petting zoo".

That said, here's my questions:

1. When a giraffe is being transported to or from the zoo, does someone have to tell him to "duck" when about to go in a tunnel or under a freeway overpass?

There are special trailers that can lower for going under overpasses.

2. Do you ever come home from a long, frustrating day of dealing with animals and want to kick the dog or throw the hair dryer in the fish tank?

Nah. The great thing about dogs is that no matter how ####ty your day is they are always happy to see you walk in the door.

3. Referring to the hippos in Seattle - Gertie, Lily and Lupe - has Lupe been asked to provide her immigration documents to validate her U.S. citizenship?

I believe that all of her papers are in order

Ok, ok... on a more serious note....

4. How do you like San Diego? I live a couple hours away and have always thought San Diego to be one of the west coast's most beautiful cities. Congrats on the new gig...

Nice so far. Expensive though. $1200 + $45 for parking space + $25 pet rent = $1260 a month for a700sq ft. apartment near balboa park...

5. How do you deal with the emotional side of animals dying that you have formed a bond with or an attachment to? I think I would find that part of it very difficult, that is unless I'm overstating it. Maybe deaths among zoo animals are not as common as I think, especially one's that you work closely with. Do you have any first hand experiences with this?

For the most part, no matter how strong the bond I don't get to terribly sad. Part of it is that I've seen it so much at this point that I am relatively numb to it. It is rare that an animal dies a terrible death. most of the times the keepers and vets are on top of all the animal's quality of life issues and are able to make a decision to humanely euthanize before an animal gets too sick or old.

Every now and then there is a case that gets to me. Usually when it's an animal that I've put a ton of work into getting them healthy and then they crash for some unforeseen reason and have to be put down.

I dealt with one of these cases right before I left Seattle. Gertrude the 47 year old Hippo was unable to get out of the pool on her own. We loaded her up with phenylbutazone to kill the pain enough to get her out of the pool and into the barn. There we were able to give her a nice and relatively stress and pain free death.
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valence said:
Unfortunately they closed that particular show. I believe he was moved to the Memphis Zoo.
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Okay. Question. IF you came to Memphis would the Hawk remember you? Just curious how that works. do they latch onto another human or would it recall you and pick up just like "old times"?
 
Have you ever worked with a Capybara? I always thought that was an interesting animal. What do they eat? Are they active at all? The one at the Austin Zoo just sits there all day...

 
valence said:
bosoxs45 said:
1.)I was just wondering if elephants are really afraid of mice or is that a stupid folklore?2.) What is your favorite dinosaur, and why?
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1.) myth. Elephants probably don't even notice the occasional mouse due to a combination of their immense size and poor eyesight.
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Mythbusters looked at this and it seemed that there may be some truth to it. I was more than a bit surprised.
 
[icon] said:
valence said:
Unfortunately they closed that particular show. I believe he was moved to the Memphis Zoo.
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Okay. Question. IF you came to Memphis would the Hawk remember you? Just curious how that works. do they latch onto another human or would it recall you and pick up just like "old times"?
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That's a great question and one I don't know the answer to. I'm not sure about the long term memory capacity of raptors. If I had to guess, I would say that no, it would not remember me.
 
Abraham said:
Have you ever worked with a Capybara? I always thought that was an interesting animal. What do they eat? Are they active at all? The one at the Austin Zoo just sits there all day...
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Have you actually sat there "all day" and watched them? On average zoo visitors spend about six seconds at an exhibit if something isn't immediately happening. I wouldn't say that Capy's are the most active animals but they do their fair share of swimming and munching. I haven't worked them but Capy's are basically giant mice.
 
valence said:
Evilgrin 72 said:
Review the program "Wildboyz"
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I have to admit, Wildboyz was a guilty pleasure of mine for awhile.
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Me too, except when I would hear that notorious drumbeat begin. Always a precursor to buttcheeks.I still love "Black Mamba" though. They seemed to be really interested in animals, too. Some of the stuff they did, I could not believe (i.e. Steve-O putting honey on his nipples for a grizzly to lick off, or hanging meat from hammocks suspended 5 feet over a pride of lions at night)
 
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Got signed off on my first string at the San Diego Zoo yesterday. Takins, Cuvier's gazelle, Calamian Deer, Bactrian Wapiti, Visayan warty pigs, and Bornean Bearded Pigs.

 
Great thread that I check out when there's activity.

Now a question, what's the general opinion in the zoo industry of the National Zoo here in DC? The get a lot of publicity because of the pandas but they've also had some problems with animals dying due to rat poison getting into the enclosures. Being part of the Smithsonian they get a lot of money, but I've heard their reputation isn't the greatest.

 
DCThunder said:
Great thread that I check out when there's activity. Now a question, what's the general opinion in the zoo industry of the National Zoo here in DC? The get a lot of publicity because of the pandas but they've also had some problems with animals dying due to rat poison getting into the enclosures. Being part of the Smithsonian they get a lot of money, but I've heard their reputation isn't the greatest.
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They are generally considered a pretty good zoo from what I have heard. Every zoo has their issues, even the "World Famous" San Diego Zoo.
 
No schtick question here: a friend of mine recently took a robin that her cats attacked to the Woodland Park Zoo, hoping that the zoo could help. The robin had an entire wing ripped off by the cats. I'd guess that you fed the robin to another animal. True or False?

 
The Future Champs said:
No schtick question here: a friend of mine recently took a robin that her cats attacked to the Woodland Park Zoo, hoping that the zoo could help. The robin had an entire wing ripped off by the cats. I'd guess that you fed the robin to another animal. True or False?
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no idea, but I can say with 100% certainty that the answer is False. Most likely it was humanely euthanized (injection) . If it was an eagle or something they may have tried to save it, but pretty unlikely that they would do that with a robin. Please don't bring any injured domestic wild animals to the zoo. If you aren't sure, call first. The right move in this case would have been to call up a local vet who would probably just tell you to finish it off quickly yourself.Also, please stop dropping off your chickens and rabbits on zoo grounds. that you got on easter because you thought they were cute, but realized you couldn't take care of once they became full grown. This is a sure fire way to spread disease.thanks.
 
I saw one of the craziest things I have ever seen while working our Grevy's zebras today. We were attempting to load our oldest into a trailer today to take to the hospital for a routine exam. My supervisor and I built a chute out of fence panels for him to run through and up on the trailer. Benjamin (the zebra was in a holding pen 3 doors down.

The plan was to open one door at a time and shift him over slowly into the chute. When he got to the pen next to the chute he flipped out and jumped over a 7 foot wall back onto the exhibit. He got just enough thrust to get his front legs over the wall and toppled over the wall head first. If I had a high-speed camera, I could have gotten a picture of him laying on his back on top of the wall.

Another key fact here is that Benjamin weighs almost 800 pounds. Luckily he was ok and after a break we were able to load him into the trailer without issue by putting a visual barrier that extended another 3 feet above the wall.

 
valence said:
I saw one of the craziest things I have ever seen while working our Grevy's zebras today. We were attempting to load our oldest into a trailer today to take to the hospital for a routine exam. My supervisor and I built a chute out of fence panels for him to run through and up on the trailer. Benjamin (the zebra was in a holding pen 3 doors down. The plan was to open one door at a time and shift him over slowly into the chute. When he got to the pen next to the chute he flipped out and jumped over a 7 foot wall back onto the exhibit. He got just enough thrust to get his front legs over the wall and toppled over the wall head first. If I had a high-speed camera, I could have gotten a picture of him laying on his back on top of the wall. Another key fact here is that Benjamin weighs almost 800 pounds. Luckily he was ok and after a break we were able to load him into the trailer without issue by putting a visual barrier that extended another 3 feet above the wall.
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:rolleyes:
 
I go to the National Zoo (in DC) 5-6x a year because it is close by and I have a 5yr old who loves the zoo. I have never seen the big cats being fed. Obivously the cats eat, but do zoos ever feed the large cats out in the public areas? I think it would be cool to see a lion or tiger devour a huge slab of beef (or whatever they eat).

Also, over at the elephant exhibit, it looks like there is a small trench - maybe 4 feet wide and 4 feet deep, and then a set of 3 wires (probably 1" thick) that sort of keep the elephants in place. It doesn't look like enought of a trench, nor like a strong enough set of wires to keep a pissed off elephant from escaping. Do elephants ever escape? If they do, how would you catch them? Tranqulizer dart? Big bag of peanuts?

Finally, the National Zoo, like most, has a bunch of different animals that eat other animals. Do the zebras or other prey animals know they are safe in their enclosures when the cats are growling and roaring - or do the prey animals get freaked out?

Oh yeah, one more question. The zoo has this thing where the orangutans can travel on cables or ropes from one enclosure to another, across a couple of hundred yards of the zoo. The ropes are suspended about 30 feet or so up. If the orangutan somehow got down in the people area of the zoo, would it be scared, go on a rampage, both, or what?

 
Would a heavyweight wrestler (Brock Lesnar type) be able to beat a chimpanzee in a cagematch if the chimp was docile until attacked (meaning the human gets first hit)?

:popcorn:

 
Have you heard about the Reid park zoo incident? A person who was training to be a zoo keeper fed oleanders to the giraffes. One of them died and another was seriously injured. I understand this is a huge screw up. The zoo does feed the animals clippings of plants from the area but no one told this guy that oleanders are poisonous. Should he have known this through what ever schooling a zoo keeper gets or was it the Reid Park zoo responsibility to tell him this?

The guy quit over this. They were nice giraffes and a big attraction at this zoo. We used to go and feed them carrots. Really a very sad situation.

 
I was wondering if giraffes eating paint is common. The one at the Dallas zoo has licked all of tr paint off of the pole they have in it's enclosure. They repaint it and he licks it off again.

 
'valence said:
'McJose said:
What's the weirdest thing you've seen a zoo patron do? How about the dumbest question anyone has asked you...outside of this thread?
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Weirdest: People throwing those snap-pop things at the meerkats. That one really pissed me off.
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When I was thirteen we went to the zoo in Chicago. Two utes about my age had brought some fishing line and a hook. They had an oversized goldfish/carp on the line and were just screwing with it. I came up from behind and pushed them both into the fountain type area the fish were in. My Dad saw me do it and merely informed the staff of the two jerks. Never said a word to me about it. It felt good.One of the utes parents came up to me and was about to say something when the staff arrived. It was fun to watch them be escorted out at that point.

No wonder the apes stare at you and read your soul. They feel sorry for us.

peace

 
If you're still around, I've got a ####load of spider monkeys I need to unload. I started with a pair and you wouldn't believe how fast they multiply.

 
Can you tell us of any strange mating habits or courting rituals. They say swans have the same mate for life but which animal is the biggest stud?

 
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elguapo07 said:
Can you tell us of any strange mating habits or courting rituals. They say swans have the same mate for life but which animal is the biggest stud?
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Since I currently work with polar bears... male polar bears in the wild fill follow around a female for days at a time essentially trying to "wine and dine" her. Female polar bears are both induced ovulators and delayed implanters. They don't have a normal estrus cycle like most mammals in that their cycle has to be "triggered". They also are not pregnant directly after copulation. female polar bears carry around this fertilized egg that just kind of floats around until both body and environmental conditions are ideal before the egg actually implants in the uteran wall. That's the point when gestation finally begins

 
Bucky86 said:
How often do carnivores kill things that wander into their enclosure?
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Quite a bit if it's an open air type enclosure. The Maned Wolf exhibit used to have Takins in it and we would get migratory ducks that landed in that same pool every year. Well, now we have two carnivores (omnivores more specifically). The girls caught probably a dozen ducks last spring and it looked like a pillow fight in the exhibit some mornings. It will be interesting to see if the ducks come back to that pool again this spring.

 
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