Zoo Animal

What training or qualifications would I need to work in a zoo/animal care?

I don’t mean as a vet just as someone who looks after animals in a zoo or suchlike.

The most important thing for becoming a zookeeper is to gain experience with animals. Most zoos are more interested in this than in qualifications – I used to be a zookeeper in the UK and got the job without any qualifications other than G.C.S.E.s. Having higher qualifications is no guarantee of getting the job (my boss told me he’s had people come in with degrees who didn’t know which end an elephant craps out of!), and not having them is no guarantee you won’t get the job. Volunteering at a zoo or animal sanctuary is a good way of getting experience – many zoos take on volunteers, and it’s a good way of getting your foot in the door, so to speak, at the particular zoo you’re interested in working at. You won’t get paid, though, of course. Other things that are considered good experience with animals are working on farms and in dog kennels.

You also need to be able to work hard, not mind getting dirty (and I mean REALLY dirty!), and deal with people, in the shape of the public – this often requires a good deal of patience, as you will be asked the same question literally hundreds of times every day, and must always be polite however rude people are to you and however busy, tired and frustrated you are. Depending on which animals you’re looking after, some degree of public speaking may also be involved – you might have to do a talk whilst feeding your animals, for example.

A zookeeper’s pay is generally quite poor – I earned minimum wage, which at the time was about £10,000 per year (it’s probably a little more now, but not much more!). You cannot afford to buy or rent a place of your own on this sort of salary – you have to share with house-mates or a partner. Many people want to work with animals, so they don’t need to tempt workers with high pay. The hours are long and you may not be paid for any overtime worked – in the zoo I worked at, you were paid only between 8am and 5pm, even if you arrived at 6.30am and didn’t leave til 7pm. You are also required to work weekends and public holidays without additional pay, and the most time off you’ll ever have is 2 days at a time. Animals need feeding and their enclosures cleaning every day, whether it’s Christmas, your birthday, a bank holiday or whatever. It is definitely not a job you do for the money, or if you like taking long holidays or socialising at weekends and so on.

I must add that TV. shows about zoos paint a very unrealistic picture of what the job of being a zookeeper entails, making it appear that things like hand-rearing baby animals and knocking animals out for medical procedures happen every day. In reality, these things happen only rarely. The work is physically very hard, and you must work outdoors in all seasons and weathers. There is often little interaction with the animals you care for – the majority of the job is cleaning (picking up faeces, sweeping up straw, window cleaning, etc.). You also often do not have a choice as to which animals you work with – most zoos will simply take you on as a keeper and place you where you are needed, though you can request to work with certain animals if and when a position with them becomes available.

Zoo Animal – Simone (Live on The Local Show)

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