Work Experience

I suppose another useful way of deciding whether animal husbandry is right is 'keeper for a days'. Whilst they can be considered as a fun activity, they can be quite useful in descision making, as they at least consider the basics, as well as the fact you can often do them before you're legally insured to do WE at a certain zoo. I did a film piece at London Zoo for a CBBC show I used to work on which included feeding giraffes and lemurs (this was the highlight; loved the way they plucked fruit gentley from you're fingers) and cleaning penguins and coatis, and I did a falconry day which involved feeding deer and cleaning aviaries which I really enjoyed, and I think these have set future ideas. I'll be doing a KFAD at Marwell when I turn 16 next year too.
 
Im currently split between work with animals (zoo) and catering.

the work for 13+ at noahs ark is only volunteer on saturdays. My friend does it all they doo is feed lambs and put rabbits on little chidrens laps so they can hold them. Its nothing to do with the exotic animals.
 
Dartboy said:
Im currently split between work with animals (zoo) and catering.

the work for 13+ at noahs ark is only volunteer on saturdays. My friend does it all they doo is feed lambs and put rabbits on little chidrens laps so they can hold them. Its nothing to do with the exotic animals.
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I'd worry if any zoo allowed a 13 year old to do proper work with stuff like gibbons, rhino or giraffe
 
a few years back now my friend did his work experience at a flaconry centre and since then has gone there every staurday as a volunteer to go to cotswold wildlife park to the falconry dispalys there. i tried the small canon hill zoo in birmingham but all th places were took up...i ended up writing articles for the local paper which really enjoyed.
 
I'm interested in the management side of zoos, however, am conscious of the fact that I will need a lot of keeping experience (and luck) to get there. Because I do dog training, I am going to do my work experience at a local kennels and, in the future, at Exmoor Zoo as I already know some people there from when I did a keeper for a day (another benefit of the program).
 
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Dartboy said:
Im currently split between work with animals (zoo) and catering.
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There's a thing like that with me too, the unrelated pursuit being acting. I'm currently thinking of an animal management or zoology degree at uni whilst joining the uni's theatre group, then doing a post graduate in the latter afterwards.
 
Its just a shame there are hardly any animal jobs and any that come up so many people want and apply for i have been trying to get into zoos for a while had three interviews so far.
Most zoos and wildlife parks only let you do work experience with animals if your on a college course which is annoying because i have finnished mine .
 
I'm sort of in the same position as Tigerlemurguy. I wanted to do palaeontology at university, then decided on archaeology, but as I'm not good at maths and have a health prob, both ideas fell through.

I've pretty much always wanted to something with animals as well, even if it's just to build up a small menagerie of my own. There's no where round where I live where I could even go to get experiance working with animals (no stables, no pet shop, no vets...), but I've always wondered whether somewhere *might* overlook that in lieu of enthusiasm and willingness to learn, but that was always a faint hope :o
 
Hi all,

Interesting to read your comments and experiences of work experience. I was lucky enough to get a job at Bristol aged 16 having been a volunteer (not with the animals though) for 2.5 years before. I was due to do BTEC course but got offered the job instead so went straight in. However it's rare for that to happen now. But at Bristol Zoo, volunteer keepers reguarly get offered trainee keeper jobs. Some people have qualifications, some have worked at various places and some have just proved themselves to us through their volunteer work. If you are serious about wanting to be a zookeeper, get as much volunteer experience as you can such as work experience blocks or by doing a day a week until a job becomes available. Show your enthusiam, dedication and commitment for the job, the species you are working with and the collection you are working at. You may need to clean the mess room, wash the food bowls and clean windows and discard the rubbish for quite a while before you are trusted to do more! That's what it's all about and is a big part of the job so if you can stick at it through these bits then maybe it's the job for you!
Good luck!
Kate :)
 
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