Keeper or Director?

Zambar

Zambar

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
You're offered the one-in-a-lifetime job oppurtunity. You can be either a keeper or the director of you're favourite zoo.

But which one? Would you pick a keeper, and be able to care for such amazing animals at first hand? But remember, it's long hours, low pay and demanding work.

Or the director? The zoo is quite literally yours. You get to decide how it's run, and design the imaginary layout you spend so much time daydreaming of. But being the owner can be stressful when everything comes down to you.

It'd be a hard choice, but I'd say keeper. I'd love to actually work with the animals rather than just organise them about from a sheet of paper.
 
Hm . . . Hard to decide. I'd love to run and plan a zoo but moreso, I love working with animals, so I'd more than likely chose being a zookeeper.
 
I've worked as a keeper, and while I love working with the animals, I think now I'd rather be director.

I remember a long time ago a friend who left Taronga Zoo to be a director of another zoo said to me a few years later that he really missed working with the animals, and he wasn't just making decisions about the animals because there were so many other annoying things that had nothing to do with wildlife or conservation that he had to be involved with. For instance, he had just come from a one hour meeting where one of the main discussions was the meat content in the hamburgers the kiosk sold.

:p

Hix
 
Director: I've trained as a keeper and it was cool, but to be able to decide the course of my favorite zoo, give me the driver's seat and the directors hat any day baby!
 
it is a very trickey one, but i would be a director. like you said, the zoo is yours, and if you wanted to be tort the ropes of a keeper, ask a keeper and they'll do it. Plus, it would be cool to be like Sir Alan and be able to say "Tottal Shambels, Your Fired
 

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Marwell Dalek said:
Or the director? The zoo is quite literally yours. You get to decide how it's run, and design the imaginary layout you spend so much time daydreaming of. But being the owner can be stressful when everything comes down to you.
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You are confusing the owner with the director. The majority of zoos are owned by societies or by commercial companies which have boards who appoint a manager or director who is responsible for running the zoo. The board will also set policies and targets for turnover, costs, future developments etc.
The good news is that you can be both owner and director if you're rich enough. If you are as popular an author as Gerald Durrell or as successful a gambler as John Aspinall, you too can run your own zoo.

Alan
 
It all depends on what sort of Zoo you are i know a few Zoo Directors and they quite often do the handrearing of the larger animals etc Look at John Aspinall? He would go in with all of his animals and still plan enclosures etc.
I would like to be a director but one that has a close relationship with all of the zoos animals like John Aspinall.
My Passion is to get as close as i can to animals, Keeper Bonds and friendships etc.
 
I'd agree with that, but behind a fence. Three keeper fatalities were caused by going in with tigers at Howletts, and that's where you have to bear in mind that they're still wild animals. For example, even if you have a dog who is extremely friendly and soppy, you'd never leave it alone in a room with a baby.
 
I agree with you completely friendships with Wild Animals take a long time to work.And those 3 keeper deaths are 3 deaths that should of not of happened.They shouldnt of died but they died doing what they loved most there animals.
 
If it was a choice of owner or keeper id go for owner but a choice of director or keeper would make me go for keeper.
 
Keeper, definately. I don't want to spend most of my time in offices and meetings.
 
definitely director..i'm very much into business and so wouldn't be phased by the non-animal side of the job. plus i could put dream into reality
 
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