Plans to Work at Zoos Housing Elephants

The Horse Boy

The Horse Boy

Well-Known Member
Hey buds! I thought I'd make a thread re. the fact that I plan on at least volunteering let alone eventually a paid job at an AZA accredited zoo in America down the road due to my high knowledge and passion for zoos and wildlife and my interest in conservation. I plan to at least temporarily move out of where I currently reside in Austin, as it clearly has no such facility yet, or moreso do longer term Airb&b's and stuff if they're in the Texas ones so I drive to and back from Austin to spend time with my mom and Grandmother. I really want to work at a zoo that has exemplary elephant programs and habitats (or zoos planning to build them) as they're my top favorite animal and spend a lot of my time on elephant-centered threads, as @ZCChip suggested a few times that I should work at a facility like this on the North American Elephant Population Discussion and Speculation thread of 2025. If that happens the city has to either have aesthetically pleasing architecture, character and charm with other fun things to do or within access to attravtive countryside that I can easily commute to and from my work since I prefer living in the country over the city. Please keep in mind that i don't actually plan on doing a keeper position. I believe it requires extensive university work in advance requires full time animal commitment and that it can be a dangerous task. I think a docent/guide/interpreter would be much better for me so i can still interact with keepers and vistors and be able to see the animals including elephants at my leisure and in which I debate all the benefits of modern-day zoos. Here are the US facilities I contemplate to hopefully get a job at:
  • Birmingham
  • Reid Park
  • Fresno (it appears to be within an easy drive to a pretty mountain range)
  • Cheyenne Mountain
  • Denver
  • Smithsonian
  • Atlanta
  • Indianapolis (according to Google Earth, there's a large swath of attractive woodland south of the city)
  • Baltimore
  • Dickerson Park
  • Kansas City (there looks really nice wooded areas nearby on both the Kansas and Missouri side)
  • St Louis
  • ABQ
  • North Carolina
  • Cincinnati
  • Cleveland
  • Columbus
  • Oklahoma City
  • Tulsa
  • Portland
  • Pittsburgh
  • Memphis
  • Caldwell
  • Dallas ( there's areas of pasture land with scattered large oaks and oak woodlands within a 45 minute radius from the zoo going east or south)
  • Fort Worth
  • San Antonio
  • Milwaukee
Little Rock or Knoxville could work too. Arkansas is supposed to have some of the prettiest country in America, and Knoxville ofcourse has tentative plans for bringing back elephants. Lmk if anyone else in the community has similar future goals.
 
toxodon said:
Personally, I would start with the closest to you and work your way out. Especially if you want to visit family often
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Well there are plans for me the hopefully work at San Antonio once the weather cools down in the fall to still have easy access to my fam in Austin
 
Great idea! I would start out as a volunteer. Elephants are considered category 2 (or 3?) with the big cats, etc. so got to work the way up. Maybe a certificate (or higher) from a university will help too. I can look if you are interested. I keep seeing a certificate program in Florida on Facebook. I am not sure if it’s online or not though.
 
ZCChip said:
Great idea! I would start out as a volunteer. Elephants are considered category 2 (or 3?) with the big cats, etc. so got to work the way up. Maybe a certificate (or higher) from a university will help too. I can look if you are interested. I keep seeing a certificate program in Florida on Facebook. I am not sure if it’s online or not though.
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@ZCChip glad you suggested this on the speculation thread. Again, i'm not planning on directly working with these animals. Esp as i'm thinking abt a zoo position that doesn't require university experience.
 
The Horse Boy said:
@ZCChip glad you suggested this on the speculation thread. Again, i'm not planning on directly working with these animals. Esp as i'm thinking abt a zoo position that doesn't require university experience.
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I know you are thinking of architecture or management or coordinator not directly with the animals.
I applied for a coordinator position at zoo Atlanta years ago but they never called me for an interview. Oh well.
 
ZCChip said:
Dallas and Fort Worth would be ideal too. They are within driving distance of Austin and fairly low cost of living. I knew the brother of the elephant manager at Fort Worth zoo but he has since retired
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And i'm sure you know there's beautiful countryside very close to both Dallas and Fort Worth. San Antonio too. Too bad a lot of it is getting eaten up by tract housing, big box stores and strip malls. That's the thing I hate about the Houston area. Houston is well known to constantly sprawl out with ugly Americanized suburbia. Atlanta is like that too as a downside.
 
The Horse Boy said:
And i'm sure you know there's beautiful countryside very close to both Dallas and Fort Worth. San Antonio too. Too bad a lot of it is getting eaten up by tract housing, big box stores and strip malls. That's the thing I hate about the Houston area. Houston is well known to constantly sprawl out with ugly Americanized suburbia. Atlanta is like that too as a downside.
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yes. DFW has exploded. I was there a couple years ago. First time was 2001 I think. Atlanta is growing this way. (To where I live).
 
Also, pleass note that the elephant aspect of the thread (I don't know why I didn't even consider writing this on my first page lol) are facilities with a likelihood on longer term keeping of the animals with proper groupings, and not places inclined for phase outs :)
I included San Antonio because they're still pretty hellbent on returning to them. Also, with the Spanish Colonial Architecture including the missions, downtown Riverwalk and their well praised Mexican cuisine, it would be one of the nicer American cities to move to. And from where I live in Austin and my Airb&b ventures I do in the hill country to the west and post oak prarie and woodlands areas to the east, I can easily access San Antonio without having to drive the I 35, as the stretch between Austin and San Antonio is chock full of ugly strip development, aggressive commuters etc.
 
The Horse Boy said:
Also, pleass note that the elephant aspect of the thread (I don't know why I didn't even consider writing this on my first page lol) are facilities with a likelihood on longer term keeping of the animals with proper groupings, and not places inclined for phase outs :)
I included San Antonio because they're still pretty hellbent on bringing them back.
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that would be fun. Working at a zoo and being able to see the elephants often.
 
ZCChip said:
that would be fun. Working at a zoo and being able to see the elephants often.
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That's why I also included Dallas Fort Worth and Tyler on my list as they're within a few hours drive from Austin. If I lives in the towns west of fort worth, or east of dallas with their attractive rural landscapes, I could also very easily eschew the I 35 coming there and back from Austin. Tyler also has beautiful thick pine forests famously referred to as the 'Piney Woods" and lakes in the vicinity of course
 
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The Horse Boy said:
Hey buds! I thought I'd make a thread re. the fact that I plan on at least volunteering let alone eventually a paid job at an AZA accredited zoo in America down the road due to my high knowledge and passion for zoos and wildlife and my interest in conservation. I plan to at least temporarily move out of where I currently reside in Austin, as it clearly has no such facility yet, or moreso do longer term Airb&b's and stuff if they're in the Texas ones so I drive to and back from Austin to spend time with my mom and Grandmother. I really want to work at a zoo that has exemplary elephant programs and habitats (or zoos planning to build them) as they're my top favorite animal and spend a lot of my time on elephant-centered threads, as @ZCChip suggested a few times that I should work at a facility like this on the North American Elephant Population Discussion and Speculation thread of 2025. If that happens the city has to either have aesthetically pleasing architecture, character and charm with other fun things to do or within access to attravtive countryside that I can easily commute to and from my work since I prefer living in the country over the city. Please keep in mind that i don't actually plan on doing a keeper position. I believe it requires extensive university work in advance requires full time animal commitment and that it can be a dangerous task. I think a docent/guide/interpreter would be much better for me so i can still interact with keepers and vistors and be able to see the animals including elephants at my leisure and in which I debate all the benefits of modern-day zoos. Here are the US facilities I contemplate to hopefully get a job at:
  • Birmingham
  • Reid Park
  • Fresno (it appears to be within an easy drive to a pretty mountain range)
  • Cheyenne Mountain
  • Denver
  • Smithsonian
  • Atlanta
  • Indianapolis (according to Google Earth, there's a large swath of attractive woodland south of the city)
  • Baltimore
  • Dickerson Park
  • Kansas City (there looks really nice wooded areas nearby on both the Kansas and Missouri side)
  • St Louis
  • ABQ
  • North Carolina
  • Cincinnati
  • Cleveland
  • Columbus
  • Oklahoma City
  • Tulsa
  • Portland
  • Pittsburgh
  • Memphis
  • Caldwell
  • Dallas ( there's areas of pasture land with scattered large oaks and oak woodlands within a 45 minute radius from the zoo going east or south)
  • Fort Worth
  • San Antonio
  • Milwaukee
Little Rock or Knoxville could work too. Arkansas is supposed to have some of the prettiest country in America, and Knoxville ofcourse has tentative plans for bringing back elephants. Lmk if anyone else in the community has similar future goals.
Click to expand...

Where did you hear Knoxville is considering getting back into elephants? From the outside it looks like they're really leaning into white rhinos, having recently moved a bachelor herd of four into Tonka's old enclosure. Not saying it's not a fantastic zoo and one you could potentially consider trying to get a position at, but if you're limiting yourself to zoos with elephants (or plans to get elephants) I'm not sure Knoxville meets your criteria.

-DJD
 
DJD Zoo Pals said:
Where did you hear Knoxville is considering getting back into elephants? From the outside it looks like they're really leaning into white rhinos, having recently moved a bachelor herd of four into Tonka's old enclosure. Not saying it's not a fantastic zoo and one you could potentially consider trying to get a position at, but if you're limiting yourself to zoos with elephants (or plans to get elephants) I'm not sure Knoxville meets your criteria.

-DJD
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Their new ceo who got hired last August and he says he'll evaluate the grounds to see if there's an abundance of land suitable for a modern habitat. I just watched a YouTube vid over it. There were also rumbling about it from @Christopher81 on the speculation thread earlier this year. But Memphis would also be a great option as they seem fervent about retaining them, and Memphis also seems like a cool city that doesn't have lot of urban sprawl. I also see there's great woodland near Memphis.
 
Whilst Sedgwick has one of the largest elephant complexes in the country and Omaha has one of the best zoos in the nation, the two cities don't look to have to really have anything else fun to do besides that, and the surrounding countryside surrounding them appears to be miles of cotton fields which are why I these two are not listed in my plan. I could have said the same for Fresno, the third city is pretty close to the Sierra Nevada range.
 
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