Clearly you've never come across a male cassowary with chicks...
What kind of Zookeeper would you be?
- Thread starter Water Dragon
- Start date
Random question; what is job sustainability like in the zoo world generally? Other than if a zoo closes down, is there much of a risk of getting laid off? It always struck me as being quite a stable, secure job. Do zoos often make cuts the way that most other industries do? Can they really be overstaffed when it comes to be able to meet the needs of the animals? I guess if a number of animals were to move out of a collection, there would then be less requirement for keepers in that sense. Does that kind of thing happen often? Just interested.
Well, I didn´t since cassowary breeding in Czech Republic does not go well. However, I wouldn´t qualify male protecting his chicks as "attacking you out of spite."
How it works here: If you are a man aged 18-65 (women had it worse because of maternity leave, but that is not much of an issue anymore) and you are willing to put ut with all the cons the job has, it´s pretty stable job. However, the fluctation of work power is still pretty high because, not everyone is able to live with the cons of the job. Zoos rarely make cuts, people mostly quit by themselves.
Zoo´s here run on very tight budgets so there is no room for being overstaffed. Somewhere it´s actually opposite problem - some zoos don´t have enough zookeepers, e11ither because they can´t find fitting candidate, or because the zoo directory said "xx zookepers is enough" and guess what, it actually isn´t, but why bother playing with budget to make space for some extra wages when we can solve it by volunteers).
Thanks for this insight - very interesting! I’m surprised to hear that people choose to quit of their own accord, considering how much passion the vocation requires and also the time and investment that goes into gaining the qualifications and experience required to enter into the sector to begin with. I’m also surprised to hear that there is a shortage of candidates for available roles, as it appears to be such a competitive industry as well!
The main reason to quit is usually money-oriented, as the wages aren´t great and some people might feel that it is not enough to secure their families. You´r point about education is not completely valid as there are still some zookepers who don´t have biological education or even any education (apart from elementary school) at all - it´s a relict from communism era. In recent years, most of these people attended retraining course for zookeepers so that´s at least something...
It´s not really shortage of candidates per se it´s a bit more complex issue. As I´ve already stated, zoo budgets are tight. Sometimes they even take less educated person, because they won´t have to pay him that much... So they hire someone for the zookeeper job, first on some sort of trial and he finds out that:
1. It´s something completely different he imagined
2. How hard and demanding it actually is
3. How "badly" it pays
For this and other reasons people sometimes quit during the trial period like after a month or sometimes even sooner. And the whole process starts again...
In my experience with ratites there's a huge difference between individual birds. So in one zoo the ostrich can be really aggressive while in the other it is the cassowary. The same goes for generally less dangerous ratites (emu, rhea).
Yeah, that was my general idea too, ostriches I took care of are pure evil, whilist the cassowary male is absolute darling, the cassowary female is somewhere in the middle.
I’m surprised that somebody would choose to enter into it as a career without first really understanding their earning potential, and making sure that they were okay with that. I mean, I absolutely adore animals and I would do anything to be able to work with them . . . but my lifestyle in the long term is going to require me to earn around three times as much as the average UK zookeeper salary pays, so I am fully aware that it will never be an option for me. In the majority of cases, I also see the salaries stated on the advertisements for these jobs, so it should be easy to find out beforehand what the pay is going to be like. I understand your point about the education thing and appreciate there are people who have been in the game for a long time without any qualifications, but nowadays it seems to be a major requirement for the majority of zoos, and so for any new entrants it appears pretty much essential. Even many of the non-keeper roles at zoos are enormously focused upon these qualifications, and so it seems that people without them won’t even be considered for other positions elsewhere within the organisation. These candidates are obviously highly educated people, which takes a lot of time and a lot of money to achieve. It seems such a shame not to put it to use following all of that investment.
SabineB
Well-Known Member
having worked in animal husbandry with sun bears in borneo, i have learned about the mean streaks of primates and apes 
on first hand experience. orang utans and macaques can be virtual a**holes at times. so I would choose carnivores. bears in particular (all bears except giant pandas)
on first hand experience. orang utans and macaques can be virtual a**holes at times. so I would choose carnivores. bears in particular (all bears except giant pandas)
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I'd want to work with my favourite animal: Hippopotamus!
Which species?
I preferred Nile subspecies
Obviously, I want to work with all of them, but I think I would choose small mammals. I would do so because you get to interact with them more, than say large carnivores. I also like that they are more intelligent than many reptiles and fish (not all of them). I volunteer at Haugaland zoo (Norway) and particularly enjoy working with the mongooses, tamarins and marmosets.
In any case not such one as mentined in this article.......
Chinese zookeeper launches violent attack on rare bird in his care
Chinese zookeeper launches violent attack on rare bird in his care
Remuel
Member
Same with you except with very large crocodilians like nile and saltwater..
Komodos are my favorite as well as Anacondas and Venomous snakes like King Cobras, Forest and Cape Cobras, Mambas, Gaboon Vipers and many more..
I love also the beaded lizards and gila monsters..
My passion is for primates, my dream is to work with Western Lowland Gorilla. I wouldn't mind working with any primates though, or any mammal, really. I don't really want to work with things like small rodents, the only rodents I would want to work with would be like capybara or porcupines of some species.
