It’s National Zookeeper Week! One of my first zoo jobs was working with animals in education programs. My job was to do daily cleaning and feeding. And my favorite part.... training! They needed to be comfortable with handling, transport and groups of people. Pictured here are Hoppy the ferret, a chinchilla and a tiger salamander. We also had a California ground squirrel that would climb up onto your shoulder and promptly pee. Opossums, chickens, tarantulas, walking sticks, hedgehogs, snakes, tortoises, skinks, iguanas and an Amazon parrot named Liberty rounded out the collection. As they say if I knew then what I know now.... oh the things I would have done! I imagine so many more behaviors I would have trained as we had many great candidates. In my consulting work today, we get super creative with animal ambassador training ideas. Education departments have really developed over the years. Many have incredible collections of trained animal ambassadors with highly skilled and educated team members on board. The curriculum is engaging and also meets specific requirements and standards for learning. It’s a good time to be a keeper for the education department. # nationalzookeeperweek #nzkw #nzkw2020 # #imakeeper #educationanimals #ambassadoranimals #tigersalamander #chinchilla #ferret https://www.instagram.com/p/CC8s7Wjlcnk/?igshid=l217irbyf1e9
