#zoo ask

[nonegenderwithleftbees]

never heard of a "bee scientist" before but it makes absolute sense such a thing exists and in my mutuals of all places??? what's it like sciencing some bees??

Yeah! Though I’m working on non-bee stuff, predator defense in katydids, at the moment for another lab, while also working to get my masters thesis published in a journal hopefully by the end of the year before trying for a PhD. 

It’s very cool and I miss doing fieldwork a lot. I worked in a flight cage with free-flying bees. My masters was on neuroethology in bees (cognition + behaviour) specifically on presenting them with a learning task (delayed conditional discrimination task) in order to test for an aspect of intelligence. We found the bees could do the task and fast compared to humans and rats!

[ask-the-phan-boy]

"I stayed up really late the last few days, it's catching up to me." @angel-lightwolf

[turkeysnake]

It's so cool that you get to be a zookeeper!! I've always wanted to do that, and still hope I can someday. How does one go about getting that job?

SO this is gonna be probably a confusing response but I’m gonna try my hardest to explain

I’m basically in school to be a zookeeper, but I AM currently a zookeeper all the way through. It’s a 5 semester program where you take animal related classes and work as a legitimate zookeeper (I’m at the zoo 6 days a week) so you have the qualifications needed to work in other zoos. (it’s also an AZA-accredited zoo, which is pretty damn awesome)

so that aside, what I have gathered is that zoos look for experience and a bachelor’s degree. a lot of job listings I’ve read look for at least 2 years experience. sometimes in other AZA zoos, some zoos don’t care where your experience comes from. but a big thing on most zookeeper positions is a bachelor’s degree- usually something like biology, zoology, the likes of that. 

BUT don’t lose hope there (I know that’s a lot of things to do just to work with animals)- a good way into a specific zoo is volunteering regularly and internships. a lot of people get hired at whatever zoo they were volunteering/interning at after being a consistent part of the team for some time.

I hope the whole zoo school part makes sense!! If you have any more questions feel free to ask

[nonegenderwithleftbees]

What is your favorite area in the bug part of the museum in ACNH?

All of it lol. I like the butterfly house alot, though I wish they’d included some fake flower feeders cause those are cool and / or let the butterflies rest on your character if you stand still long enough. 

[nonegenderwithleftbees]

When you brag about how "smart" you are, in reality it makes you sound dumb

Oh that hurt one of my feelings. Let me wipe my tear away with my degree in biology.

Anyways here’s a photo of me graduating in 2017 with my degree. By the end of this year I’ll have a masters in neruoethology and (hopefully) go on to do my PhD.