LisaAnnOKane
Tampa, FL
Female, 32
During my zookeeping and environmental education career, I have interacted and worked with a variety of animals, including brown bears, wolverines, red foxes, moose, camels, mountain goats, dolphins, sea lions, raccoons, porcupines, snakes, raptors and ravens. I am also a young adult author, and my debut novel ESSENCE was released in June 2014 by Strange Chemistry Books. Ask me anything!
Hi Zach, and so sorry for the delay in my response. Yes, many animals can be flown from one facility to another. This is often the safest and most reliable option, as we want to get animals out of potentially stressful situations--like travel--as quickly as we possibly can. Trainers just have to work very closely with their animals to prepare them for their journey, and trainers and medical staff have to make the journey with them to monitor them and make sure they remain stable and as comfortable and relaxed as possible.
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Hi Madison, and thanks for the question! The great thing about zoology is that there are many other career paths you can pursue if you decide working in a zoo isn't for you. You could become a wildlife biologist, a forester, an ecologist, a geneticist, an animal lab technician, a fishery or marine biologist, a veterinarian, a public health specialist... The list goes on and on and on. Most universities have Career Services departments, and these help educate students about all the options available within their chosen majors. Many universities even publish this information online, so it may be helpful for you to do an internet search and see what pops up. I think you will be surprised to learn all the opportunities available to zoology majors. Best of luck to you!
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Hi Matty. This guy is amazing, isn't he? He's an anomaly: an animal trainer with just the right combination of everything he needs to be able to succeed in this particular environment. His consistency, his skill, his technical precision, his presence, his history with these lions, and the characteristics and upbringings of all the lions in this specific pride have all combined to create this one-in-a-million situation. What you see in this clip is the result of countless hours of hard work, phenomenal luck and unwavering dedication. Is this guy crazy? Perhaps. He even says himself in this clip that there's a chance he may be killed by one of these lions someday. So he certainly understands the inherent risks and still chooses to dedicate his life to this. It could also be argued that this guy is brilliant, or reckless, or suicidal, or mind-bogglingly gifted. Or maybe he's just the luckiest bastard in the entire world. Regardless, it's certainly appropriate to be awed by him. It is also critically important to view his interactions for what they are: an amazing and incredible and probably unrepeatable feat. Even he probably couldn't replicate this with another lion pride, so the rest of us should certainly NEVER try this at home.
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Hi Julia, and thanks for the great question. Zoos are regulated by so many federal and state laws that I find it incredibly difficult to keep track of all of them. (Thank goodness I have never worked in a position where I was required to!) Several federal statutes are applicable to zoos: the Animal Welfare Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Lacey Act, and many other species-specific statutes--like the African Elephant Conservation Act, the Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Act, etc. In addition, every state has its own set of governing laws, and these sometimes vary quite a bit. The USDA is the primary enforcer of the Animal Welfare Act, and its representatives schedule planned and surprise code enforcement visits throughout the year to ensure each zoo lives up to its standards. It is certainly quite a process!
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Hi Chelsea! I assume this question is piggy-backing on your last question about animal escapes. Since I have already answered what an employee would do in this situation, I will expand and say that if a zoo guest ever sees an escape, he/she should tell whichever employee is the closest to him/her--whether that employee is a gardener, a custodian, a camp counselor, etc. All employees are trained to deal with emergency situations, so those people will know exactly how to make sure the proper authorities receive the alert.
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Hi Jade! A zookeeper can monitor his/her animals' eating habits in many ways. One is to carefully portion and weigh the diet before it is given to the animal and then compare this to the weight of the leftover food the zookeeper collects the next day. Another is to station someone (usually a volunteer or intern) outside the enclosure and takes notes while observing the animal's feeding behavior. A third (expensive) option is to install a video monitoring system and review the footage. Hope that helps!
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Oh, totally! This happens all the time, and it never gets less embarassing. I volunteered as a tour guide at my local zoo in high school, and I always stammered through an awkward explanation, like the tigers were "wrestling" or "playing" or whatever. Nowadays, I tend to be a little more honest, though I usually try to minimize and move on as quickly as possible. (Ironically, the parents usually laugh harder than the kids, but we DO share inside jokes on occasion!)
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