any zookeepers in the house?
May 16, 2022 8:04 PM Subscribe
anyone got zoo keeper stories of what it was like working behind the glass/fence/cage/tank? weird logistics people don't think about? the strangest tasks someones gotta do but work no one sees? the more mundane the better!
I'm writing a bunch of short stories based in the pacific rim/kaiju universe about people behind an institution that researches and conserves megafauna like kaiju. The "Kaiju Conservation Society" follows a small group of kaiju "zoo keepers" and their mundane adventures doing basic maintenance for creatures bigger than buildings.
I'm really looking for information about the daily life of folks working in zoos especially places that do conservation work for endangered animals. How do you clean their cages? How do you do security checks? How do you feed them safely? How do conservation zoos think about outward facing education to the public? What's your favorite part of the job? Least favorite? Most rewarding?
Definitely inspired by To Be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers and her answers to some really basic logistical, down-to-earth questions about how space travel would work and it's real toll on astronauts and their mental health.
I'm writing a bunch of short stories based in the pacific rim/kaiju universe about people behind an institution that researches and conserves megafauna like kaiju. The "Kaiju Conservation Society" follows a small group of kaiju "zoo keepers" and their mundane adventures doing basic maintenance for creatures bigger than buildings.
I'm really looking for information about the daily life of folks working in zoos especially places that do conservation work for endangered animals. How do you clean their cages? How do you do security checks? How do you feed them safely? How do conservation zoos think about outward facing education to the public? What's your favorite part of the job? Least favorite? Most rewarding?
Definitely inspired by To Be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers and her answers to some really basic logistical, down-to-earth questions about how space travel would work and it's real toll on astronauts and their mental health.
And the worst part about Zookeeping is dealing with 1. Management and 2. The public.
If I was a Kaiju keeper I would be pissed about all the goddamn kids pounding on the 10'-thick transparent aluminium barrier because it stresses Geratron and I can't get him to eat his cadmium ration
posted by The otter lady at 8:20 PM on May 16, 2022 [7 favorites]
If I was a Kaiju keeper I would be pissed about all the goddamn kids pounding on the 10'-thick transparent aluminium barrier because it stresses Geratron and I can't get him to eat his cadmium ration
posted by The otter lady at 8:20 PM on May 16, 2022 [7 favorites]
Also does Geratron have enough room to live and move about? I will want to make his life in captivity as good as possible. Safety wise the manual will say I must protect the public first, then myself, then the animal.
So much of what is gonna happen in the facility is out of the control of the keeper, at least if it's like zoos today
posted by The otter lady at 8:30 PM on May 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
So much of what is gonna happen in the facility is out of the control of the keeper, at least if it's like zoos today
posted by The otter lady at 8:30 PM on May 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
I love Gerald Durrell’s memoirs for this kind of info.
There are also lots of zookeepers on Instagram showing videos of their tasks.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 8:34 PM on May 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
There are also lots of zookeepers on Instagram showing videos of their tasks.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 8:34 PM on May 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
https://www.google.com/search?q=iama+zoo+site%3Awww.reddit.com
posted by sebastienbailard at 9:01 PM on May 16, 2022
posted by sebastienbailard at 9:01 PM on May 16, 2022
I paid for my first semester's fees in grad school by working in Diergaarde Blijdorp in Rotterdam. My work-mates were robustly kind. When the twice-yearly draining of the water in the crocodile pit fell due, they presented me with a bucket half full of coins which had been shovelled out of the crocodile sludge and roughly rinsed. Someone gave me a bottle of acetic acid, which we used to clean finger- and nose-prints off the aquaria, and said it was just the thing to make old money shine like new. I was as proud to be presented with that bucket as I was to receive my PhD four years later. After all I wouldn’t have had the one without the other.
When the Octopus vulgaris climbed out out its aquarium overnight and died we turned its earthenware refuge drain-pipe 90° and stoutly maintained that the cephalopod was "only sleeping" until we could get a replacement.
I had a near-death experience with a stone fish Chironex fleckeri. To get behind the scenes, all the keepers had a square-ended key that was inserted into the access doors as a mobile door-handle: rudimentary security.
posted by BobTheScientist at 10:43 PM on May 16, 2022 [16 favorites]
When the Octopus vulgaris climbed out out its aquarium overnight and died we turned its earthenware refuge drain-pipe 90° and stoutly maintained that the cephalopod was "only sleeping" until we could get a replacement.
I had a near-death experience with a stone fish Chironex fleckeri. To get behind the scenes, all the keepers had a square-ended key that was inserted into the access doors as a mobile door-handle: rudimentary security.
posted by BobTheScientist at 10:43 PM on May 16, 2022 [16 favorites]
(I hate to ask, but since you only cited Chambers… you're aware of Scalzi's recently published The Kaiju Preservation Society?)
posted by mumkin at 1:41 AM on May 17, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by mumkin at 1:41 AM on May 17, 2022 [6 favorites]
You might take a page from the Elephant Sanctuary here in TN - it's a place for older elephants to peacefully retire. They have huge areas to roam outside, warm barns in the winter, and everything an elephant needs to live quietly and happily. The sanctuary is also 100% closed to the public, though they have a variety of webcams and a robust social media presence. Not a huge leap to imagine something similar on a much larger scale for kaiju!
They frequently post enrichment activities - surprise piles of special fruits and veggies or something celebrating a birthday. A friend-of-a-friend worked there for a while - they are tremendously selective about choosing workers and it's a difficult place to get into. Part of her history included time working with big cats someplace else, so it seems that there's something of a circuit/pathway for folks who have this particular calling.
posted by jquinby at 4:47 AM on May 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
They frequently post enrichment activities - surprise piles of special fruits and veggies or something celebrating a birthday. A friend-of-a-friend worked there for a while - they are tremendously selective about choosing workers and it's a difficult place to get into. Part of her history included time working with big cats someplace else, so it seems that there's something of a circuit/pathway for folks who have this particular calling.
posted by jquinby at 4:47 AM on May 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
I did a behind-the-scenes zoo tour a few years ago and one logistics story really stuck with me. The guide mentioned how they have a map outlining the *very specific* route they needed to take when they transported the giraffes from one end of denmark to the other.
posted by alchemist at 10:18 AM on May 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by alchemist at 10:18 AM on May 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
Just something I remember hearing about a while back, that an animal (a big bird IIRC) had essentially fallen in love with its caretaker, because they didn't have any males to mate with it and he had to be the surrogate. Not an ordinary circumstance but it does emphasize how deep these relationships between caretakers and animals can be!
A fox rescue place I've followed for a while mentions that they don't notice any more but the smell of foxes is very strong, and it is almost certainly the case with other animals that you stop noticing the sometimes shocking initial full-sensory "experience" of being close to a wild animal (or kaiju) but it's fresh for anyone else who does it.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 1:16 PM on May 17, 2022
A fox rescue place I've followed for a while mentions that they don't notice any more but the smell of foxes is very strong, and it is almost certainly the case with other animals that you stop noticing the sometimes shocking initial full-sensory "experience" of being close to a wild animal (or kaiju) but it's fresh for anyone else who does it.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 1:16 PM on May 17, 2022
an institution
Our local large metropolitan zoo has been a client of ours for years and years and thus I have had some glimpses behind the scenes in various ways (including running around the place after dark) and hoo boy you cannot ignore the "large institution" part of the job;
- management gets a brilliant idea to do Special Event X or Special Program Y but will not approve the necessary budget for materials or overtime for getting the actual work done to make the event happen; but they do approve a huge marketing budget . . .
- in general constant negotiations and battles between various sections of the org for funding and rebuilds and repairs
- plus bureaucracy, so even things you would think would be minor still have to go through a whole process of forms and approval and maybe even a "get bids from multiple contractors" system
- various building & containment areas get designed & constructed by the lowest bidder or reutilized as cheaply as possible (for a long time the "backstage" feeding/maintenance route for one of the bear areas had cages on both sides and you had to walk in the exact middle, no, I mean THE EXACT middle if you didn't want a bear to reach through the bars and say hello with claws.)
- except of course for the buildings & areas where they threw a massive fundraising campaign to get it built, so everything is shiny & new & expensive, but still missing important practical considerations.
- plenty of folks will get promoted via seniority and/or being good at office politics despite being really bad at doing their actual job
Other things I have learned:
Local fauna can really fuck with the health of the animals in captivity - in our case it's deer and feral cats, whose droppings can be toxic. And since the zoo is part of a large park system, deer and feral cats are everywhere.
You cannot predict which animals will turn out to be Master Escape Artists. There was an adolescent male sea lion who they eventually had to trade to a different zoo because he'd figured out every single possible way to get out and go for a wander, and they just couldn't keep him contained without doing a massive rebuild of the exhibit, which wasn't gonna happen because see above re: budget battles.
posted by soundguy99 at 4:15 PM on May 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
Our local large metropolitan zoo has been a client of ours for years and years and thus I have had some glimpses behind the scenes in various ways (including running around the place after dark) and hoo boy you cannot ignore the "large institution" part of the job;
- management gets a brilliant idea to do Special Event X or Special Program Y but will not approve the necessary budget for materials or overtime for getting the actual work done to make the event happen; but they do approve a huge marketing budget . . .
- in general constant negotiations and battles between various sections of the org for funding and rebuilds and repairs
- plus bureaucracy, so even things you would think would be minor still have to go through a whole process of forms and approval and maybe even a "get bids from multiple contractors" system
- various building & containment areas get designed & constructed by the lowest bidder or reutilized as cheaply as possible (for a long time the "backstage" feeding/maintenance route for one of the bear areas had cages on both sides and you had to walk in the exact middle, no, I mean THE EXACT middle if you didn't want a bear to reach through the bars and say hello with claws.)
- except of course for the buildings & areas where they threw a massive fundraising campaign to get it built, so everything is shiny & new & expensive, but still missing important practical considerations.
- plenty of folks will get promoted via seniority and/or being good at office politics despite being really bad at doing their actual job
Other things I have learned:
Local fauna can really fuck with the health of the animals in captivity - in our case it's deer and feral cats, whose droppings can be toxic. And since the zoo is part of a large park system, deer and feral cats are everywhere.
You cannot predict which animals will turn out to be Master Escape Artists. There was an adolescent male sea lion who they eventually had to trade to a different zoo because he'd figured out every single possible way to get out and go for a wander, and they just couldn't keep him contained without doing a massive rebuild of the exhibit, which wasn't gonna happen because see above re: budget battles.
posted by soundguy99 at 4:15 PM on May 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
Animal Planet has a series called The Zoo, where film crews follow keepers and veterinary staff through their days as they care for the zoo's animals. There's been one on San Diego and one that focused on The Bronx Zoo. I'd say 80% of the staff interviewed during the show are keepers of some kind. San Diego might be especially interesting for you with their Frozen Zoo and their program to breed northern white rhino. For zoos, conservation is a lot about breeding programs and pairing up good genetic matches, even when that means moving animals between institutions.
posted by gladly at 7:20 PM on May 17, 2022
posted by gladly at 7:20 PM on May 17, 2022
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posted by The otter lady at 8:09 PM on May 16, 2022 [4 favorites]