- Zoos: A Historical Perspective from Smithsonian Institution Libraries
The National Zoological Park is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums.
AZA
Small Mammal House
How did you become interested in animals and becoming a keeper?
Manhattan was my birthplace, but I came into the world rural at heart. Wooded hills and open fields are where I feel most at home, always have, always will. And from very early on, from childhood, inexplicably, I've felt a sense of grief at the loss of wilderness.
My dad often took my brother and me to the Central Park Zoo on his days off. I say "often", but that is probably an artifact of memory, as the impression of visiting gorillas, seals, and large, pacing cats remains vivid. It wasn't a happy place then, not the rennovated zoo it is today, but a throw back to the ugly days of bare concrete floors and prison bars. Nonetheless, one morning, with no one else around, we watched an animal keeper scrub down an elephant, and he was willing to answer my shouted questions while focusing on his task. When it came time to hose her off he said, "Look at her, she loves it." "Look at her," those were the key words. To me they said: See the animal for yourself. Watch. Observe. Know. Relate. A boy couldn't articulate such a thought, but I believed from that moment on that I must have some kind of intimate relationship with wildlife or I would not be able to say that I had truly lived.
Some 35 years after that epiphany, I became an animal keeper.
What is one thing you think most people do not know (or understand) about the job of an animal keeper?
There isn't any one thing, but several. Let me describe two. First, not everyone can do it well. Those who are very good at it tend to be empathetic people. That is, they relate to other living things through feeling and they perceive through intuition to a heightened degree. This doesn't mean that they aren't analytical (they often are), or that they are particularly sociable (they often aren’t), but that their connection to the natural world, and their skill in dealing with it, comes from something deeper than self-conscious awareness.
Second—some will not agree—I believe that animal keepers work at the forefront of wildlife conservation, particularly when they can educate the public. Animal exhibition can be every bit as important to the preservation of species as is scientific study. How? Only through personal experience do people learn to care enough about wildlife to allocate some of their resources toward saving wild lands and wild species. People can look at all the orangutans in the world on YouTube—they will remain YouTube orangutans. Get people close to living orangs—give them an interactive experience with a keeper who expresses enthusiasm for the species—and there is a chance of shifting a person's outlook enough that she might recognize orangutans as fellow creatures and begin to care about their survival. The Zoo gets a chance to enlighten several million people a year.
What do you like about your job?
Animal keeping combines many jobs into one. A keeper is a naturalist, a laborer, a researcher, a caretaker, a trainer, an exhibiter, a teacher, a craftsperson, a wrangler, a clerk. The job presents different challenges every day. It keeps me physically active, and it often calls for creativity. Best of all? I get to take a private moment of joy every day in spending time with creatures that are exotic, strange, beautiful, dangerous, and wonderful.
