Half-day zookeeper experience - superb value and an experience to remember.
We bought my 9yr old son a half-day zookeeper experience for his birthday, at this age he needed to be accompanied by an adult, and being an animal lover - I was happy to join in.
The icing on the cake (for us) was getting up close with my son's favourite animal, an armadillo. And we only found out when we got there!
The experience was well organised, and provided us with a wide range of activities typically carried out by a keeper at the zoo (but done a bit more competently than us đ). It was a quiet afternoon with few visitors - I made a mental note to bring the whole family another time (Sunday afternoon = quiet).
Ruby our keeper, explained the plan of the afternoon to us, there was so much to do. We started with H&S briefing - being aware that the animals we may encounter are wild, and only to he touched if advised by Ruby that it was okay to do so. And making sure that we followed instructions - especially if the animals weren't keen on us (unfamiliar people in its enclosure).
We began by changing the water in the reptile tanks, and being comfortable with snakes, geckos and lizards, my son did this (with help from Ruby). She talked about the insects, the life of a sun beetle, cockroaches, and stick insects. She offered us a hold of the cockroaches, but we both declined, there's just something about them that we find repulsive.
When we got to feeding the other animals it was decided that one of us would go in the cage, with Ruby, and the other would stay outside - this was better for the animals and was done with the monkeys, lemurs, and the armadillo.
The armadillo just wonderful, lively and active, interested in my son and inquisitive, sniffing at my son's wellies and almost jumping up like a little dog. He was okay to touch it (albeit with a gloved hand) and he said that it was a dream come true. I think he could have stayed in the enclosure with it for the entire time, but Ruby still needed us to feed other animals, get animal bedding ready and pick up poo!
The experience was excellent value, it helped us to see how a zoo worked and all the effort involved and the role smaller zoos play in supporting the animals future (awareness, threats and breeding programmes), the community and educational value, and and being sustainable (who knew how much animal play equipment could be made from old fire hoses!).
Ruby was so knowledgeable, answering all my random questions about their food, their habits, and behaviour, and she knew all the animals names - and there were a lot of names to remember.
We fed crowned lemurs, stroked tortoises, and fed cranes - throwing dead chicks for them to catch, and watching their gruesome eating rituals (I won't spoil the surprise).
We fed, and held the most adorable guinea pigs, fed and picked up the poo (which looked like chocolate raisins) from the naughtiest of goats, while poor Ruby took the brunt of the goat horns and buts from the excitable goats.
We wheeled the most industrial wheelbarrow you've ever seen, luckily there was no one about otherwise we might have caused an accident. Even the free roaming peacock seemed to look disapprovingly at us.
All in all it was an amazing experience, one we'll both remember for a long time.
If you book on something like this, be open minded and prepared to get stuck into anything, don't be squeamish, be prepared for mucky jobs, don't set your heart on one particular animal - just enjoy the experience of being around some amazing and beautiful creatures. We were just lucky that the armadillo was on our list.
We'll definitely be back as visitors and would definitely consider doing the...
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