Zookeeper - Duties and Responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities

There are many responsibilities a zookeeper needs to perfect in animal care. A zookeepers responsibilities includes feeding, maintaining, cleaning for the animals, diet preparation, behavioral observation, record keeping, exhibit maintenance and, providing environmental enrichment for the animals in their care. They also conduct behavioral or reproductive research on a species and participate in public education through talks, programs, or shows. Food for the animals must be weighed carefully so the animal's weight can be logged accurately on the zookeeper’s nutrition diet log. The zookeeper is also responsible for adding supplements in the food or even mixing in medications, when required. They must clean enclosures every day. The areas which the animals are in are sprayed with disinfectant, scrubbed with a broom-like scrub brush, rinsed and dry mopped. The zookeepers also assist very young animals. They look for any signs of injuries or illness in the young ones and all the others, and must write everything down in their logs. If an animal is injured, the keeper is responsible for contacting a veterinarian, and sometimes a zookeeper will assist a veterinarian in a medical procedure.

Some zookeepers train the animals to make caring for them easier. For example, a zookeeper can train an elephant to lift their feet so that a veterinarian can check them more easily. Some zookeepers are responsible for informing an audience, in an exhibit or presentation, about certain types of animals and their behavioral characteristics. They also talk about experiences with the animal, and answer questions. The keeper is also responsible for lecturing the visiting public on how to behave responsibly toward the exhibited animals.

Depending on the zoo structure, keepers may be assigned to work with a broad group of animals, such as mammals, birds, or reptiles, or they may work with a limited collection of animals such as primates, large cats, or small mammals. Traditionally, the live exhibits were often organized by taxonomy, resulting in clusters of carnivores cages, bird aviaries, primate exhibits, and so on, which led to sections within a zoo cared for by specialized staff. Some keepers can become highly specialized such as those who concentrate on a specific group of animals like birds, great apes, elephants or reptiles. Modern habitat exhibits attempt to display a diversity of species of different animal classes within one enclosure to represent ecosystem concepts. Groups of enclosures are organized by themes, relating to, for example, zoogeography and bioclimatic zones, rather than taxonomy. The shift in exhibit arrangements is changing the scope of work for animal keepers, as they become habitat keepers, with a necessary working knowledge of living environment care, including landscape maintenance, plant care, climate control, and expanded knowledge of animals husbandry for many more species across taxonomic classes.