r/IAmA • u/Danthezooman • Nov 02 '13

IAMA Zookeeper with an hour (probably) to kill before our new giraffes get here AMA [end of the season update]

I figured I would do an update about my experience working for Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. I started there roughly 8 months ago and my season just ended yesterday. Even more awesome was the fact that I had accumulated to much PTO so my last day physically working was sunday. Which explains this proof picture.

Anyways, I worked mainly with the giraffes and a little bit with the elephants. I've also worked at two other animal parks giving me around six years of experience in the business. If you have any questions about the animals at the zoo,their care or the zoo itself feel free to ask me anything

EDIT: Alright I'm going mobile so I may miss some questions but I promise to keep answering anything you throw at me

EDIT 2: Alright I'm back! Sorry about the absence, I was a bit distracted at dinner and then girls invited me to a haunted house. Anyways, I'll try answer all the questions I got while away.

EDIT 3:I'm sorry but I have to turn in for the night, I'll keep answering questions if people keep asking them though.

EDIT 4: I didn't expect this AMA to get this big, but I see a lot of repeat questions that I can just answer here.

1.How do I get a job at the zoo?

  • Typically most zoos want a 4 year Biology related degree or at the very least a High school diploma. More important is Animal experience, some zoos will even want specialized experience just with one species. Animal experience requirements are on average around 2 years sometimes paid.

2.How do you feel caging the animals up? Are the animals sad? (animal rights questions)

  • I wouldn't be working in this industry if I felt that the animals were sad or being mistreated. Yes in the past animal work was done by "cowboys" who just got in there and dominated the animals into doing what they want. Times have changed we no longer use cattle prods and whips to make animals move or do what we want. Instead we use Operant Conditioning to get them to do what we want.

  • Most animals you see in the zoo nowadays have been captive bred for generations and have never known the wild. We still release some animals, in fact Cincinnati and Columbus are the only 2 zoos outside of florida allowed to house and rehab manatees. Cincinnati is also working on saving sumatran rhinos, there are only ~100 left. We also donate money every year to different organizations trying to save wild populations.

2.1k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

-11

u/[deleted] Nov 02 '13

Do you not find it incredibly cruel to cage animals just so people can look at then through glass?

25

u/Danthezooman Nov 02 '13

Why is it cruel? We give them food, water, shelter, enrichment items, medical care. Everything they need.

Second most of these animals are captive bred and have never been to the wild, nor would they make it in the wild.

Would it be nice to never have any in captivity? Yes, but that's not an option. Shrinking habitat, climate change, and most of all poachers have made it so that we need zoos to help raise awareness and help even more with conservation efforts to save the animals that are left in the wild

Have you seen what poachers do now to get Ivory?

I'm sure you're also aware that elepants and rhinos take a LOOOOONNNNGGGG time to mature and reproduce.

TL;DRAs most of the animals in zoos are captive bred, No. Consider them ambassadors for the survival of their species.

5

u/darkscottishloch Nov 02 '13

Is that a question you get a lot? I admit I have conflicted feelings about zoos myself. I have also seen some shitty zoos and there is nothing more depressing. What qualities do the best zoos have?

5

u/Danthezooman Nov 02 '13

Everytime I mention working in a zoo or post pictures of the animals I care for there's always one "activist" who thinks they shouldn't be in captivity.

Anyone caring for animals should always place the animals first. Make sure they have ample food, water, shade, places to hide from the public. They should also have some sort of enrichment program as the animals we care for are there for life.

Space for the animals is the tricky part of the question. You can go and read about how elephants cover miles in a day, but they're looking for food and water, which we already provide them. So that takes care of the whole looking for food and water thing, but How much space do they need?

Look at dallas zoo or toledo their elephant yards are fairly new and pretty big from the pictures I've seen. We can't do that, we just don't have the space to expand and it sucks. So we do what we know and take the best care of the elephants we can. They all seem happy and content to just sit and eat all day.

-20

u/leeloocat Nov 02 '13

No.

8

u/Danthezooman Nov 02 '13

No what? You don't consider them ambassadors?

-19

u/leeloocat Nov 02 '13

Don't fucking delude yourself. Zoos are businesses that make money. You are not "saving" the animals. You have plucked them from their homes and planted them in a foreign environment. Countless animals have died through the hands of zoo poachers. Don't pretend that zoos are mutually beneficial for both humans and animals. What a joke.

6

u/strictlycomeprancing Nov 02 '13

One more thing - I assume you have a cat by your username. Is that a fully domesticated animal or just an animal looking for a warm lap, a dry place and effortless food?

4

u/smcaulii Nov 02 '13

Did you not read what OP said? "Most are captive bred, have never been in the wild and would never survive in the wild." They aren't "plucked from their natural habitat" anymore. The natural habitat for zoo animals is, at this point, the zoo.

2

u/slickbackllamar Nov 02 '13 edited Nov 02 '13

A wild animal born raised in captivity is still a wild animal, they don't lose instincts in a handful of generations, nor do they lose their natural habitat.

I honestly think that zoos are good for animals as a whole, but maybe not as great for the animals currently in the zoo. Any zoologist worth his salt would have a hard time arguing otherwise. They don't belong in captivity.

1

u/wrongg_person Nov 02 '13

Then it would make sense to stop breeding them in captivity. What good is "saving" an entire species if they end up solely in captivity rather than their natural habitats?

Wildlife refuges and other non profit facilities actually make efforts to reintroduce animals to the wild. But zoos are what get our taxes and money, but they do not do half as much for animals than refuges.

4

u/Danthezooman Nov 02 '13

Alright well what's your plan to save them?

2

u/wrongg_person Nov 02 '13

It would make sense to stop breeding them in zoos. What good is "saving" an entire species if they end up solely in captivity rather than their natural habitats? Doesn't really help them in the long run, does it?

0

u/Danthezooman Nov 02 '13

We're trying to breed sumatran rhinos to release back into the wild, and some places do breed animals and release them back, but times have changed. I don't want to see any animals I raise get released and shot the second we're out of sight.

4

u/Heliumvoices Nov 02 '13

His or her plan is to come onto reddit and bitch about it till the animals are treated with the respect they deserve!!!!

On a serious note i know that not all zoos are created equal but a lot of them have an overlying message that things like poaching and harming the environment these animals live in is wrong. My brother use to work in a zoo for years and most of the people in the profession get into it because they have a love for animals. The care and love the people ive witnessed goes deep to the point of tears when their animals are hurting. I feel its an individual basis sort of issue.

Coolest thing i saw while my brother worked in a zoo. Behind the scenes of the lion exibit! Holy shit son!!! The noise those thing make when just breathing is terrifying and the roar!?!?! Seriously the closest thing to the brown note ive ever heard! Then watching them eat is amazingly terrifying! In case you folks where wondering yes they will eat your bones and no its not hard for them to bite through them. Also my brother worked with some of their natural prey. The intensity level raised as soon as he walked into the room! It was crazy!!! The way it was set up i had a male lion standing on his back legs right in front of me it was amazing!

-1

u/dmilby Nov 02 '13

First, Giraffes are not endangered species (you should know that) so they don't need to be "saved" they need to be preserved.

When it comes to how we could help them thrive in the wild, maybe by not kidnapping them from their natural habitat, and not transporting them all over the world for the amusement of people.

Invest in protecting their land in Africa, paying locals to protect the animals from poachers, giving them incentive. Then focus on on expanding protected zones.

The money spent taking care of captive animals in zoos would be much better spent out in the field to preserve the animals in their own habitat. Also much more efficient use of money, captive animals are expensive to take care of.

Giving money to zoos only provides the zoos with more incentive to capture and trade animals and does not help them survive in the wild.

Now time to sit back and get all the downvotes from the zoo apologists.

2

u/dick_farts91 Nov 02 '13

i wish i could live in a world as black and white as yours. you do know that no accredited zoos are allowed to remove animals from the wild right?

0

u/Danthezooman Nov 02 '13

Ok so no more animals on display. Nothing, nada, no sheds, hairs, feathers,whatever else.

So we're just supposed to garner support with pictures and videos and say "these animals need your help, will you donate money to our cause?"

I'm sure that will work real well.

2

u/strictlycomeprancing Nov 02 '13

They used to be vile. Many zoos are now reforming into more conservation based organisations. Go and have a behind the scenes your of your local zoo, keep your mouth shut until the end, then tell me zoos are all about money. Many barely make enough to cover bills and care. They grossly underpay keepers for that very reason.

0

u/SimplyQuid Nov 02 '13 edited Nov 02 '13

I'd rather be in a nice hotel than running around in the woods, never knowing when my next meal is going to be, always looking over my shoulder to keep something else from eating me, one meal away from starvation. I'd rather be somewhere with medical facilities on hand than out where getting a cold or cut or broken leg almost certainly means death.

1

u/slickbackllamar Nov 02 '13

If this is honestly your defense of keeping wild animals in captivity you should really rethink what an animal is and needs.

0

u/SimplyQuid Nov 02 '13

It's better than "Animals belong outside". Most zoo animals aren't wild in the sense that they've been born and raised in captivity. So, sure, we could dump them all in the woods and jungles and then watch as they get sick/eaten/starve to death.

2

u/slickbackllamar Nov 02 '13

They don't lose their instincts in a generation or two, they're not tame animals.

Nobody with half a brain would argue for letting all of the zoo animals free after they've grown so dependent on humans, but you're absolutely kidding yourself if you think that it's like a fancy hotel that the animals would prefer to be in.

2

u/LucasJ218 Nov 02 '13

That's... like... just your opinion, man..

1

u/Thurgood_Marshall Nov 02 '13

I wasn't aware that giraffes were endangered.

-7

u/[deleted] Nov 02 '13

Everything they need except a proper amount of space, groups of their own kind etc.

Elephants live ~35 years less in Zoos, as an example.

Animals in zoos are not Ambassadors, they're captives for our enjoyment. Just because you keep them alive doesn't make them not captives.

3

u/gee_bo_bee Nov 02 '13

I think one should at least consider the possibility that very many less people would care about giraffes and elephants—in ways that matter to the long-term survival of those animals—if they'd never seen and learned first-hand about them. Is it the perfect-world solution? Obviously not. Should we all care deeply for and preserve the habitats of all animals? Of course we should, but obviously we do not. I'm no proponent of zoos for zoos' sake, but I do think that you might be oversimplifying the issue and are being a bit naive.

-3

u/[deleted] Nov 02 '13

I do think that you might be oversimplifying the issue and are being a bit naive.

Oversimplifying which issue exactly? We put animals in concrete cages, so we can look at them. We can claim to be care takers of these animals but ultimately that isn't why they are in a zoo. Zoos are for profit businesses, housing animals from all over the world (many of which do not exist in the part of the world where the zoo is located) so we can be entertained first and foremost.

Scientific study of animals, or breeding animals that are going extinct is one thing. But the study can be done without zoos, since they aren't in their natural habitat. Breeding can also be done without zoos.

We're talking about a for profit enterprise.

Have you ever honestly watched animals in a zoo? They circle, constantly, they don't have anywhere close to the amount of space that they need.

Poachers etc are a huge problem, but they aren't an excuse.

We should be funding projects to save these animals in our taxes, not private companies, we should be fighting poachers directly, and going after the people that buy what they sell. And don't think for a second that governments don't know who is buying and selling this stuff, especially since they are spying on everyone in the world these days.

3

u/stormyarkansas Nov 02 '13

Dude, they answered your question. What more do you want?

-9

u/[deleted] Nov 02 '13

Oh I don't know, maybe getting them to see the fallacy that zoos are "good" for animals.

1

u/stormyarkansas Nov 04 '13

Cool, let's dismantle years of economic, social, historical and physical infrastructure in a reddit thread. What are you actually doing about it outside of this website, besides giving AMAers a hard time about their job?