Comments by "New Message" (@NewMessage) on "Why This Might Be the Most Disrespected Job on Earth" video.

10 years plus of zookeeping taught me one thing... Animals... people... all the same. Both get bitey if you're 15 minutes late with dinner.
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We had moose at our zoo, years ago. The old curator pretty much specialised in rehabbing them. My ex wife even raised one (they usually come in from the State FW guys pretty young). It is a slog. A 24/7 job for months, and they won't usually accept temporary surrogates. Ya gotta sneak away to shower while they sleep, and they try to catch ya at it! You can leave a baby deer for 12 hours if ya need to, and they just lay down and wait. Moose and Reindeer require constant misters available in the summer months, and again like reindeer, they don't do well anywhere that isn't famous for tourist worthy snowy winters. Nothing like seeing a short little blonde lady lead a full grown moose in rut down the fence line (so we can get in and clean/water/feed) with an empty baby bottle, or stop him in his tracks by pointing and stomping a foot though! The feed is imported from Sweden or Norway or somewhere. You can't use trotter or sweet or anything. And yeah, man... it's pricey!
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And while you are unlikely to be in any lion enclosures early on... Animals hold grudges. Especially the cute little ones. A keeper had to take away a rock from a capuchin who went at his face every time he had the slightest chance for over 20 years after that. I had a marmosets who hated me because his girl passed me the baby instead of him, and he made my life HELL for years. Some will love everybody BUT you, for no reason at all. Don't set your heart on connecting with a wolf if you aren't ready and willing to forgo that to form that bond with a goat. Seriously. Ppl like that we winnow out fast. Prepare to 'take the bite'. At some point, something will allllmost scoot past ya, and you'll grab it just in time, before it heads out and mauls a kid in a stroller. It's gonna bite ya. Hold it. Bring it back in the enclosure, even if you fear death. You are the fence now. That's the job, too. You protect the animal, you protect the public. This is not a joke. We can't usually get life insurance for a reason. Worse.. you will have to deal with the public. They don't read signs. Prepare about 5 answers for every enclosure you might be spotted in. It's all on the sign... but they won't even see it. As a keeper, you'll probably only get a handful of those magic moments that would make a book worth reading, and maybe not for years, unless you get thrust in early due to a desperate situation... and most of those relationships will degrade when they grow up, have to be enclosed with the main pop., get transferred to another zoo, or become dangerous. There's a story about a Lar Gibbon that I won't tell here. But it was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life, and it broke me in half. I'm not a keeper anymore. Fun, hunh? You get a few that break all the rules, though... and it does make it worth it, in the end. If you are willing to decorate those beautiful moments with scars to follow your dream... then I wish you all the luck in the world, but doubt you'll need much. 'Cause that's really all it takes to be a keeper. Hard work, dedication, and love so strong for those bitey l'll buggers that you accept the risks as given. Pay's garbage, though.
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@jdcONhizPC Quite a bit, if you can be bothered to read it all.. hah. First and foremost, forget happy skritchy playtime. Mostly, expect lots of hard, manual labor. ! worked 18 hour days in the peak season, and what little animal interactions I had time for were marred by low energy. I thought about quitting every single day. And that was while I was Head Keeper. Before that was worse. The moments you do get will be worth it. If they aren't.. you're not cut out for it. S'ok.. most folk aren't. Volunteer first. A few months of weekends should give you a general feel of the 'workaday life'.. see if the social dynamic works.... Fun Fact: if someone at work that the lion likes, doesn't like you... the lion doesn't like you! Animals pick up on EVERYTHING, and they know who's the boss of who... and they'll treat you accordingly, especially if you're new.
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@tobiaswedin We have to use a USDA approved feed to keep our license... but they did get plenty of browse :)
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Just wanna say thanks to pretty much everyone involved here. Needed a mood boost for a good while now.. and y'all delivered in spades. * tips an imaginary hat *
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@taitano12 'cause the adults know what the kids haven't learned yet. The mess riles you up, and that's the real fun. Dinner AND a show.
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@TheIronSavior Only once, but I paid extra for that.
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@GreenCanvasInteriorscape omg... I reeked so bad of prehensile porcupine, lemur and marmoset that I was asked.. politely... not to go to the grocery store on the way home from work anymore. I feel his pain. You cannot imagine the funk... but I hardly smelled it after a few weeks🤷‍♂
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@silviuvisan505 Pretty much... but with a stream of people lolling through, yelling at each other and the animals, throwing trash in the pens, and screaming to see a manager because the goose won't come out of its hide. Probably because he saw her coming. God, she was a... well, I'm rambling now.
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@Pershath08 This guy right here.
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those posted out of order... spent too long typing?
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@ageishyena3035 Well... there was a pair of blood soaked, torn up jeans hung up on the wall just as you stepped into the lab area, with a sign that read 'this is what happens when you don't pay attention'... courtesy of the previous Head Keeper who got tossed around the Reindeer enclosure, before actually being tossed over the fence, by the resident male during rut. (he survived just fine, but he didn't have much fun for months after that). Sometimes that was enough to make new folk rethink their career choice. Honestly there are quite a few, but NDA's are common in zoos, and tend to be pretty ironclad.
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@Jauphrey Being able to recognize and accept that it 'isn't' for you' is a feat in and of itself. Being that honest with yourself before someone (human or otherwise) gets hurt, - or worse - is as difficult a thing as anything I've described in this thread. You have my respect for that, man.
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@denisia1111 Absolutely! Or Absolutly?
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@MillieGriffin they really are... until they aren't.
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@jdcONhizPC Quite a bit, if you can be bothered to read it all.. hah. First and foremost, forget happy skritchy playtime. Mostly, expect lots of hard, manual labor. ! worked 18 hour days in the peak season, and what little animal interactions I had time for were marred by low energy. I thought about quitting every single day. And that was while I was Head Keeper. Before that was worse. The moments you do get will be worth it. If they aren't.. you're not cut out for it. S'ok.. most folk aren't. Volunteer first. A few months of weekends should give you a general feel of the 'workaday life'.. see if the social dynamic works.... Fun Fact: if someone at work that the lion likes, doesn't like you... the lion doesn't like you! Animals pick up on EVERYTHING, and they know who's the boss of who... and they'll treat you accordingly, especially if you're new. (cont...)
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@eldritchcupcakes3195 I think the worst bite I ever got was from a deer... sliced me open like I had a zipper installed... but mustelids are not fun to get nipped by. They have a huge bite force, and tend to somehow manage to keep an iron grip while actively chewing. Sometimes ya gotta sit there and just wait for it to decide it made its point an let go. So, yeah, not fun.
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@eldritchcupcakes3195 Well if you keep your face in their memories.. your name is much more likely to come up when they are looking for staff. Be a weasel, and hang on!
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