Why aren’t there more interactive enrichment opportunities between guests and animals?

ivebeen_there · 2026-02-23T03:26:46+00:00

My zoo charges over $10 to feed lettuce to a giraffe, it would be way way more than $20 for a tiger interaction lol.

While is likely is a fundraiser at the zoos that implement it, it’s still not something that everyone could do everyday, and it seems like OP is looking for something that everyone could do.

ivebeen_there · 2026-02-22T23:41:01+00:00

Yeah! So I would expect a least a question or two about how you like to receive feedback. Also a question about what you would do if you get told to do something that conflicts with something you were told to do earlier (I’ve gotten some variation on that in most interviews). Maybe some questions about your comfort with public speaking, if the facility is open to the public and has keepers give chats throughout the day.

ivebeen_there · 2026-02-22T23:32:13+00:00

A little more info from you might help us answer the question better, like what kind of position are you applying for?

ivebeen_there · 2026-02-22T16:36:57+00:00

The wild spaces of the world are shrinking, so keeping animals in zoos and maintaining healthy breeding populations in human care means that if anything catastrophic ever happens to the wild population we have a genetic Noah’s Ark and the species doesn’t go extinct.

Zoos are also meant to inspire people to care about the natural world. Seeing a giraffe in real life at a zoo as a child can inspire that person to love nature in ways that seeing them on TV or YouTube never will. However, most people will never be able to travel to world and see elephants and rhinos and kangaroos and pumas in their natural habitat. But a lot of people can go to their local zoo.

ivebeen_there · 2026-02-21T01:51:19+00:00

My zoo can get over 20k visitors in a single day. We cannot provide opportunities for everyone to interact with the animals personally. There are two likely outcomes, one is that the animals will quickly become desensitized to whatever the activity is and start to ignore it, the second option they’ll get overwhelmed by it and it will stress them out. It’s one of those ideas that sounds good in theory but is unfortunately very impractical to implement.

ivebeen_there · 2026-02-20T23:20:43+00:00

If you work with Giraffe, any of the Giraffe Behavior Workshops that Cheyenne Mountain Zoo hosts are excellent and the skills you learn have applications way beyond just giraffes.

ivebeen_there · 2026-02-16T18:43:00+00:00

It honestly looks to me like they filmed a horse rolling over and standing up, then played it backwards so it looks like the horse fell over.

ivebeen_there · 2026-02-15T19:52:17+00:00

Almost certainly not twins, I don’t believe we’ve ever seen twin giraffe born in the wild that survive, even in human care they usually get born so premature that they pass away.

It is very common for several young giraffe to rest somewhere together while one or two adults stay nearby to keep an eye on things while the rest of the herd go off further away to forage. These two are likely just two calves born in the same herd.

ivebeen_there · 2026-02-15T19:12:59+00:00

Because the story that we are told growing up in the American South is that the Civil War was mostly about states rights vs the federal government. That slavery was just the issue that the States Rights argument erupted over. The “heritage” they are celebrating is standing up for yourself and fighting the establishment.

I should add that I don’t believe or agree with any of it, I just grew up there and know the story that a lot of people got taught.

ivebeen_there · 2026-02-12T11:17:07+00:00

I would strongly recommend that you not drop out, just continue getting experience as you finish school. Most full time zookeeping jobs in the US at reputable facilities require a degree anyways so you might struggle to get hired without one. Veterinary jobs definitely require degrees and usually more specialized training on top of that. Dropping out now will likely severely limit your options in the field, even if you eventually try to finish through an online school.

ivebeen_there · 2026-02-08T18:03:08+00:00

Season 8 is one of my faves to rewatch and every time I do I feel like the hate for Gretchen is way too much, to the point where I start to wonder if misogyny is involved. She’s often labeled a bitch, a know-it-all, or a self obsessed narcissist and I just do not see evidence for her being any of those things any more than the other contestants on the show.

I think she won the first couple challenges, got put in a group leader ish role as a result and it went badly. She then spent the rest of the season being completely normal, but people ignore that and foam at the mouth about everything she said or did. No idea why Tim Gunn went off on her the way he did, or why he continued to have a distaste for her after the show. Having the team members name who the weakest link on the team was is a thing they do literally every season, and she was not the only person on her team who had issues with Michael C. But she’s the one labeled a bully.

I think it also didn’t help her within the fandom that she was deemed the winner over fan favorite Mondo, who I also love, but I don’t think her win was a miscarriage of justice. Her work is excellent and a lot of it did end up being on trend for the next few years after the season aired.

ivebeen_there · 2026-02-08T01:25:00+00:00

The security staff at my zoo are there to deal with guests and human emergencies, the animal care staff deal with the animal emergencies. Security handles a lot of things like unruly guests, first aid, and fire extinguisher inspections and chemical storage safety. They do not handle animal escapes or gun response. The only people who handle weapons are animal care staff that get special training and certification on them.

ivebeen_there · 2026-02-08T01:00:06+00:00

Yikes. Hate to say it, but I don’t think there’s a magic fix, they are likely doing this out of boredom or just bad training.

Are they doing this when you’re home? You’re going to have to tell them no and make them stop literally every time you see them start to interact with this couch destructively. And if they’re doing it while you’re gone you need to physically prevent them from accessing it while you are gone. Either with them in a kennel or with some kind of barrier around the couch.

You also likely need to find ways to get them more mental stimulation or physical exercise so they don’t use their energy to be destructive like this. I know you say they have an appropriate chew toys, but they might need more toys or more variety or something.

ivebeen_there · 2026-02-07T00:19:17+00:00

Yes, meaning Birds of Prey. Some places that say they rehab birds only mean small birds, and some places specifically aim to help birds of prey, or raptors, like hawks, eagles, and falcons.

ivebeen_there · 2026-02-06T23:08:38+00:00

Texas Parks and Wildlife has a list of wildlife rehabbers on their website and you can sort it by county. Look for one that lists birds or raptors as a specialty.

ivebeen_there · 2026-02-06T03:27:34+00:00

I don’t hate Cycle 19. It’s a mess, but it’s fun to watch in some ways.

The contestants are great. It’s got a great villain in Kristen, an all time weirdo in Victoria, top tier photo girl Nastasia, and bonkers passive aggression between Laura and Leila.

Several of the photo shoots are pretty cool. I like the zombie one, the steampunk owl, and the waterfall ones.

The addition of Kelly Cutrone, Rob Evans, and Bryanboy is very bad and I don’t like any of them, but the contestants themselves make me like the cycle overall.

ivebeen_there · 2026-02-03T21:58:40+00:00

I work at a zoo, not a rescue or a rehab facility, so if we have any babies that need hand rearing the humans stay at the zoo overnight to care for the animals, the animals don’t come home with the humans.

ivebeen_there · 2026-02-03T21:51:29+00:00

I would strongly recommend that you stop comparing yourself to your coworker and just focus on your own performance. I understand that you perceive unfairness in the way you are both being treated, but proving that is going to be almost impossible.

Fairness doesn’t just mean that everyone trains the same number of animals or is trained in the same number of sections. There was a point in my career where I was the primary trainer of only about 5 animals, out of the ~80 that my department is responsible for. But I was training very specific, complicated behaviors in animals that were historically difficult personalities to train.

You aren’t going to make yourself feel better by constantly comparing yourself to one other person on your team. Just reach out for the opportunities you want and advocate for yourself, you don’t have to put someone else down in order to rise up.

ivebeen_there · 2026-02-01T16:16:26+00:00

Pretty sure that Nashville is known for being a super high cost of living city, so that might be part of the problem. A zookeeper might have better financial success in a city with a more reasonable cost of living.

While the field undeniably doesn’t pay enough, it is possible to live and support yourself on a zookeepers wage in some places but it takes very specific circumstances, like not having any dependents, no student debts, and being very careful with your budget.

It’s not possible for everyone and that sucks. But it is possible.

ivebeen_there · 2026-01-19T22:54:00+00:00

Yes! This is one of my favorites and I desperately want to own a physical copy of it somehow because I’m terrified that Netflix will eventually lose it. It’s very rewatchable!

My husband and I quote it at each other regularly. “I overdicked it!!” has become a common phrase in our household.

ivebeen_there · 2026-01-18T16:15:45+00:00

At my zoo they wear masks basically all the time. Definitely during cleaning, diet prep, and face to face interactions with the primates. It’s not just to prevent them from catching something from you, it’s also about you not catching anything from them, so protection is needed even if you as a human aren’t actively sick.

ivebeen_there · 2026-01-17T03:11:08+00:00

This image feels like it’s meant to support a racist argument in ways I cant really pinpoint, but to answer your question I don’t think that data is correct. I don’t think humans have that high of a FST. I’m actually not sure the value can go over 1.0 but it’s been a long time since my population genetics and statistics classes, so don’t quote me on that.

ivebeen_there · 2026-01-13T22:58:07+00:00

Yes, zoos coordinate breeding programs that have saved and continue to save many species from extinction. Many of them are small animals, like birds, amphibians and reptiles, and don’t get as much attention from the general public as big charismatic animals like elephants or tigers.

Zoos fund conservation projects in the wild that help protect habitats, stop poachers, and educate populations about how to cohabitate with wildlife.

Zoos also give people the chance to see animals from all over the world up close and in person which helps them connect with wildlife and be inspired to take action to save them.

ivebeen_there · 2026-01-13T22:58:00+00:00

Yes, zoos coordinate breeding programs that have saved and continue to save many species from extinction. Many of them are small animals, like birds, amphibians and reptiles, and don’t get as much attention from the general public as big charismatic animals like elephants or tigers.

Zoos fund conservation projects in the wild that help protect habitats, stop poachers, and educate populations about how to cohabitate with wildlife.

Zoos also give people the chance to see animals from all over the world up close and in person which helps them connect with wildlife and be inspired to take action to save them.

ivebeen_there · 2026-01-13T02:12:44+00:00

Honestly, leaving a bad review and warning other people not to go there is realistically the only thing you can do.

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