A Day In The Life of a Shepreth Wildlife Park Keeper
8:00am
Jump out of bed and put on ten layers of clothes to keep me warm!
8:45am
Ready for the day ahead. I always start my day in the Food Preparation Room reading through my section diary. This is my chance to catch up with fellow Zoo Keepers and listen to the interesting stories they have to tell about the animals on their sections. There's always a good bit of zoo news to listen to in here!
9:00am
I'm the first allocated slot in the prep room today so whilst consulting the animal diet ‘bible' with one hand, I am busily chopping with the other.
9:30am
Time to open all the doors to the public areas. Animals are already grazing in the morning sunlight, reptiles are basking under their heat lamps and the bats are surfacing as their lights switch off, leaving them in virtual darkness!
10:00am
Scrub all the water bowls, not my favourite part of the day, especially when it's icy.
10:30am
Mucking out…and there's a lot of it! With several mara and capybara in my paddock I know I'm going to be here for a while, but I feel really pleased when I've finished, knowing the animals have got fresh clean beds to go back to this evening.
11:00am
I enter the creepy, crawly world of Waterworld & Bug City, complete with slippery snakes, slimy snails, tickling cockroaches and sneaky spiders. No matter how large or small our creatures at Shepreth Wildlife Park are, we still give them loving care and attention. So I spend an hour hand feeding each and every individual arachnid, reptile and crustacean.
12:00pm
Enrichment fun-time! I love this part of my job, I get to have fun with my animals. Whether it's hiding their food, changing their enclosure around or simply just giving them some species-specific attention, the animals (and I) get to enjoy this part of our day!
1:00pm
Time for some visitor interaction. This is why I joined Shepreth Wildlife Park, I wanted to use my knowledge in the best possible way I knew how – EDUCATION. We run events every hour throughout the day educating and amusing visitors with fun tales and information about our animals and species conservation in the wild. We support seven different conservation charities with funds going to help save species, which are endangered in the wild.
1:30pm
Birds of Prey display. Now this is my favourite part of the day. After spending months training and getting to know my owls, I can now use them in public displays where I captivate the audience with their swooping flights while delivering my important conservation message.
2:00pm
LUNCH … I could eat a horse (just kidding, I'll be eating lettuce and carrots), but I know who will be eating a meaty dinner. My colleagues will be feeding Amba & Rana at this time, our two magnificent tigers, and what a feed they'll be having… 10kgs each!
3:00pm
I've been asked to lead a guided tour with a group of visitors who want to get even closer to the animals. This should be fun, I can amaze my guests with weird and wonderful animal facts while letting them handle some of the exotic creatures. Better make sure the humans have washed their hands, I wouldn't want the animals to catch anything!
4:00pm
Time to quieten those squeaking otters with some tasty shellfish. Everybody loves these two furry mustelids, especially when they try and nip my ankles! So today I'm going to use my clicker-training technique so I can monitor their weight on the scales, whilst keeping their razor sharp teeth away from my flesh!
5:00pm
Shut down. Time for animals to go to bed, heat lamps on, straw beds plumped up and fresh dinner and water for all.
6:30pm
Home time. Now I'm ready for bed too!
