LOOKING FOR AN EXCITING CAREER IN AN ANIMAL ENVIRONMENT?
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Learn about the different zoo careers and the qualifications that you need.
The Margay is highly aboreal and is distributed from
Mexico, through Central America and South America east of the Andes to
Argentina. They eat rodents, birds, reptiles and insects. They give birth to
one young in captivity after a gestation period of 81 days. The young starts
eating solid foods at the age of 2 months and are adult size at age 8-10
months.
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New Quizz:
What kind of adaptations does a Margay have for aboreal hunting?
Quote: "Eyes which have met, have established a relationship" - Shona proverb
Zookeeper at Johannesburg Zoo
Qualifications needed: Bsc degree in Zoology or a diploma in
Nature Conservation. Higher qualifications such as a honours degree
is recommended as you need to participate in research projects and
you need to write articles for various bulletins and magazines.
Type of person: a person who is dedicated to working with
animals, who does not mind getting dirty and who can handle animals
whether they are healthy or ill. It is important to understand that
you will always be in contact with the Zoo public so you do need to
be a people person as well.
Type of work: very exciting and challenging. You need to
learn about animals in your care and that they have different
nutrition and habitat needs. You need to interpret behaviour of
animals – how it changes when animals are going to fight, breed or
when they are ill. It is important to understand how groups of
animals live together and how different species can be mixed if they
are compatible. A sound knowledge of conservation laws is required
as well as Zoo ethics and a general 6th sense when it comes to
animals. It is often necessary to rely on your intuition when
observing animals because if you know them well, you will be able to
tell if they are ok or not. You do work very closely with the
veterinary department and often have monthly tasks to complete such
as faecal samples to check for worms.
Behaviour and environment enrichment are both important for the
welfare of your animals. The danger aspect – flight or fight – has
been removed, as well as the need to search for food – this can lead
to boredom in some animal species. Boredom can lead to destructive
behaviour and to alleviate this, you need to enrich the animals
behaviour by extending its feeding time (it has to look for its food
instead of finding it one area), giving it toys to play with (lion
cubs love ripping cardboard boxes) and changing its environment on a
regular basis.
Animal observations are a necessity and when written up in an
article format, it serves to educate other staff from the same or
different institutions. It also serves as promoting your own zoo in
the international zoo arena.
Record keeping plays a big role as you need to keep an individual
record of each animal and now its parental lineage as well as its
reproductive record. This is very important when you deal with
endangered wildlife, as these records are international. Breeding
programmes are decided in conjunction with studbook keepers that may
be in a totally different country.
In a Zoo you come in contact with many different people and you need
to educate them about the animals, the role of a modern zoo and the
mission and vision of your own zoo. |
Education Centre Contact Details:
Contact Louise on 011 646-2000 ext 254
or education@jhbzoo.org.za
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