@ Auckland Zoo 

Jonathan Wilcken started his career at the London Zoo. “It was an instinctive choice,” he recalled. “I was living in London and frankly had come to the end of a series of jobs I was just doing to earn money to travel around Europe. I thought I needed something more meaningful.” Wilcken had a sense he could find that through working with animals, which led him to the zoo. “It was not a particularly thought out de...

            The Frankfurt Zoological Society has been a leader in zoological conservation since the work of the legendary Berhnard Grzimek in the Serengeti ecosystem. However, by 2008, it was decided the zoo of its name needed to better reflect this mission and become more modern. Dr. Manfred Niekisch was brought in as Director of the Frankfurt Zoo to modernize the zoo and has done an exceptional job at it. Here is his story....

 @ Zoos SA

            Elaine Bernsted became Chief Executive of Zoos South Australia (which manages the Adelaide Zoo and Monarto Zoo) in 2012 after being Chief Executive of TAFE. “The zoos had expert staff in animal management but they were in financial trouble,” she recalled. “The board was looking for someone who had been schooled in budget, finance, marketing and promotion. They thought my expertise could be applie...

 @ Miller Park Zoo

            Tetzloff began his zoo career as a volunteer helping the cat and bear keeper team at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo. “I was hired as a summer help keeper two days after high school and went on to be a night keeper when I went to college full-time,” he noted. Later, Tetzloff would become the third keeper assigned to the Lied Jungle, the largest indoor rainforest in the entire nation. He worked with a wid...

 @ Jeff Andrews

            Jeff Andrews, Senior Leader of Zoological Operations at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay began his career at SeaWorld San Diego in 1985. He first started as a tour guide before transitioning to the aquarium as an animal educator. Shortly after that, he became a marine mammal trainer.  While Andrews worked with many different animal species, he primarily worked with Killer Whales. Andrews describes the whales...

            The Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma is unique in the zoo and aquarium world as it concentrates almost exclusively on animals from the Pacific Rim. Its sister facility, Northwest Trek, is even more unique as it only features wildlife from the Pacific Northwest. Its centerpiece is a 450-acre free roaming exhibit for North American hoofstock. Both facilities are on the cutting edge of environmental education...

            Emily Routman first became introduced to zoos when visiting the Cincinnati Zoo as a child. “I grew up in Cincinnati and, for me, one of my real passions was drawing animals,” she remembered. “That was my thing. I would take summer animal drawing classes at the zoo. When I was about 15, a friend mentioned that the zoo used illustrations done by volunteers in their publications and they might have a use for some of m...

            With a background as a zoo conservation educator, Rachel Lowry has used her drive to connect people with wildlife and change their behavior to create impactful conservation campaigns at Zoos Victoria. Her award-winning programs and campaigns have helped fight environmental issues both locally and globally. Some of the behaviors these campaigns have promoted include recycling mobile phones, using sustainable palm oi...

            Over the course of his long career, Bill Braker transformed the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago from a small aquarium into the largest in the nation at the time of his retirement. He was also one of the original incorporators of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (then the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums) when it became independent from the National Recreation and Parks Association in 1971. Brak...

            Mike Sulak began his career in zoos working in the Farm-In-The-Zoo at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. He soon fell in love with the profession and would go on to be a zoologist at the Mesker Park Zoo in Evansville, Indiana, where he would serve as interim director for a time. In 1979, Sulak was recruited by director Saul Kitchener to be a curator at the San Francisco Zoo and would spend most of his career there. Here...