Happy National Zookeeper Week to all the excellent animal care professionals worldwide! While you can have great habitats and great animals, you cannot have a great zoo without a fantastic staff. Often I feel people do not fully understand all the incredible things keepers do. They are animal experts who value the wellbeing of their animals over anything and spend countless hours sprucing up their environments, doing behavioral training, providing enrichments, finding ways to challenge the intellect of their animals, observing their antics, providing top notch husbandry care, encouraging natural behaviors and making sure their animals are as mentally and physically stimulated as possible. Keepers are help educate the public about why animals are special, their plight in the wild and the need to be proactive in conservation and change our behaviors to be more harmonious with our natural world. These animal care professionals are really as much as the heart and soul of zoos as animals. Happy National Zookeeper Week!
@ San Diego Zoo Global
