HomeRole of a zookeeper
Looking after our animals is our number one priority.
This is the job of our managers, veterinary surgeons, curators and zookeepers.
We have around 20 zookeepers who are responsible for the everyday care of our animals and meeting our visitors.
Their job involves:
Maintenance
Our award-winning enclosures are green and very natural.
They are cleaned every day so our keepers have to have some gardening skills and be fond of working outdoors in all kinds of weather!
Their daily tasks include:
- lifting manure
- hosing down enclosures
- changing bedding
- washing windows
- scrubbing feeding bowls and troughs
- cleaning visitor areas.
Feeding the animals
Like humans, animals need a well-balanced diet to keep them fit and healthy.
All our diets are designed to copy, as far as possible, an animal's natural food habitats. The amount of food they eat and its nutritional value is also carefully monitored.
The keepers also give the animals tasks to keep them active, for example, scattering food and allowing them to forage naturally for it.
They also hide food, hang it from trees or freeze produce in ice blocks to make the animals work for their food, just as they would in the wild.
This is an example of what zoo experts call 'environmental enrichment'.
For more active and intelligent animals, such as chimpanzees, we provide lots of stimuli, such as an artificial termite mound, which allows them to use tools like straws to find food.
Surrogacy
From time to time, our zookeepers become surrogate parents to our animals, particularly if they have been abandoned by their mothers.
Our keepers have hand-reared many young primates, antelopes, giraffes and cats.
The last animal to be hand-reared at the zoo was Barbary lion cub, Lily, who was looked after by keeper Linda Frew after she was rejected at birth by her mother, Fidda.
Watch videos of Lily the lion with zookeeper Linda
Our keepers are supported by the zoo's vets while they look after the animals.
Records management
Keeping records of our animals' progress is a key part of what our keepers do.
These records are important because they make sure data about animal numbers is kept up to date and is available to share with other zoos and keepers.
