Twelve things I’ve learned in 12 years

1. Every animal is an individual. Both sun bears may love banana, but one of them is going to need her banana peeled, please and thank you. The other one won’t eat the peel either, but he’s happy to remove the peel himself. Somehow orange peels are not only okay, but will be played with and used as tiny hats by the banana peel-rejecting bear. This will never make sense to you.
2. Your colleagues are your best resource. Conferences and workshops with other animal care professionals are wonderful places for learning and growth, and so are brainstorm sessions with your teammates. Everyone around you has a valuable perspective and brings with them past experiences that could unlock the solution to whatever you’re working on. Just ask and get ready to practice some active listening.
3. You will love every animal you meet. I grew up infatuated with big cats and didn’t pay much attention to anything else. When I applied to work at Zoo Atlanta, I had to google one of the species I would be working with, the tanuki. If you also haven’t heard of them, I highly recommend searching the Zoo Atlanta social media archives for #TanukiThursday. A species I had never heard of quickly became one of my favorites! Unfortunately, our tanuki grew old and are no longer with us, but I am thankful for the eight years I got to spend appreciating this wildly underhyped species.
4. You get what you reinforce. This is a common refrain in our animal training courses. Whatever behavior you reward, either intentionally or accidentally, is going to be the one you are presented with over and over, so be careful what you reinforce. This applies to both animals and people.
5. Talking with guests about animals is one of the best parts of the job. Seeing someone blown away by new knowledge or making a deeper connection with one of Zoo Atlanta’s animals and learning conservation actions they can take at home is so rewarding and well worth balancing the seven binturong food bowls you happened to be carrying when you stopped to chat.
6. Naked mole rats contain multitudes. They are both so soft and so smelly. Okay, so there’s literally a video on Zoo Atlanta’s YouTube page of me saying that you can’t touch the naked mole rats and explaining why, but the animal care team does have to touch them occasionally as part of their care, and their skin is as soft as a baby’s. When we handle them, we take precautions to make sure we aren’t changing the way they smell, which is important for them maintaining their place in the colony. And that brings us to the other half of what I learned. Naked mole rats are latrine users, which means they all go to the bathroom in the same place, and we clean those locations regularly. However, freshly used naked mole rat latrines are the worst smell I’ve encountered at the Zoo. Nothing has beaten it, though the sun bear feces give it the ol’ college try in the summer. If something ever does top that smell, it may be time for me to retire.
7. Don’t get set in your ways; try the new idea. Even if you don’t think it will work or don’t think it will be better than the way you usually do it, it might be! I wasted so much time over several years using a tiny hose to clean the otter pool instead of dragging out the giant firehose. I was wrong! The firehose is worth the hassle and cleans the pool in less than half the time!
8. There’s fun to be found in every task. Is it time to remove a 12” layer of sand from a giraffe stall so we can replace it with a fresh 12 inches of sand? Awesome. Grab the CD player we typically use to play bird songs and whale sounds for the animals as enrichment and let’s make it a party!
9. You will have favorite tools, and you will know your teammates’ favorites, too. The one wheelbarrow that fits through the doorway perfectly. The push broom that is really light and has a comfortable, padded handle. The shovel that has holes drilled into it to sift out the dirt, and is totally different from all the other shovels with holes drilled in them to sift out the dirt because it’s the BEST one.
10. You must be ready with directions to the train from anywhere in the Zoo. From the petting zoo? So easy. Standing at Twiga Terrace checking out the zebras? No problem! …Oh, we’re currently in the naked mole rat building? Let me tell you about the miracle that is zooatlanta.org/map, where your dot is shown on the Zoo map as you navigate!
11. Observing animals thinking is amazing. Training a new behavior and seeing the moment the animal understands what you’re asking for is so special. Building a bond with animals and knowing you’re both working to communicate as best you can to achieve a goal (for you, the trained behavior; for them, figuring out what you’re looking for so they can get that grape) is a neat experience, and luckily, one everyone can have if they have a pet at home!
12. You can set a goal, work toward it, and achieve it. I was 9 years old and standing in front of the Zoo Atlanta tiger habitat when I started dreaming of becoming a keeper. I’m so grateful for the 12 years I have spent here so far and looking forward to many more years living this dream job!

Michelle E.
Senior Keeper, Mammals