Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

Safari Park's African elephant herd. Courtesy of the SDZG.

When I last updated all of you about my life at the Safari Park, I was being trained to conduct behind-the-scenes tours and I was on loan to the horticulture department. I am still working with the horticulture department a few days a week, weeding, planting, mulching, and pruning. I'm learning a lot and working muscles I didn't even know I had.

I am officially checked off to guide behind-the-scenes tiger, lion, and cheetah tours. Additionally, I am approved to guide cart safaris: one hour tours around Asia or Africa. The guests get a good overview of the field exhibits at the Park and get an opportunity to feed an ungulate species, like Przewalski's horses or Somali wild asses. Guiding these two types of tours in addition to caravan safaris keeps my job interesting and keeps me on my toes. So far the tours have been lots of fun--I learn from the guests and keepers on every tour!

Best of all, I was just selected to participate in San Diego Zoo Global's Roar Corps program. This two-year program assists current employees from the Park or Zoo who are interested in becoming keepers eventually. From the pool of the nearly 2,000 SDZG employees, I am one of Park's eight Roar Corps members for 2015; seven members were selected at the Zoo. I am so lucky to have been chosen, and so thankful that I was. Through this program, I will have the opportunity to work with keepers and behaviorists on loans. The loans might be one day per week or six months at a time in the large mammal field exhibits, with the bird department, or with the elephant department (yay!). I could also work in the nutrition department preparing diets or with the behaviorists training and presenting educational animals to the public. This will be an amazing opportunity to take my Binghamton Zoo experience and apply it in an incredibly large zoo setting. I'm excited to work directly with animals again. I'm also really excited not to be working with animals under mountains of snow--being a keeper in San Diego will be a lovely change! Ideally, this opportunity will be like one prolonged job interview. If I mesh well with the keepers and they like my work ethic and ideas, I will be one of the first people in line for future job opportunities.

I'm so excited/relieved/grateful about all of these new changes at the Safari Park!