Have you ever wanted to become a zoo keeper?
If so work experience at Melbourne Zoo, Werribee Open Range Zoo or Healesville Sanctuary would be fantastic! You are able to go to off limit areas, get to interact with the animals, get experience in whatever field you want to be associated with inside a zoo… and the staff are pretty good as well!
Josh, Work Experience student
At Werribee Open Range Zoo where I completed my Work Experience, I have had the opportunity to take tours in the safari buses and get to learn about some of the animals in the tour. I can highly recommend an OVA or Open Vehicle Adventure as this is similar to the safari bus but there are no windows blocking your view.
I was really looking forward to the animal husbandry round very much because I want to become a zoo keeper and hopefully work with some of my favourite animals such as Rhinoceros, Tigers or Gorillas.
In the end applying to work at the zoo is one of the best things I’ve done with a few simple steps like: getting my school to sign off my application and send it in. Then I had to get a response from the zoo saying yes or no to my application and whether I would fit into the program. I then had to reply to accept what I was given, and now here I am doing my work experience!
This process took me almost 12 months in organization and preparation. I enhanced my application by participating in another program at Werribee Zoo called “Keeper for a Day” which was a path way for me to apply to do work experience.
By Josh (Beaconhills College).
