With so many budding conservationists out there, unfortunately we don’t always get time to answer all queries individually. So, we’ve put together some frequently asked questions and useful web links we hope might help.
General – Science and Biology/Geography
www.kids.nationalgeographic.com.au
(an excellent site for general information on animals for younger students)
www.enchantedlearning.com
www.envirolink.org
Zoos and zoo animals
Adelaide Zoo Animals
Monarto Safari Park Animals
www.goodzoos.com
www.sanctuaryasia.com
Wildlife protection actions
www.kidsplanet.org
www.planetark.org
Threats and causes of endangerment
Zoo Keeping
Tips for filming great movies
Department for Education and Child Development, South Australian Government
www.education.sa.gov.au
Threatened species research
www.iucnredlist.org
IUCN Love not Loss
Communicating a serious yet positive conservation message
www.iucn.org
Check out the FAQS below for further details.
Visit the animal pages at Adelaide or Monarto on our Adelaide Zoo and Monarto Safari Park websites.
If you can’t find what you need here, you might try the Atlas of Living Australia at www.ala.org.au/ or the IUCN website at www.icun.org.
Unfortunately our keepers are very busy caring for our and won’t have enough time to respond to individual enquiries about our animals. Good luck researching!
Want to learn more about how to land your dream job as a zoo keeper? Being such an amazing job it’s not always that easy, but visit our Become a Zoo Keeper page for some helpful tips.
Keepers have a very physical and time consuming job, but also the opportunity to get up close and form relationships with their animals which is a real privilege!
All our Keepers here at Zoos SA work from 8:00am til 5:00pm on a seven day roster, which generally means they have to work 2 of every 4 weekends (to make sure the animals are looked after every day) and get up to three or four days off at a time to make up for it.
A day in the life of a Keeper generally begins with feeding the animals. Keepers sometimes help prepare the food, but depending on the animal this may also be done by the assets team (for example, making bamboo cake for the Giant Pandas). Keepers often hide food in different places around the enclosure before the animals are let out from their night quarters, so they have to hunt for their food like they would in the wild. This is called behavioural enrichment and keeps the animals mentally stimulated.
Most of our animals go through a few hours of behaviour training with their Keepers every day. This involves things like training them to present their forearms for needles (so they know what to do when they have blood taken for their health checks), as well as more in-depth and ongoing training like how to behave and respond to certain actions from their Keepers. This builds trust between the Keepers and their animals.
Other tasks that keepers are required to carry out during each day include cleaning the enclosure and night quarters, record keeping (on things like the animal’s weight and feeding patterns to keep track of their health, as well as any unusual behaviours), and delivering talks and presentations to the public about their animals. Keepers also spend significant time on research and training for their animals.
There are many reasons why animals become endangered or face the risk of extinction. Some of the major factors are listed here very briefly. If you would like to do further research these should provide a good starting point!
Some of the major areas where habitat clearance is an issue are summarised here:
You can learn more about our conservation work by visit the conservation section of our website.
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