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| Volunteering at Zoo Atlanta |
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| All my life I have been interested in animals and zoos. Regretfully, the course of my life led me away from the world of zoo work, so it was exciting to become a volunteer at Zoo Atlanta when we moved to Georgia. At Zoo Atlanta, volunteers are not involved in the daily care of animals and, in fact, are not allowed to touch exhibit animals or go into their enclosures except on rare occasions. But there are lots of other fun things to do. Besides being a general volunteer, I have been trained as an interpreter/docent, a tour guide and an animal handler. I am also on the Enrichment Team. |
| General volunteers help with special events such as "Boo at the Zoo," Beastly Feast, and Members's Night. We also aid with private and corporate functions at the zoo and assist with a number of administrative jobs from data entry to answering phones. Occasionally we may lend a hand on a habitat project such as redoing the rhino mud holes or errecting a new storage shed. There is a group called the Horticulture Team that meets once a month to help with "gardening projects" around the zoo. It's fun but I don't have time for everything. Our golden lion tamarins are free-ranged for part of the year and last year I helped watch over them while also interpreting about them. I am still involved with them once in a while. They wear radio-collars so we can track them in case they manage to get out of the designated free-range area. |
| The Enrichment Team meets for a few hours every other week to make enrichment items. We usually stuff cardboard tubes and boxes with shredded paper and seeds/"forage" for the orangutans, make bamboo "shakers" - sections of thick bamboo with bird seed poured through a small hole - mostly for the gorillas, prepare pop-sicles (during the hot months), and put paper mache on balloons, boxes and whatever works to make novel items/toys, from simple forms and colors to more elaborate patterns and fantasy animals for the birds, felines and rhinos. Once in a while, we weave hammocks from fire hose that go in animal exhibits and enclosures, make elephant balls (also from fire hose), paint backgrounds for exhibits, build climbing structures and hang rope/fire hose, as we did in the Orang yard, for the animals to climb on. We are involved in other special projects as well. Some of us are regularly working on, assisting with and/or developing new enrichment items such as an otter raft or an elephant version of the "BusterCube." A neat thing about being on the Enrichment Team is that the keepers very much appreciate us and many of them not only visit us regularly (a good way to get to know them and hear the latest tidbits about the animals) but also try to "pay us back" by giving us unique, behind-the-scenes experiences such as watching the introduction of a new enrichment item or watching a gorilla baby being fed a bottle or maybe getting a special look at the recently hatched baby snakes. It is also very satisfying to walk around the zoo and be able to say "I helped build that" or "I painted that". Recently, our team and the zoo keepers organized a special Enrichment Day where a lot of the animals were given special enrichment while keepers and docents gave talks about enrichment and how it positively effects captive animals' lives. We came up with several fun activities for the visitors that were enriching to them too! It was a big success and the animals got so tired/stimulated that a tardy visitor commented on how listless they looked. |
| Docents are taught about all of the animals in the zoo and the important issues that the zoo wishes to educate the public about. We talk about a particular species of animal, a group of animals in an exhibit, or a particular animal subject and try to make people aware of these issues. There are biofacts (pieces of actual animals such as a tiger tooth) and other artifacts we can use to illustrate certain aspects of the animals such as how teeth are adapted to food gathering and consumption, how camouflage is linked to the environment, how a snake sheds its skin and so forth. An Interpreter is someone who is only trained in one section of the zoo, whereas Docents are trained to cover the whole zoo. During our training on African animals, we had the special privilege of giving the elephants treats. The end of the elephant's trunk is like nothing I have ever felt before. Wow! |
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| Animal handlers are docents who have been trained to handle certain zoo animals that are kept for the sole pupose of being taken out among the visitors. Different kinds of animal encounters are conducted every day by animal handling staff and volunteers, and special programs and private events often include encounters as well. As a handler, one must be able to work with all the animals in the collection. It is not only about holding the animal, but part of the handler's job is also to keep the animals and the visitors safe during the encounters. We have several snakes of different types, box turtles, tortoises, alligators, an iguana, a skink, a rabbit, chinchillas, rats, prairie dogs and a tamandua. We also have tarantulas and millipedes which stay in clear plastic boxes when shown. The collection is still being extended. In the pictures, I am showing and talking about a chinchilla, and Mike is doing a more informal encounter with a red-tailed boa constrictor. |
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| You can see more pictures on my zoo photo albums: |
| Zoo Atlanta animals. |
| Volunteer projects. |
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| Or check out other zoos I have visited: |
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| The National Zoo. |