Zookeeper for a Day

PW's Associate Editor Rachel Williford monkeys around at the Wildlife World Zoo

Photo by Mike Mertes

I have always had a soft spot for animals – as evidenced by the menagerie that is my personal residence. So when Mickey Ollson, the Wildlife World Zoo’s owner and director, said yes to my request to play zookeeper for a day, it was impossible to contain my excitement. I expected to be doing some feeding, cleaning and – of course – some petting, but my one-on-one experience with the animals at the Wildlife World Zoo surpassed all of my expectations, leaving me with an itch to become an on-call volunteer.

Our first stop in the animal kingdom turned out to be the messiest of the day – the flamingos. I was told to toss two soiled buckets of flamingo chow through a fence and fill them up with new, cleaner food. I picked up one bucket, tossed the murky slime through the fence, and laughed when I realized that I was now wearing more of the food than I had managed to throw out… and that was only bucket number one. I perked up, however, when I was told that feeding the flamingos is every staff member’s least favorite zoo duty, and I actually had done pretty well.

Covered in bird guck from my knees down, I can honestly say I felt like a real zookeeper. I wasn’t frightened, I wasn’t lazy; I was enjoying every minute of my now only 15-minute zoo experience. And when I was told that the next stop would include feeding the primates, I literally squealed with pent-up third-grade excitement. The zoo staffer, Amy, just smirked – it turned out there was something I had yet to learn: monkeys are mean.

I was given a bucket filled with “monkey biscuits” to hand-feed the primates, and as I neared the pens, I understood Amy’s smirk much better. As soon as the monkeys saw that a new person was handing out food, they all swarmed the feeding area and began grabbing and pulling at everything within reach, which included my clothes, my hands and my hair. When I offered one monkey a biscuit as a peace gesture, he smacked the food out of my hand and began pulling my arm towards the cage with startling strength. However, once the monkeys got over tormenting the “new girl,” they became sweeter and started the taking the food gently from my fingers. Once again, I felt like a natural at this job – despite a group of momentarily bratty monkeys cutting me down to size.

After a meat-tossing tour through the carnivore exhibits and a quick trip to the petting zoo, where my zoo-staff shirt was made into lunch for 3-month-old goats, I was off to meet the educational animals who perform their feats for visitors, schools and even national television shows. My most rewarding experience here was meeting “Sunshine,” a scarlet macaw who sat on a perch and did the “Hokey Pokey” with me. She put her right claw in, took her right claw out, put her right claw in and even shook it all about, topping off the performance with an elegant turn.

Fulfilling my dream of zookeeping, if only for six hours, opened my eyes to the daily responsibility of animal care, which is pretty consuming when you realize that every one of the zoo’s animals, from the smallest birds to “Bam Bam” the gigantic rhino, needs top-notch attention. I should mention that I’ve also had a lifelong desire to own a pet monkey – I can now say with certainty that that desire has been laid to rest. I’ll still enjoy visiting them, though.

Wildlife World Zoo
16501 W. Northern Avenue, Litchfield Park
623.935.WILD (9453), www.wildlifeworld.com

Rachel is an editor and animal enthusiast who doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty. When she’s not writing or cleaning up after her critters, you will most likely find her walking her big yellow lab with her soon-to-be husband Jeff.