Originally posted by Pertinax on Feeding the Animals thread: 'You should be a zoo volunteer if they have them there. It would also give you closer connections with what's going on ....' Paignton does have volunteers and I have thought of enlisting. The visible ones do fund raising - selling badges, raffle tickets etc - but this isn't really 'me'. Also, I wonder whether I'd have to sign a zoo version of the Official Secrets Act that would stop me posting on Zoobeat.
I can imagine it now, a darkened room with you a zoo offical and a desk with the contract and a pen. I don't think many of the major zoos have volunteers that are allowed to work with the animals. Saying that am sure you would pick up a bit of information from doing other stuff. I don't chester has volunteers at all, just seasonally staff which as far as am aware are paid for there work.
Yes I can't see you selling badges somehow, more conducting IQ tests at the entrance, or wrestling visitors who feed the animals to the ground. The latter point is a good one too- you might be 'gagged.'
taronga has three diffrent types of vollies. youth volunteers (of which i am one) who are all aged between 13 and 19 and we help out with public programs and education as well as doing keeper dties with autralian mammals, reptiles and in the kids zoo. ten there are the vollie keepers who work one day a week in a specific divison, they basically folow the keepers around for the day cleaning exhibits chopping food ect. finaly there are the zoo friends vollies who are mostly older people who do tour guiding education and anmal encounters with native reptiles. Taronga has a really good volli program and you get really useful hands on experience as well as geting to know people in the zoo.
At Fort Wayne we have volunteers of all ages. They help in the kitchen, take small animals out for a meet-and-greet opportunity, help with camps and zoo educational programs, take animals to nursing homes and hospitals and schools, present conservation programs, make enrichment items, vacuum and clean windows, conduct tours, sell food for goats, stand watch in the kangaroo yard, help with special events---in short we count heavily on their assistance. We value their contributions quite highly!
Fort Wayne sounds like a good place to be a volunteer. I've just remembered that Paignton has a group of volunteers who arrive at the zoo at the crack of dawn every day to prepare food for the birds.
In a lot of ways you are possibly better off targeting a smaller zoo. I have worked in a number of collections of differing size and always the larger the institution the less opportunities for volunteers. Partly it is a keeper's argument that if you 'need' volunteers to do your work, then really the zoo should employ more staff. Smaller collections however rely on less staff, who are usually glad to have volunteers to help them out. That said if the zoo begins to rely on volunteers, then all pandemonium hits the fan when they don't start turning up. If you are living close to Paignton, then I would consider Shaldon, Buckfastleigh or Dartmoor (I don't know what their volunteer arrangements are, however).
You may be surprised at the number of Aussie zoos that make you sign a confidentiality agreeement before allowing you to volunteer. Heaven only knows how they think that they are going to police such agreements.
On the other hand, some of the smaller zoos [ours included] are not terribly keen on volunteer labour. By their very nature, volunteers require an enormous amount of supervision if a safe workplace is to be maintained. Also, many volunteers are under the impression that their day will be spent cuddling cute little animals - and thus feel exploited at the end of the day when they haven't even been allowed to touch one! Because volunteers are so labour intensive [in terms of supervision] we have a saying here - if we have one keeper, we have a keeper ...... if we have one keeper plus one volunteer, we have half a keeper!
The park where I work (Safaripark Beekse Bergen, Netherlands) also works with volunteers. They are not strictly supervised by us but by the Foundation of Friends from Safaripark. Main activity of them is to raise money for and promote the conservation projects that they support (African wild dogs, Zimbabwe. Tigers, Siberia. Sloth bears, India. Primates, Central Afrika. White/Black Rhino’s, South-Africa). They run a shop in the zoo and all the profits go to the project. In summertime and National Holydays they organise lotteries and big souvenir-markets. We do not want them to handle animals our do much on education because we believe that are serious jobs for professionals. Although there are some people that is having fun on building climbing facilitations for our monkeys, apes, bears etc and they are no professional constructors.
I sympathise completely. Volunteers are great when they can be relied on and feel like part of your staff. But they can be a nuisance when they aren't. It can be a difficult dilemma to balance.
Yes, because there are not many Zoo's that can work without the help of volunteers. The can be "a pain in the ass" sometimes, but they can also be a helping hand. Certainly for projects like raising money. Look at the Friends of Blijdorp, the moneylevel they raise for the Rotterdam Zoo is quite high... But volunteers that work with animals, or that handle education, are mostly more important in smaller Zoo's like Artisklas Haarlem (NL) or de Paay (NL) or Mont Mosan (BE) and many others. Because the groups of volunteers are smaller there, it "works" better
Shaldon is almost completely staffed by volunteers. Just 2 full time members of staff. It must be a nightmare to co-ordinate. You'd probably get more responsibility and direct animal contact if you go there.
But Rotterdam Zoo would stay for ever if all the volunteers would stop. If a zoo was depending on volunteers I think they should shut. They are additional and sometimes of great value of course, but no necessity in my opinion. They can easily be missed to keep the company going.
I've been able to get quite a bit insider information via Toronto Zoo's volunteers. They don't have access to the animals or plant collection, but they do tours, touch tables, speak to the public at different exhibits especially the more popular ones, etc.
We have about 80 Docent volunteers who greet buses during the school trip season, conduct small animal programs, go on outreach programs with the education staff and walk around the zoo with biofacts so they can speak with the public. When we are so full of kids all of the volunteers, staff and supervisors become police and just protect the animals in exhibits as well as our free roaming peacocks. (Not all 80 are on the grounds at one time)! We do have animal keeper volunters who assist the keepers and are allowed to clean in any area that needs help. We also allow a special needs group to come on grounds to rake leaves in the fall. We do not have a junior volunteer program--I am not really ready for that one yet.
At the Los Angeles Zoo we have six types of volunteers: Docents, General Volunteers, Keeper Volunteers, Community Service volunteers, Animal Health Care volunteers, and Eco-corps (Student Volunteers). I'm personally a General Volunteer, but I mainly help in the Enrichment program. Docents are mainly like the teachers at the zoo. Everytime there are some kids visiting from a school they are asked to teach the kids about the animals at the zoo. They do private tours of the zoo to the zoo members. They help in "hot spots" around the zoo, which are at the most popular exhibits at the zoo like the tigers, lions, chimps, gorillas, and orangs. Sometimes they even help in events around the zoo like "Boo at the Zoo" and things like that. They also help with "Animals & You", which is a program that allows people to come close and even touch some animals. General Volunteers help in many things around the zoo like: Special events, Muriel's Ranch (petting zoo), Food Prep, Enrichment, and Research. Eco-corps are like docents, but for students that are in high school. Keeper volunteers are the ones that provide help to the keepers, especially to the Great Ape keepers, which are incharged of all the Apes at the zoo. Community Service Volunteers could only help in Special events. Animal health care volunteers help the zoo's animal health staff in the daily procedures for the animal collection.
Why are this no payed jobs in L.A.? I mean, off course there is some staff for all these activities I hope. What is the value having these volunteers, saving money by not having to employ more people ? Or something else? Don't really get it.
