What kind of Zookeeper would you be?

very select and specific selection from that vast array there are 2 other words there after reptiles, you know. Day Geckos, Tarantulas, Mantellas, Sand Boas, Phasmids, Butterflies & Crocodile Newts to name but a few more.

 

Yes , but what I have realised is that the carnivores will bite you without thinking or real reason/or reason thinking that your part is a food or instinctively, for example just thinking that your hand is a food. On the other hand, primates will mostly bite if are threatened/catched by a hand, and many of them are too smart and realize that a keeper entering in the enclosure to leave a food, will not threat them and they watch it carefully. A primate will never bite your hand thinking of it as a food. I have been beaten by an Asian palm civet just because the civet thought my gloved hand is a food, but I have entered enclosure with siamang, colobuses or lemurs leaving food, without an accident. However, a bite from a primate, is usually far more dangerous than a bite from a carnivore owning to infectious agents that primates can transmit to you, like for example herpes B virus, hepatitis B virus, Balamuthia mandrillaris, or even rabies if wild primates are involved.

 

I used reptiles as the example because of the large amount of attention they get.Close second could include the large amounts of fear and attention that tarantulas,scorpions,giant centipedes or for some people snails,get. Just my two cents though.

 

Any carnivorous mammal to some degree can hurt you just because they feel threatened. It's not that they have no real reason. No animal has no real reason to harm another living thing.

 

It would be a tie between hoovestock and carnivores for me.

 

I'm currently a keeper for reptiles, a few birds, and some small mammals in the education program but I ultimately want to work with primates or pachyderms.

 

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Love Gaur. Im debating putting them on the maybe list; they'd be the largest animal on average that I want to work with.

 

Obviously I would have to be a ‘bear assistant’, so I voted carnivores.

 

Not a very good one.

 

Carnivores here.

I'd probably get fired after trying to take a tiger on a walk through the zoo.

 

Gosh, any of them would be really cool. I guess I'd go for aquaria, I've been more interested in fish lately. But I also love birds and small mammals. Carnivores would be tempting, but scary! Admittedly the large ratites would be scarier. Did you know that ostriches are pure evil and you can see it in their eyes?

 

I know I'd never manage to be a keeper, but I am fascinated with operant conditioning and would love to work on this with primates (frankly any animals except arachnids would be interesting, though). Although some might argue that my work as a teacher already involves operant conditioning with primates...!!

 

Ostriches are aggressive, but what about an angry cassowary?

 

I’d like to work with Dugongs so I guess it’s Aquaria.

 

Well I do consider some primates as small mammals...

 

While the cassowary has more physical ability to kill, the ostrich has more attitude to do it along with the ability, so I consider ostriches more of a threat.

 

I uh, take it you haven't worked with either species before; or I don't think you would be saying an ostrich is more of a threat than a cassowary

 

Is ostrich classed as a category one animal the same as cassowary? Or different?

 

I did work with both of the species in Jihlava (for a limited time though) but I still agree with @TheMightyOrca . Cassowaries might be dangerous overall, but they won´t go after you purely out of spite like an ostrich would do. At least that´s the case here.