I wanted to be a Zoo Keeper

Spoiler Alert! It didn't happen

Sep 27, 2024

When I was a kid and someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up there was only one answer I would give…..I wanted to be a zookeeper. I was animal crazy and I read as much as I could about them and loved watching nature documentaries on TV. I became a walking encyclopedia and could tell you everything you wanted to know (or didn’t care to know) about the animal kingdom. I lived and breathed animals.

For a while I had my own small menagerie of pets. In addition to the family dog, I had a rabbit, a gerbil, tropical fish, even stick insects. For a short while, I had a young thrush that had been abandoned. My dad and I hand raised it before releasing back into the wild. We also hand raised a baby pigeon that we found in the middle of the road. We weren’t able to release that back into the wild because it became so tame it refused to leave. So, we built a small aviary for it at the bottom of the garden. However, as the result of a chance meeting with a local racing pigeon enthusiast, my dad ended up replacing the aviary with a pigeon loft that eventually became home to about 15 additional racing pigeons.

Despite my parents telling me I could have no more pets, I desperately wanted to add to my collection. I had seen a movie on TV where a young boy who lived in the country had a secret collection of wild animals he kept in his bedroom. I thought that was a pretty clever idea. However, I wasn’t too sure having wild creatures in my bedroom was a particularly good idea (a fox would be difficult to catch and would be smelly and hedgehogs, despite being very cute, have fleas) so instead I went to a local pet shop and purchased a hamster, which I kept in my closet. After a couple of days I became concerned that it was lonely so I purchased another hamster. Big mistake. Shortly after putting them together they started fighting. Not only did they make a lot of noise but I was concerned they’d hurt each other so I had to separate them. However, the addition of a couple of hamsters didn’t ease my craving for more pets and so I again set off to the pet shop and returned home with three rats. Those I kept in an old aquarium which I also kept in my closet. Every evening, while my parents were watching TV and I was supposed to be doing my homework, I would let the animals run around my bedroom, separately of course, while I cleaned out their cages and fed them. However, it wasn’t long before I once more started to get those cravings again and my next purchase was a couple of white mice.

Everything was going well and my parents were none the wiser. Unfortunately, secrets, especially really good ones like mine, can be extremely difficult to keep. I had already confided in my cousin who was kind enough to give me some money to help pay for their upkeep (my parents were starting to wonder why the gerbil seemed to be getting through so much food) but my fatal error was telling my sister. She made me tell my mum and before I knew it, I was being dragged to the pet shop, my secret menagerie in hand, to beg the shopkeeper to take the animals back which, after a ~~few~~ lot of tears, he finally relented. Thankfully though, I was allowed to keep one hamster on the condition I didn’t buy anymore.

Around the same time that I had my menagerie, I was given a Polaroid Swinger camera (a rather unfortunate name) and an annual membership to the London Zoo’s Young Zoologist’s Club for my birthday. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Not only did the club membership come with a monthly newsletter but it also came with a handful of free tickets to the zoo. Whenever I had the chance I would take the train into London, catch the Tube to Baker Street and then the bus to the zoo where I would spend the day with these exotic creatures from faraway lands. And, of course, take photos with my new camera. At least, try to take photos. The Swinger was a fun camera for a young teenager and I appreciated the instant gratification of seeing my photos a couple of minutes after taking a shot, but it was woefully inadequate for zoo photography.

Sadly (thankfully?), none of my photos from that time still exist but that experience did leave a lasting impression, one that occasionally finds me taking photos in a zoo, albeit with a much better camera.

Despite having a captive subject, photographing zoo animals isn’t particularly easy. At the Toronto Zoo, where most of these photos were taken, most of the animals are in open enclosures so you can often get an unobstructed view. The downside is that the animals are often on the far side of the enclosure and too far to get a good image even with a telephoto. Others are behind glass which creates its own set of problems such as condensation and reflections. As the condensation is usually on the inside of the glass there’s nothing you can really do about it but with reflections I find putting my lens on or very close to the glass usually eliminates the issue.

Patience is very important and sometimes it really pays to hang around until you get the shot you want.

I usually have three lenses wth me, a long telephoto (70-300mm), a 24-70mm and a macro lens. That covers most eventualities.

Of course, seeing animals in captivity doesn’t provide the same thrill as seeing them in the wild. I’ve been lucky enough to go to Africa a couple of times and seeing animals in their natural environment beats everything. Even here in Canada and seeing bears, moose, beavers etc. in the wild makes my heart skip a beat. But, not everyone has those opportunities.

I realize that zoos can be very divisive. However, I believe that there is still a place for some well run, well financed, well regulated and closely monitored establishments. The good ones, and I place the Toronto Zoo among them, have breeding, educational and scientific programs and work to reintroduce endangered species back into the wild where possible. For the most part, the animals have very good enclosures that provide them with space and stimulation. Having said that, there’s always room for improvement.

Unfortunately, for every good zoo there’s probably a hundred or more that should be closed down. But, to do that requires public support and government regulation and, with all of the other issues that governments are dealing with these days, it is unlikely that we’ll see any of that anytime soon.

That’s not to say that change can’t happen. Here in Canada we have an organization called Zoocheck which, for the last forty years, has been working to protect and promote the interests and well-being of animals in captivity They’ve successfully campaigned against having wild animals in circuses as well as banning the captivity of whales, dolphins and porpoises for entertainment purposes. They were also instrumental (along with Bob Barker of the Price Is Right fame) in having the last three elephants at the Toronto Zoo moved to a sanctuary in California.

As for my childhood ambition to become a zookeeper? Sadly, that didn’t materialize. My careers advisor at school suggested I work in an office instead and maybe make enough money to buy my own zoo. It also didn’t help that I was a lousy student and the science courses required to become a zookeeper were among my worst subjects. So, I ended up working in finance (which is funny as I’m lousy with numbers too) but never had the money nor inclination to buy my own zoo. Instead, I just enjoy the occasional visit to a respectable zoo to take some photos.

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