Think you want to be a Zoo Keeper? Then this is for you.
Keeper for a Day at Healesville Sanctuary is designed as a careers program for secondary school students from years 7-12. We joined the program and followed a group of students as they went behind the scenes at Australia’s most popular wildlife attraction. We were quite impressed by the enthusiasm of the group we spent the day with. Watch the video to find out more.
Of all the choices we have to make in life, choosing a career path has to top the list as the most important and difficult. The aim of this program is to give students a feel for what’s involved in the everyday life of a zoo keeper. At Healesville Sanctuary this means working with native Australian animals. It’s a full day of activity that includes enclosure maintenance, animal health checks, egg making (plaster eggs used in the birds of prey show), animal enrichment, keeper talks, food preparation and animal handling.
Numbers are limited, so if you want to participate in this program we suggest that you book well in advance.
Note: there are four of these sessions being run soon in late June/early July, so get booking!
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PRICES
Total cost for the course is $115, and $103.50 for zoo members.
As the course runs from 9.30am to 3.30pm, this is fantastic value for money!
I was at this program at that day – you even get to see me in the video.
It was an absolutely awesome day! I recommend it to anyone who has thought of a career of working with animals, or just loves animals in general. It was so much fun, and it is also great to meet new people, make new friends and have a great time.
I did Keeper for a Day in the school holidays and it was heaps of fun. My favourite part was going behind the scenes in the nocturnal house and food room. There are these really cool possums that walk all over you. I would love to do it again. I made lots of new friends too.
I had the best day ever. It made me realise that being a zookeeper is a lot of hard work but very rewarding. I want to help animals in the wild as well as those in a zoo. In Keeper for a Day I found out that they breed and release lots of endangered species at Healesville Sanctuary and they are really involved in conservation. Now I can’t wait to become a zookeeper.
I came all the way from Mildura to do Keeper for a Day and it was really worth the trip. I had a fantastic day. I loved making toys for the dingoes and seeing them rip them up. The Birds of Prey were mad! I met lots of cool kids from Melbourne. I am hoping that I can come down again do it again some time.
I didn’t even know this existed. I am going to try and book into the next one in June. Thanks for this story, it looks like an awesome day! I can’t wait!!