2015....

Happy New Year to all my followers and readers!! 

I hope the new year 2015 brings you all the best and all that you deserve!! 

I shall be posting more interesting stories about my travels and experiences and articles I find soon!

More experience....

This post is about my West Midlands Safari Park work experience that I completed. This was only for a week, but it's all experience in the field.

The schedule was a section a day apart from the elephants and the reptile house as the reptile house had venomous animals (which the work experience wasn't allowed to work with due to insurance, I think).  

The schedule for the week was:

1. Asia section
2. Cat Section
3. Sealion Section
4. African Village 
5. Africa Section 

Each section had different keepers (of course), which was lovely to meet new people and hear about their different experiences. Each section had its ups and downs but all in all the experience was great.

Most of the sections were with the jeeps apart from the sealion section and the village section. The first day was a bit of a mish mash really, health and safety inductions and then to the Asia section which was in and out of the jeep all day, which was okay. 

Each day was assisting the keepers, cleaning the enclosures and feeding the animals and also some days were on patrol with one of the keepers, patrolling the areas making sure everything is safe and the public is safe from the animals.  

Each day was a challenge, as I havent done that kind of hard work (working at a a safari park), but I enjoyed every bit of it. As stated in my previous posts, zookeeping isn't all about being close to the animals, it's about getting down to dirty work (as such)- cleaning the enclosures and feeding the animals. Working at a safari park is hard work, but it definately pays off when you as previously stated in my other posts, can get a lot closer to the animals than the public can (using safe measures of course).  

Working at a safari park isn't all about cleaning and feeding, it's also about keeping the public safe from the animals and making sure the animals are of course safe too. Patrolling in the jeeps on the safari drive, keeping check of the animals and their whereabouts, but also keeping a check on the public in their cars, making sure they aren't putting themselves or the animals at risk. The safari park also has a walk-through Lorikeet exhibit, a sealion show and much more where the public can learn and be close to the animals on foot, rather than in a vehicle. This also gives them entertainment as well as educating them on the species.

All in all, this work experience was great! I loved learning about how a safari park works and the background to a safari park keeper's daily life. It was great to learn about the animals and learn about how hard the keepers actually work. I just can't wait to get out into the field and become a proper keeper! 

This is a good safari park to visit in the midlands, it is great for all the family, anyone of any age!