Hi! I am a Zookeeper from the UK.. Nice to meet you all!

Hi Steemit!

I am so excited to join you all and make new friends! I was recommended to join by a fellow member and sister in law @april-eliza so let me first introduce myself my name is Rachael, I am 30 years old from the UK. Originally from the north of England I moved to the South back in 2015 to not only to be with my partner but also to start my dream job working as a zookeeper.

As a child like most of us I always wanted to work with animals but never knew what it was I wanted to do, I was always called the pied piper by my family due to how animals responded to me. I took up many different roles from the age 11 such as a stable hand, professional groom for a top show jumper, dog walker, kennel maid before I left and animal industry and went into a supervisor waitressing role at Chiquitos, then retail roles at Woolworths, Jessops and finally at Three Mobile before I bit the bullet and went for a voluntary position at the Zoo. After 3 months experience I was incredibly lucky to be offered a full time paid position and I owe that to my vast experience with working with the public from a young age.

What animals do I work with?

My animals are not category A animals (those are the most dangerous animals in the zoo) or even B for that matter, I work with domestic stock as well as some exotic species right down in the D to F categories. We hold every taxa on our section so birds, mammals, fish, hoof-stock, reptiles and invertebrates ranging from goats and sheep to rainbow lorikeets birds and snakes to small critters such as roaches and millipedes, we are very diverse but safe! I have been a keeper now for coming up to 3 years and I am a qualified Keeper; I am also doing the zoo qualification paid for by my employer... it’s hard!
We are told to not have favourites or to become attached to our animals and I can tell you that it is completely impossible, you work so closely with these animals, learning their behaviour, changing their environment to improve their welfare, provide them with their favourite enrichment and train them that if something goes wrong you won’t go home at the end of the day or even sleep.
My favourite animal who will feature a lot in my posts is Basil a two and half year-old Pygmy goat. I have been training him since he was 3 months old and we have a lot of fun performing in demonstrations for visiting school groups as well as public demonstrations. We do all our training out where the public are walking about as I find it the perfect setting knowing that he will only focus on me and it helps his concentration. He’s a very intelligent goat, he has learnt the sound of my keys, he is the only goat that knows his own name and he knows my voice so as soon as he hears me he starts calling and chasing me around until I take him out for training. Basil is one of those animals that just steals your heart, I couldn’t be without him I hope you can’t be without him too!

I know that there are people out there who have a huge dislike for zoos and even to this day call their enclosures cages. Animals are no longer taken from the wild in fact there are laws against it unless the group of animals are to become extinct and intervention is needed. The animals in zoos these days are the result of the illegal pet trade and are rescues or descendants from those who were brought into zoos over 50 years ago. I hope by following me you will see a completely different side to zoos from the heart of the people who work with these animals and what we do day in and day out. I will do regularly posts about my zookeeping life and I am happy to answer questions that you may have.

Hobbies and interests:

I am a massive believer in The Secret and have been practising the techniques for around 3 years though my family say I’ve been doing it my whole life without realising. The laws of the universe are simple, whatever you want you can have you just have to think it, believe it and receive it. I owe these laws to my dreams coming true, it has fully changed my life and also my wish list that I’ve had to update regularly... not complaining! I am hoping I will be able to connect with others who follow the laws of the universe.
I love to horse ride, I have been riding since I was 3 however I don’t come from an affluent family, my mum took me to friends who had horses and then when I was 11 I began to work every Saturday for my rides. When I was 18 I got my first horse called Kelly, she taught me a lot about animal training and horse care/ first aid. Then at 22 I got my second horse Holly who I rescued from the meatman and she was incredible. I will do a post about them separately as they were two of the most amazing animals I have met.

I am passionate about photography and taking pictures mainly of animals. All the photographs you will see on my Steemit are my own either taken on my canon SLR or simply on my iPhone 6s! My Instagram features heavily on the animals I work with and my daily life. I always strive to take the perfect shot and share it whether it be a landscape or an animal in my life I always want quality.
Like most people I like music, chart music is probably my favourite but I’ve grown a love for trance music in particular Above & Beyond, I went to my first rave on the 4th November 2017 to see them at the o2 arena it was AMAZING.
I love to travel; my favourite country so far is Norway that I have visited twice now to two different parts. It is such a stunning country and the snow, well I’ve never seen snow like it. I am due to visit New York in January which was my 30th birthday present and hopefully New Zealand the middle of the year.

I am sometimes asked what my favourite animal is (other than Basil) that’s a hard question when you work with such a broad range of species. I absolutely love Rhinos these creatures are just magical and take your breath away when you get so close to them if anyone has ever met one you would completely agree. I suppose though my favourite animal has to be a fox, how they have adapted to live alongside us is amazing, they are a stunning species to look at with the most ridiculous reputation. Native wildlife is incredible, we should preserve it not try and eradicate it. I love to camera trap them and see what they get up to around my house. Currently we have 4 foxes visiting us now, I will do a post about them sometime when I have more footage and photographs to show.

Current pets:

I can’t live my life without having something at home to cuddle (other than the other half!) when it’s been a bad day. We have a bearded dragon called Spyro who is 2 and half years old okay not very cuddly but nonetheless she is amazing, a marine fish tank that has a number of different fishes in, and two rescue rabbits Harvey and Herbert (Herbie for short) who are not even 6 months old yet. I’m sure sometime in the future there will be more animals mainly because I can’t help myself when I see an animal in need.

Now that you know a little bit about me and my life I hope that you will enjoy my blog, be inspired and chase your dreams just like I did even later in life, it is NEVER too late.

Here’s what happens when you try and do your intro photograph with your favourite animal….

The First time he has ever run from me.. Yes he did eat it!

In the end I gave up allow my birds to instead introduce me..

Looking forward to chatting to you all!