Certificate of Captive Wild Animals

Trainee zookeeper Carly Day says Auckland Zoo is a fun place to work. Picture / Graeme Sedal

THE QUALIFICATION
What: Certificate of Captive Wild Animals
NZQA Level 4
Where: Unitec, Mt Albert, Auckland
Phone: 09 815 2945 or 0800 109510
Email: Course info
Web: Unitec
Course cost: $4,500
Expected salary: $32,300 - $43,800 (after four years)
Starting Rate: $15.51 an hour
Student loans are available

Working with wild animals for a living may sound like an almost unrealistic career goal but for a growing number of people, it is a reality.

Peter Fraser, Unitec lecturer in captive wild animals, says the industry is growing and the opportunities are increasing.

"Zoos are not just places of entertainment any more. They are places to stimulate positive change for the environment."

Fraser's graduates go on to work in conservation and animal management as well as being zookeepers. Graduates can also find themselves working as an animal control officer, dog handler/trainer, MAF inspector, SPCA inspector or veterinary assistant.

The certificate of captive wild animals is a 120-credit distance learning course which is full-time for one year. Fraser works with students online and over the phone to complete their studies. He says he sees himself as more of a tutor than a lecturer. The course attracts everyone from school leavers to housewives.

The course also consists of 320 hours of structured work experience for 40 weeks where students actually work alongside zookeepers.

This allows students to work with animals one day each week.

Students can focus in one of four areas: animal clinical care, animal welfare, canine behaviour and training or captive wild animals.

The course starts in February and preferential applications are due in September. There are around 50 places available.

The Unitec course is the only programme for animal welfare inspector and vocational zookeeper training in New Zealand.

THE STUDENT
Carly Day
Trainee zoo keeper
Exotic birds
Auckland City Zoo
Graduated November 2004

I adore animals. I grew up on a small farm and I just couldn't get enough of them. I was a vet nurse for a few years but I decided I wanted to do something a little bit bigger and a bit more to help the planet.

The course was awesome. I thought it was amazing. I enjoyed every minute of it. The work experience was invaluable in getting my foot in the door and even the assignments were just so relevant to my passion that I found the whole thing really enjoyable. One good thing about the course is that it helps you raise ethical questions yourself and really examine your values and ethics. During the course you do one day a week work experience at the zoo. That involves rotating around all the different sections that are here. We usually spend about eight weeks on each one - eight days in total. You're caring for the animals along with the keepers and learning how it really goes.

I do a lot of training and conditioning with the birds. I'm getting to hand-raise a red-tailed black cockatoo. That's an awesome experience. Along with that there is endless cleaning, scrubbing and dishes. I do husbandry, diet, enclosure design and maintenance - a bit of everything.

It's pretty grubby and dirty. You definitely can't be afraid to get your hands dirty but it's also constantly stimulating because things are always different. It is really hard work but you love it so much that you hardly notice.

My next step will probably be to rotate to a different section and get experience with other sorts of animals.

The zoo feels like one big family, it feels like a really big community. It's awesome to come here on your days off and you know everybody. We all like each other and it's a really fun place to work. Everyone is always here on their days off. It's a total lifestyle choice.

THE EMPLOYER
Michael Batty
Team leader
Auckland City Zoo

New members of staff have a huge head start if they've completed the Certificate of Captive Wild Animals course. Staff who haven't completed are asked to do so as part of their employment with us.

People can volunteer and apply to a section. They can become quite useful and known and get to know people. That's a start to let you know whether you want to be a zookeeper or not. Then from there you can enrol in the course.

Even though you work a lot on your own, it's also a team environment. It's an emotional job, or can be. It's filled with passion so we usually have passionate people here. They're passionate about the topic of conservation and making a difference.

It's amazing how many people come in here saying, "I want to work with birds," and end up finding primates is their passion because they had preconceived ideas of what they were going to be doing or what it would be like.