From Volunteer to Senior Keeper

I’m a senior keeper on the native fauna team at Orana Wildlife Park. This role covers our native birds, reptiles, amphibians, and our farmyard too. We look after the animals, provide them with enrichment, and work closely with the Department of Conservation on breed for release programmes. Conservation advocacy is also a key factor of our role, inspiring visitors to care about our wildlife.

I’ve always had a passion for animals and conservation, being out in nature, so I’ve always been on the right path to get me where I am now. In school I studied science and biology and was volunteering at Orana Wildlife Park from the age of 15 to help myself learn and grow. I then went from volunteering to a casual contract and I studied a Captive Animal Management course via correspondence while I worked. Since then, I came on full-time and I went on any course that has been available to me – taking any chance to learn more about what I’m interested in. Grabbing every opportunity, plus my driven attitude, has helped me grow into a senior role.

I’m really passionate about conservation – anything from restoration to pest control and animal care. So, my role in the tourism industry is perfect for this, as I get to be a part of exciting projects that help conservation efforts. Something that really drives my passion is being able to share my knowledge and experience with the next generation that come through the park. It’s fantastic to see them get excited and ask lots of questions about native species - it shows why tourism is super important for conservation. People come to see Aotearoa’s special and very unique native animals, but then they’re interacting with our interpretive signage, our staff and learning as they go; therefore, becoming more interested in conservation. And the money that comes in helps with all the programmes and development here in the park and in the wider environment too, such as our breed for release work.

We check in on our animals every day, making sure that they’re healthy and well; so, we do all their food preparation and we clean after them. Enriching and engaging our animals is super important to encourage their natural instincts. We’re also monitoring them each day and will do behaviour assessments. That’s the conservation side, then the tourism side is also crucial, which involves a lot of advocacy talks. Every key species has their own ‘talk’ scheduled in each day and when we’re around the park we interact with visitors to get our key messages about conservation out there as well, including ways they can get involved.

It’s been great working alongside community groups and DOC on breed for release programmes, like kākāriki karaka our rarest parakeet species; it’s really special to be involved with a release in the wild for birds bred at Orana. Another highlight to date was having the privilege of volunteering as part of the kākāpō recovery programme.

I always see myself being progressing in conservation and tourism. Zoos encompass this completely as they bring in the tourists and directly help with conservation efforts.

The advice I’d give to anyone looking into tourism or conservation is to 100% go for it. New Zealand is 100% the best place for this. We have an abundance of tourism and conservation roles that are linked. Find the courses that will get you there, volunteer, and you’ll find the places you want to work. If you have the passion and you can follow through, you will land these roles.