LIFE

Melanie: I actually thought that I wanted to be a teacher, initially. And who would have thought being a teacher would work well here at Busch Gardens? But, I was in school for education and I started working here in tours and I was here for about nine months and had the opportunity to not only do safari tours but VIP guided tours throughout the park. And because I was in school for education, I was asked to move over to our school programs and day camp department. So, over there I had the opportunity to create and implement different types of curriculum for not only our school programs but also our day camp that we do in the summer. And I was also a counselor and a coordinator. So that was a really great experience for me.

We don't only do safaris, we get to have a lot of underprivileged kids come to Busch Gardens and we would also take animals to their school. That was probably, for me, the best experience because a lot of these kids have never ever seen an alligator up close and I would get to take an alligator and they could touch an alligator and learn why you don’t feed alligators in the wild. But we get to respect them because they do this.

I was there for about two years and I was transferred to my area where I get to now travel with animals. And then I moved to psychology and a lot of people think that’s a little odd is doing psychology for working in a zoo but that helps you out with training. We use all positive reinforcement with our animals and so, having psychology helps us learn kinda what they are thinking and how best to train them.

GL: What advice could you give to say, a young girl, who wants to get into this field?

Melanie: That is probably the question I get asked the most. I have to tell you, that’s the thing my husband says, "How does it feel going to work and knowing that that’s what every 12-year-old girl wants to do?" It’s wonderful. What I would suggest is working with animals early on. Volunteering at a local shelter or zoo is a really great way to start off.

I would suggest going to college and getting some sort of biology, zoology, psychology, any degree that’s going to help them work with animals. What’s interesting though, is that a lot of people, especially young people think of working with animals as being a vet. That’s not all there is. We have vets here on staff but we also have animal keepers. We also have behavior trainers, we also have our educators as well as … what’s really cool is we have nutritionists that learn what these animals eat in the wild and how we can best fit that here at busch gardens. So that would be my suggestion though. Definitely starting early.

Now one thing we also recommend to anybody who’s interested in possibly working with animals as they get older, we have camps right here at Busch Gardens and our resident camps actually get to stay here on property. We’ve got a dorm right here and we’ve got keeper camps where they get to go with our zoo keepers and learn what it’s like to not only train, but clean up after these animals, create houses and husbandry, which is maintenance and care for them. They also get to be with the vets and learn what the vets have to do and see them do physicals on the animals and take X-rays and surgeries, so it’s very very cool. I suggest if there is anybody who is interested, come and do a camp here at Busch Gardens.

Wanna see these safari animals up-close-and-personal? Head to Busch Gardens Tampa to find out more!

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