Animal Diaries Archive

Let's get training!

26 August 2005

Being head trainer of koalas, I get the awesome job of not only training joeys but also training our keeping team. This is an ongoing process, because even people who have been handling koalas for awhile still need to be updated with new procedures, changes and, the exciting part - new koalas.

At the moment we have heaps of new joeys coming out of the pouch, so I only have a couple of months before all of my attention will be with them. I need to have everyone else brought up to speed with all of the animals. A few of the mammal staff have already handled previously, but it has been awhile, so I am in the process of performing a refresher course with them now. Also with Kelly, one of our koala keepers, learning to be a trainer as well, she has been busy teaching all of her staff and learning the ropes of being a trainer herself. It's been pretty crazy, but very exciting for everyone.

Kelly, I know, is especially excited because she will be learning how to train the joeys as soon as they are old enough, which is not too far away now. You can imagine the Zoo is in a bit of a buzz at the moment, with new enrichment not only for the animals, but for the team as well.