A day in the life of the zoo-keeper :

First we see our zoo-keeper around 7 in the morning, when he unlocks the door to look at us. When he assures himself that we are alive and in order, he goes to check our enclosure.

When everything is OK and after he cleans up the mess, there comes the first joyous moment of the day. He lets us go out. Then he will judge from the residues in our cages how much we have eaten and what we have liked and what we have not. After our cages are swept, brushed and sprinkled he moves to visit the others. In 9:30 and 14:00 he comes again to give us delicacies - dry crispy bonbons with meaty smell or fish or sponge-biscuits. In the afternoon he prepares dinner for us in our dens, and we are already looking forward to go inside. But we do not get home before the last visitor leaves the ZOO. You must understand, we like people quite well but we like them best when we see them leaving the ZOO ...

A workday of the curator

Such a curator must keep many things in mind at the same time. He cares for us to be healthy, to have enough of good and wholesome food, to have safe cages, i.e, summing it up, he wants us to be well and satisfied. Therefore early in the morning he checks if everyone is at work, and when someone is missing he must send for someone else. Then he makes important calls because later he will be very busy.

Then he jumps into his car and sets out to obtain feed-stuffs or to arrange other matters important for us. But before he is ready to do this he must contact all the zoo-keepers, look at the animals to see how we are, and what we need.

After he returns from the town, the veterinarian comes too, and they go together to see sick animals . Quite often such an animal must be caught or tranquillised or must getan injection.

From time to time some animal „succeeds“ in damaging something in the cage, e.g. plaster is knocked off or a stem used for climbing falls down. In such a case the curator must arrange for competent people that make these repairs. In the afternoon he makes another walk around to check that everything is in order, and then he can leave for home, his head full of things that he was not able to arrange, and which will have to be done the next day ........

A workday of the economic manager

To keep such a ZOO in operation, you must know how much various things are, how much money you need, from where and when money is to come, and what it can and cannot be used for. All of this is the responsibility of the economic manager. When a ZOO-keeper is missing, the other one must be sent to do his job and take care of the animals, otherwise it would be very bad. If the economic manager has a day off, it looks like there is no problem due to his absence. This person has no accurate day schedule but when he or she is off for longer time, serious problems can arise. There is no information about money being at disposal, and nobody knows what the ZOO may afford and what may not. That is why the economic manager is so important - he or she provides information for the director, curator and even for the ZOO-keeper about how much money they can spent on petrol, feed or medical stuffs . The economic manager also looks after the sale of tickets, souvenirs and refreshment.

Just for your guidance, the ZOO pays each year more than CZK 1 million for food, 25,000 for medicaments, nearly half a million for electricity, and 220,000 for overnight security guards. The largest sum is spent on wages and salaries because not only we animals must eat but also all of those who look after us.

They say such a ZOO is an expensive business. But say, would not it be a pity to be deprived of all these wonderful experiences that the ZOO provides because of money?

A workday of the director

The director is often considered the most important person of the ZOO. But when nobody appears at work, what could such a director do? He could hardly feed all the animals, tidy up, mend the cages, bring in the food and sell tickets at the same time. Of course, without the staff the director could give up and leave. Contrary to it - a well-managed ZOO must work even when the director does not show up all day long - otherwise something would not be in order. It really often happens that the director spends his working day at an utterly different place. He visits authorities or has meetings with sponsors or companies he needs something from. At some other time he prepares documents for meetings, and sometime he may find time to walk through the ZOO and check if everything is in order and the others fulfil their duties....

A workday of the ZOO-educator

The ZOO-educator or information and educational officer has to fulfil different tasks every day. In the morning he usually takes a short walk through the ZOO and checks whether all information plates are OK and in place. If some of them is missing or damaged, he sees to the remedy .

When there is a fine weather he sets out with his camera to take pictures of animals for Zoo’s archive and display cases as well as for meetings at schools or for newspapers and magazines, he provides information or has interviews for radio or TV concerning news in the ZOO. He monitors and keeps in archive various news about the ZOO and endangered species that have appeared in the press, takes part in the preparation of promotional materials for the ZOO or translates articles from foreign natural history magazines for further use in the ZOO or lectures for children. Now we arrive at his main job, which is public relations. It includes both guided tours for visitors groups who want to know more about the fauna than what is on the plates and meetings with children from kindergartens and primary schools dedicated to various fields of the wild or he prepares and implements various programmes, particularly for children and young people. These are on the one hand included in round-the-year series of entertaining and educational weekend programmes with nature-orientated games and competitions, songs and interesting guests but on the other hand they are also programmes on a week basis as „ A ZOO Workshop or how to run a ZOO“ or „A Colourful Week – the open air art and design workshop“. The preparation of programmes is connected with submitting the project proposals prepared together with other colleagues from the ZOO at various institutions as the Ministry of Education, Youth & P.T. of the Czech Republic, the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic, Phare Programme and others which when successful, help to finance these events.

Of course it is necessary to recruit other sponsors who than provide e.g. prizes for competitions. Very often before one programme is completed they already try to contact sponsors for, and those taking part in a performance in the other.

People like these as well as the others in the ZOO are always very busy but if they succeed in awakingthe interest in nature, animals and their conservation, , particularly in children, their effort is not in vain.