AAZK Conference for 2013

Last year I was lucky enough to be able to attend the American Association of Zookeepers conference. This year, a lot of us keepers were very lucky to be able to attend because it was held in North Carolina.  Keeper Sarah and I were also lucky, because we were selected to present a paper this year. The topic was on enrichment and focused on inexpensive or free options. Even though I was presenting, it was said that Sarah was muchRead more

Return from AAZK conference

I have recently returned from the 2012 AAZK conference held in Syracuse, N.Y. It was held at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo and I was really impressed with the conference. My day started at about 7am and lasted till about 5pm. All day I was in classes, lectures and one of the days we got to go to the zoo. The conference offered several workshops or classes that I signed up for  and paper presentations between. Some of these included RaptorRead more

Back from the conference…

I got back from the AAZK conference earlier this month and it went well.  I heard some great paper presentations and  saw a lot of terrific things at the different facilities that we visited.  Now I have to find the time to put my information together so that I can present it all to my co-workers… I said I would post some pictures from my trip to the AAZK conference in San Diego, and although I’m a little behind on it hereRead more

QuikPost: heading out…

I’m leaving  (very early) tomorrow morning to fly to San Diego for this year’s AAZK (American Association of Zoo Keepers) conference. The San Diego Zoo is hosting it this year. The conference lasts 5 days, and 3 days of that is an intense agenda of presentations by zookeepers, curators, conservationists and other renowned individuals in the zoo keeping field from around the world, along with several workshops spanning virtually any topic you could wish to learn about as an animal keeper. I’llRead more

Crazy busy and Goodbye (to a wolf)

Things have been so busy here I don’t even know where to begin. Many staff have been off- (on vacation, at a wedding, at a Bar Mitzvah, presenting at the AAZK conference) and just as we were taking Cassandra off of the critical watch list (she’s been doing great), our female wolf, 1227, was found in bad shape two weeks ago and has been recovering from her injuries off exhibit. (She appears to have suffered some abuse from her mate-Read more

Hello from Philadelphia!

I’m here in Philly for the National AAZK (American Association of Zoo Keepers) Conference and I presented my paper today!  The presentation was about our blog and I spoke to about 75 other keepers from around the US.  I didn’t trip, Powerpoint didn’t crash, and I avoided completely blanking out in the middle of the presentation, so I’m considering it a success!   Beck helped me immensely in putting the whole thing together and I’m very grateful for her efforts! My audienceRead more