![\"zookeeper\"](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/zookeeper-300x221.jpg\" "\\"zookeeper\\"")
<\/a> The sky is dark as animal keeper Rick Schwartz makes his way through the San Diego Zoo for the 6 a.m. shift. His flip-flops make a quiet slap on the cold pavement.\n As he approaches the Children\u2019s Zoo, the quiet is broken by the \u201cHellos\u201d of parrots, the squeals of spider monkeys and the grunts of a fossa he has helped raised since it was only a day old.
\n Rick quickly changes into his khaki keeper uniform and waterproof boots so he can return the greetings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I come to work, there are 30 or 40 animals here happy to see me,\u201d says Rick, who has worked in the Children\u2019s Zoo since 2000. \u201cI am ridiculously lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n
The day ahead of him includes lifting rocks, preparing animal diets, cleaning out more than a dozen enclosures, a television appearance, and at least five loads of laundry. But each step of the way, he has help. For instance, an African gray parrot named Kizzy perches on the warm laundry cooing encouragement as Rick folds.
\n After Rick is in uniform, the day begins \u2014 just like any office job \u2014 with a meeting. Lead keeper Clint Lusardi directs the meeting, giving out the day\u2019s assignments, and reviewing which animals each keeper will be caring for that day.
\n The meeting breaks up, and Rick is off to make sure the 15 animals he is responsible for that day are all in their appropriate places and feeling well. The rock hyrax has fluffed his fur into a puffy ball and is sitting under the heat lamp. The meerkats tumble over each other vying to be closest to Rick while crying out \u201cWhoop, whoop, whoop.\u201d
\n \u201cOne, two, three, four meerkats \u2014 you\u2019re all accounted for,\u201d Rick says.
\nNext, he coos at the ocelot, which playfully stalks him. Then, a toucan, a tamandua, a serval and more.
\n Then it is on to making the animals’ enclosures fresh for the day. The cleaning requires lifting rocks, stooping under tree limbs and grabbing armloads of smelly hay. It includes hand-washing food dishes, laundering the animal bedding, and chopping fruits and veggies. Rick doesn\u2019t complain.
\n \u201cIt is labor, but it doesn\u2019t feel like work,\u201d he says.
\nAs he cleans the meerkats’ enclosure, the curious pint-sized mammals crowd around to investigate his every move.
\n \u201cMakes you feel like you have another supervisor,\u201d Rick quips.
\n The schedule would be hectic, except for the fun of it all. Much of the cleaning and feeding is done before the public comes through the zoo gates at 9 a.m. Then the greeter parrots are taken to their perches near the bus loading depot and the Children\u2019s Zoo entrance. Only later in the day is there time for animal training and public interaction.
\n And on this day, Rick is also doing a live broadcast during the 11 a.m. news at the KFMB studios.
\n So he puts Cocoa, the armadillo, in a crate for a trip to the studio. A zoo public relations representative drives him and he takes the moment of sitting to study his \u201ccopy points,\u201d messages he will try to share with viewers of the morning newscast.<\/p>\n
When the cameras come on, the show\u2019s hosts, Dan Cohen and Nichelle Medina, joke with Rick like old friends as he presents the animal.
\n \u201cThe cool thing about a three-ringed armadillo is it can curl itself up into a completely sealed ball!\u201d he says, showing them the coconut-sized creature.
\n When Rick returns to the zoo, there are animals to be weighed for health checks and off-exhibit areas to clean. He puts fresh newspaper on the bottom of the rose-breasted cockatoo cages.<\/p>\n
He heads to the kitchen to create the animals\u2019 meals. The zoo\u2019s nutritionist has created a specific recipe for each animal, and he flips through a binder to find the recipe for each creature. The produce Rick uses is restaurant quality. As he chops and dices and weighs each item, he laughs at how good it looks.
\n \u201cEspecially the bird diet, it\u2019s a really great fruit salad,\u201d he says, \u201cHow much would you pay for that in a fancy restaurant?\u201d
\n Toward the end of the day, he sets up fun activities for the animals to do while he\u2019s gone: cardboard boxes for the macaws to tear apart, scents for the serval to explore, a \u201cpuzzle box\u201d full of chopped yams for the dexterous raccoon to discover.
\n As he leaves at 4:15 p.m., the animals can\u2019t see him, but know the sound of his footsteps flip-flopping away. They call out with their hoots, squeals and grunts, as if to say \u201cSee you tomorrow!\u201d<\/p>\n
Dani Dodge is a former newspaper reporter and editor now working at the San Diego Zoo. She can be reached at ddodge@sandiegozoo.org.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Roar, Rumble and Snort: San Diego Zoo Stories: A Day in the Life of a Zookeeper By Dani Dodge The sky is dark as animal keeper Rick Schwartz makes his way through the San Diego Zoo for the 6 a.m. shift. His flip-flops make a quiet slap on the cold pavement. As he approaches the […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":243024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"San Diego Zoo Stories: A Day in the Life of a Zookeeper","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}