Zoo U. : Feeding, Training, Cage Cleaning--Students Get Hands-On Training With Animals

It’s 6 in the morning, and student zookeepers are gathering for their daily ritual.

First come the feedings--buckets of fresh fruits and produce for the primates, sunflower and other seeds for the macaws and African parrots and hand-blended recipes of chicken and beef for the big cats.

Later there are the cage cleanings, exercising, and most important, the training.

It is a 24-hour job for the 80 or so students enrolled in the exotic animal training and management course at Moorpark College, one of only a handful of such programs across the country.

“The students seem to have different motivations for enrolling,” said Gary Wilson, a 1984 graduate who directs the exotic animal operation.

“Some find that they really enjoy working with animals and they want any kind of job doing that,” he said. “Others have interests in conservation, and want to spread the wildlife message and help people appreciate nature.”

The program was launched in 1975 by Bill Brisby, a former Moorpark College teacher who helped train dolphins for the Navy at Point Mugu.

Brisby began offering a class in wild animal behavior, and on weekends would take his students to Africa U.S.A., a wild animal park which then was based in nearby Fillmore.

“He found that at the end of the semester, a number of the students were offered jobs, so he started the program,” Wilson said.

More than 150 animals live in the sprawling compound at the northwest corner of the campus, including an 8-month-old Bengal tiger named Taj, a 10-foot boa constrictor dubbed Francisco, and Mazoe, an illegal pet African wildcat found walking the streets of Beverly Hills several years back.

Students enrolled in the exotic animal program work as many as 70 hours a week feeding and caring for the creatures, and hosting weekend shows for the public. As many as eight students patrol the grounds all night, taking hourly shifts.

“This is an opportunity that not very many people get,” said Heidi Loewy, a 20-year-old trainee from Thousand Oaks in charge of Taj. “This is ultimately what I want to do.”

Most students receive a certificate of achievement after two years of study that opens doors to show business or animal park jobs around the country. But some will also earn an associate of science degree that typically is required for training positions at prestigious zoos or wildlife refuges.

*

“We had students in our class from Brazil, Yugoslavia, all over the world,” said David Jackson, a 1987 graduate who runs Zoo to You, a Paso Robles-based traveling zoo that entertains schoolchildren throughout central California.

*

The Moorpark College program is well-known to zookeepers nationwide as one of the best hands-on facilities for preparing students to deal with exotic animals, Jackson said.

“It’s so unique to have a place where you are directly responsible for a zoo,” he said. “You could go and volunteer at a zoo, but being a volunteer at a zoo you’re pretty much considered a poop scooper.

“If you are accepted to Moorpark College, you’ve got that opportunity right off the top,” he said.

More than 1,000 students typically apply to the program each year, which is limited to the brightest applicants, Wilson said.

Once accepted, students are given responsibility for at least one animal each, are shown how to care and feed the creatures and are also enrolled in a series of laboratory workshops on anatomy, wildlife biology and introductory veterinary medicine.

“It’s essentially a full-time job for them,” Wilson said.

Those who complete the program say it requires a love of animals and a serious commitment.

“You had to pretty much forget about your home life,” said Vickie Steele, a 1984 graduate who manages mammals at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. “But you couldn’t get that experience anywhere else.”

The students host hourlong weekend shows every Saturday and Sunday where the public can see the animals up close. It also prepares trainees for exhibiting the animals in a public forum, and explaining their origins, habits and behavioral traits.

“You never know when their wild instincts will kick in,” said Mara Rodriguez, Wilson’s assistant director, as she described the Bengal tiger to an audience of three dozen recently.

“They’re such predators that to trust them is unsafe,” she told a young boy who asked if Taj is allowed to roam free.

Most of the work at the center this month is aimed at preparing for the Spring Spectacular, the annual open house that draws thousands of spectators over two weekends, beginning March 11.

Money raised from the Spring Spectacular and the regular weekend shows pays for food and other program costs, Rodriguez said.

“We instill safety and learning to respect animals,” she said.

A recent Sunday show earned the respect of at least one audience member, who heard about the exhibits from her home in Woodland Hills.

“I like what they’re doing as far as educating the public and preserving animals that can’t be kept anyplace else,” said Linda Black, a church administrator.

“The more we learn about the animals, the better we’ll be able to cohabitate with them.”