Katerina Orton
Second year student on BSc Animal Biology and Conservation
My time at the Cotswold Wildlife Park was not only amazing, but also an extensive learning experience.
My role there was to assist the keepers with their daily tasks and learn as much as possible about the day to day running of a zoo.
I developed a variety of practical skills and easily picked up knowledge from the various keepers, including their understandings of zoo working environments, ethics, and health and safety practices. Ethical topics were constantly posed to me during my placement at the Zoo, which gave me the opportunity to explore all aspects of these ethical discussions at my weekly meeting with the zoo registrar. To prepare for these meetings, I did extensive research of journals, articles and discussions, and also asked keepers their opinions on various topics. The research and the discussions with the registrar often changed my opinions on certain ethical issues.
Although, I have already greatly benefited from this placement, I feel that there is a lot more learning that I could do within the zoo environment, therefore I will be returning to the wildlife park during the summer break to work on the Birds section in the hope that I gain in-depth understanding of a variety of things, including husbandry and welfare practices.