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A day in a Williams animal keeper's life

Bearizona’s Head Keeper Kyle Alexander checks in on some young bears at the park. Ryan Williams/WGCN

Bearizona’s Head Keeper Kyle Alexander checks in on some young bears at the park. Ryan Williams/WGCN

Visitors to Bearizona Wildlife Park can see about 20 species of animals living in their natural habitat. But what visitors may not see are the Keepers who work hard to take care of the animals.

Bearizona has four full-time keepers. Head keeper Kyle Alexander has worked at Bearizona for about a year and a half. With some experience in agriculture, Alexander learned the basics before working his way up and being promoted recently to head keeper.

"So they brought me in and I just kind of learned the usual what we do daily, starting with diets - being able to prepare them, measuring them, all sorts of things," he said. "And really just watching the animals, getting used to that."

When hiring keepers, Bearizona staff looks for people with animal-related degrees, such as biology, or people who have experience taking care of animals.

The first step for a new keeper is to learn about all of the animals.

"They've got to learn who the animal is, their regular characteristics," Alexander said.

He added that while it's important to get to know the animals, the job is still unpredictable.

"The biggest thing every keeper's got to learn at some point in time is that one day you might come out here and (the animals are) doing the same thing as usual and the next day it's going to be something different," he said. "You never know how they're going to act all of a sudden, getting sick, being injured."

Because of the unpredictable nature of the job, safety is always a priority when dealing with the animals, Alexander said. Keepers always work in twos when working with animals like wolves, even though they may appear to be playful like puppies.

"They're willing to come up to you but it's always understanding this animal's wild and never letting that get past your head," he said.

Besides learning how to safely work with the animals, keepers must also learn how to prepare their meals.

For example, although bears are omnivores, their diets are about 80 percent herbivorous. The bears eat mostly vegetables, since too much fruit can make the animals lethargic because of the sugar content. Keepers also feed the bears food that is similar to dog food to provide protein, vitamins and minerals.

"For the most part though, bears are one of our vacuum cleaners that if an animal doesn't eat it they probably will," Alexander said.

Some animals' diets also change depending on the season.

"Going into winter we usually up their diets, and we just have to watch their characteristics, how they're acting around food, if they're leaving any food and make sure they're plumping up for winter," Alexander said.

Keepers must also be observant and take note of any changes in an animal's behavior.

For instance, Alexander said keepers recently noticed that the otters had become food aggressive.

"So what we ended up doing was we're going to up their diet a little bit and see what happens," he said. "And then also with that we have to watch what animals are getting overweight."

In addition to feeding, another important part of being a keeper at Bearizona is training the animals.

"We like to train our animals in ways that's going to help us," Alexander said.

Last week, a keeper was working with the otters to get them to touch their noses to a stick. The otters received a fish after completing the task.

"This kind of training technique's just perfect in the fact that they learn who we are and they focus when we come in there," Alexander said. "Then we can start with things like crating, going into their lockdown - all those things can help with maybe vaccinations, that sort of thing."

With larger animals like bear cubs, yearling bears and bobcats, keepers train the animals to go into a separate area while they put out food or clean up the enclosure. Keepers are responsible for making sure the animals have appropriate shelters with clean straw in the winter, while also maintaining a natural feeling environment.

Another major part of a keeper's job is to keep the animals engaged. Alexander said most animals have an enrichment schedule to keep them busy.

"So we can maybe just give them a big plastic ball that they can't tear up, something for them to play with," he said. "Even little things like maybe a scent along the trees, something that will get them entertained, not just leave them bored all day and want to be laying around."

While some people might think being an animal keeper is all fun and games, Alexander said it also requires hard work.

"People like to hear, 'Oh you're an animal keeper,' and you really just gotta explain that it also comes with a lot of shoveling," Alexander said. "It comes with a lot of pooper scooping."


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