The sounds of shuffling paws and chirping birds fill the Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo each morning at the 10-acre paradise for animal-lovers.
The exhibits are full of lush green flora and marked with the irresistible faces of fauna.
Zoo Keeper Week wrapped up Saturday, and Santa Fe's kickoff celebration the prior week featured eight training demonstrations, two animal encounter shows, five food trucks, and more than ten visiting organizations, including Busch Gardens and Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
The American Association of Zoo Keepers recognizes every third week of July as National Zoo Keeper Week. The vision of Zoo Keeper week, according to the AAZK, is to connect with the public and bring awareness to animal care professionals, “their hard work, conservation efforts, and passion.”
For Jade Woodling, the conservation education curator at Sante Fe College Teaching Zoo, this means highlighting the dedication of the students.
This zoo is unique because they don’t hire any zookeepers at all. Each zookeeper is a student pursuing an Associate in Science degree in Zoo Animal Technology.
Abigail Shelton, 20, and Maggie Sheldon, 20, are seniors in the program.
“We take care of all of our animals, every single day,” said Shelton. “We do everything from husbandry to training.”
Shelton trains the red ruffed lemurs. They’re primates with pointy black faces and a fiery red coat. Sheldon trains capuchin monkeys, primates with small, sweet faces.
They’re on the education team, which means they spearhead educational shows and brainstorm exciting animal encounters. On Saturday, attendees gathered in a classroom to look at some of these animals up close. Shelton and Sheldon told the crowd about what it’s like to be a zookeeper. They detailed their early mornings at the zoo and the signs of a snake shedding its skin.
The show featured Vincent, an education ambassador and snake. At the closing of the show, participants had the opportunity to pet him goodbye.
Shelton created the game show-style event that they take to local libraries.
Many young smiling faces enjoyed the events of the day. Bryce Hartley, 41, and his daughter Claire Hartley, 5, wandered through the zoo with their family.
She said her favorite animal was the turtle or the tortoise, though she couldn’t remember which. She liked the one that was smaller. The turtle, or tortoise, was tied with the sandhill crane.
“He was all fuzzy and he was my favorite color,” she said. Her favorite color is blue. Bryce Hartley, 41, said his favorite animal was the parrot because it’s very colorful. His favorite part of the day was seeing his family smile.
Just outside of the zoo were tents with members of visiting zoos, food trucks and a face painting stand.
Kennedy Pavao, 6, had her face painted with a pink, yellow and orange peacock with glitter, which she said matched her dress nicely.
She wanted to see a kangaroo because they’re big and tough, and they have babies in their pouches.
“They fight and fight and fight, and then they kick their legs, lean on their tails and kick their legs,” she said.
“So, I never saw a kangaroo because they’re very dangerous and they can hurt,” she said, but she was excited at the prospect of viewing one from a safe distance.
Families and students weren’t the only ones eager to be in attendance. Graduates of the program were visiting outside of the zoo.
“One of the exciting things about Zoo Keeper Day is that we actually invite graduates of the program that are now working in different animal fields to come out and show off what they’ve been doing,” said Woodling.
“So, we have keepers here from Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Brevard Zoo, even rehabbers from Cicada Wildlife Station, all here to show what they were able to use with the skills they learned here.”
Zookeeper Day was a huge success for the zoo and the program. There were 1,077 people in attendance in the six hours that the event ran for.
“In the past, we usually see less than 700. So, it kind of blew our previous Zookeeper Day numbers out of the water,” said Woodling.
She attributes part of this success to a grant through Visit Gainesville, and the lack of rain on a Florida summer day.