Name of Keeper: Russ Roach

Title or Position: Zookeeper

Animals he works with: elephants, tapirs.

Years as a Zookeeper: 23

Years at Woodland Park Zoo: 14

Why did you become a zookeeper?
I needed a summer job when I wasn’t attending Humboldt State University. I got a job at Lion Country Safari in Southern California. At first I worked in park operations, and didn’t have much to do with the animals. But the following year I applied to work with the animals. I wasn’t an avid animal lover, but I enjoyed the job and discovered I had an aptitude for working with animals. Now I love being around them.

What is it like to be a zookeeper?
Some of it is pretty tedious and some is fun. The tedious parts include scrubbing walls and floors, disinfecting, chopping endless piles of food. The fun stuff includes animal training and just being with the animals and interacting with them. That’s the high point of the job. But there’s a lot of cleaning.

Besides feeding and cleaning up after the animals, what else do you do to provide for their care?
I go on line and find news stories to post so visitors can read about what’s happening worldwide with elephants.

I also do training. Right now we’re training Hansa to learn to stand still so that we can give her routine shots, like her tetanus shot. The training is my favorite. When you teach an animal new things and see them get it and start repeating what you want them to do over and over, that’s a thrill.

I also do enrichment – things to keep the elephants interested. For instance, we made a sound board with some holes in it and different noisemakers mounted on it - right now it has a squeaky toy, a harmonica and a whistle. The elephants blow on it to make the noises.

We also use food as enrichment. Every day of the month the elephants get a different food treat. It might be frozen vegetables or butterfly bush. We’ve given them barbeque sauce, blueberries, cabbages, melons and jello. When the elephants know there’s something exciting out in the yard they get out and explore instead of just standing in one spot eating.

Is there anything gross about your job?
I don’t think manure is that gross – you get used to it. Maybe doing an enema could be gross. We do that on the elephants when we are going to do a reproductive assessment of them, or when we’re going to artificially inseminate Chai.

Is there anything about your job that might surprise people?
That it’s mostly not working directly with the elephants. Some days we might work with them for only an hour.

When I worked at Wildlife Safari in Oregon, I got to take an elephant to Portland for 11 days. We were in three performances of the Opera Aida. Aida is set in Egypt, and it’s traditional to have live animals in it. I got to take the elephant out on stage. Of course, this sort of thing happens very seldom.

What would you tell someone who wants to become a zookeeper?
I would encourage people to take math classes. Math involves problem solving; working with animals involves problem solving. Classes in the life sciences are really helpful. Higher education classes tend to turn on a part of your brain that otherwise might not switch on by itself. They get you intrigued and thinking more outside the box.

What other conservation work do you do, either inside or outside the zoo?
I got involved with the Grizzly Bear Recovery Project in Northern Idaho, run by the Idaho Fish and Game department and obtained funding to help research the bears. One of the conservation officers goes to schools and does presentations about grizzly bears and their habitat. The zoo paid for the mounting of a life-sized grizzly bear – named C.J. - which he takes to the schools.

Then I worked with Save the Elephants in Northern Kenya. The zoo paid for a radio collar on an elephant named Monsoon. All the members of her family are named after storms. Monsoon has daughters named Breeze and Blizzard. Monsoon is the matriarch of the family, so when they track her, they track the whole family.

--- By Jackie Kiser