The word “career” seems for me a particularly apt one as its alternate meaning is a rapid forward lurching motion. I wandered into the fast current of life and was swept away with the flow, turning what was meant to be a temporary position to pay the bills into a decade-long career.
A divorce, and a four winter sojourn in Maine has helped to clear my head and reorder my life in a manner conducive to following my dreams. The main ingredient for such an endeavor?: a supportive wife. I got married towards the end of my stay in Maine to Heather, an incredible girl from Maryland. It may have been Lao Tzu that said, “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. .” My beautiful, smart, talented, and adventurous wife equips me with both courage and strength in abundant supply.
For about the last four years I have been immersing myself in independent wild animal studies; the last year almost exclusively in zoos and animal care. At one point I naively attempted to create a spreadsheet of all existing zoo animals in the U.S. This undertaking consisted of first cataloging all zoos and their contact info in America. Though I quickly discovered that a comprehensive list was utterly impossible, I eventually moved on to the second step: contacting each zoo and requesting a list of their animals. This proved to be very difficult. Even if I, by some miracle, was able to get an animal curator on the phone, they were nine times out of ten very reluctant to give this information to me. Why? Because they were afraid of PETA-type freaks using this information against them somehow. When I was asked for what this information would be used, I did not have a well thought out answer. I guess I just think that the conservation of our wild charges should be a community effort and that there should be some comprehensive information available from all zoos -to all zoos, starting with a database of all zoo animals. Although zoos are moving away from the “for profit” model, most zoos are run from funds generated by selling tickets and concessions which, when factored with the controversy of keeping captive animals, breeds a culture of privacy. I finally abandoned the project when I discovered a group of about half a dozen seasoned zoo professionals with millions of dollars in funding that were compiling a similar database. How could I compete?
My efforts were not completely wasted however. I feel that I learned much about the way different zoos are run, the many different kinds of zoos there are, where the zoos are located, and which zoos best fit my concept of what a zoo ought to be. Most importantly maybe was that it kept me engaged in all things zoo. My friend Murph once told me that if you want to do something badly enough you must live and breath it throughout your quest. Murph badly wanted to become a long-liner fisherman in an industry that dislikes “green” fisherman. In Murph’s spare time he assiduously practiced knot tying, read fisherman magazines, and kept up on fish prices. During his day job, pitching halibut, he constantly asked fisherman for leads on job openings and pestered potential captains. Today Murph is doing exactly what he set out to do: he is a long-liner in the Bering Sea fishing for black cod.
Murph’s guide to success requires a heavy dose of pestering so I began a diligent campaign to land an internship with a reputable zoo. The Pittsburgh Zoo was my top choice but I considered it a long shot. I applied to more than twelve internships around the country and began receiving a steady flow of denial letters. I could see that the lack of a related degree was going to be an issue.
Finally I landed a telephone interview with the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence that I felt like I really nailed with my passionate address to their question as to the importance of zoos. Sure enough they offered me the internship and we prepared ourselves for a fall internship in Rhode Island.
Right before we left Maine for a week in Maryland (before leaving to Alaska for the summer) I received an email from a gorilla keeper at the Pittsburgh Zoo suggesting an interest in taking me on as an intern. After a few more emails and a telephone call I was offered an internship at the Pittsburgh Zoo caring for the gorillas and painted dogs. The fact that I wasn’t a young college student and was switching careers to do something I was passionate about ended up working in my favor. The keeper that offered the internship to me had become a keeper later in life in much the same manner and so understood my position.
After my internship in Pittsburgh I could end up just about anywhere in the U.S (except Wyoming; they have no zoos) or beyond. The only state’s zoos I would rather not work in are the farthest south zoos as I melt in extremely high temperatures. Other than that Heather and I are pretty open.
So here we are in Pittsburgh, settled in and ready to learn my new trade. I just emailed Roseann, my supervisor and teacher for the next three or four months, and expect a reply tomorrow when she gets back to work.
