As I enter the latter years of my life, I wonder if I really want to spend more time at the office. What I really want to spend the rest of my life doing is raising and caring for the bigger or endangered species of cats – ocelots, leopards, cougars, cheetahs, fishing cats. I’ve been to Africa three times, but I’d rather work in North America.
Where can I find such work, and how do I convince them to hire me? I am not a vet, though I have advanced degrees in biopsychology (for whatever that is worth).
(P.S. thanks for the Monty Python reference. I don’t want to tame lions or kittens, I just want to work with animals).
It sounds like you might be interested in working as a zoo keeper or in a wildlife management area. What I would suggest is getting as much infomation as possible about what that entails and then visiting a wildlife preserve or zoo and talking to the handlers about what the job really consists of. Perhaps you can volunteer to do grunt work at a zoo to help yourself discover if you really enjoy the environment.
Great suggestions, Calliope. Thanks!
There is a place near Spokane, WA called Cat Tales. It is a rescue facility and zoological park for large cats. They have a 1-year training program for wannabe keepers, and their graduates work all over the country.
It’s a very cool place to visit, when Cervaise and I were there I hand-fed a tiger and he hand-fed a lion!!! (We were under the careful supervision of a zoo keeper student, and fed animals who had been trained to take food safely from strangers.) It was of the coolest things I have ever done.
Their web site is: http://www.cattales.org/
That’s exactly the kind of information I’m looking for. Thanks!
I wonder how many other such places there are around the country.
This reminds me of something my father once did.
He got some junk mail from a life insurance company that claimed they would write a policy for anybody, and invited him to fill out an application. It was postage prepaid, so he put down his age as 97 and his occupation as “lion tamer”.
Then he forgot about it. About a month later, he got a phone call.
“Is this Mr. Bob?”
“Yes.”
“Mr. Bob, the lion tamer?”
(Pause, while he recalled the form he had filled out.) “Umm, no. That was a joke. Do you really insure lion tamers?”
“Well, lion tamers need insurance too…”
Anyway, good luck. And in case you were wondering, it is possible to get insurance. Do be careful.
TLB
Ungh! Ungh! Can’t… hold… back… Monty… Python… reference…
Do you have your own hat?
Are you sure you wouldn’t rather start with anteaters?
Sorry. I’m so ashamed…
I wondering if anyone has done the EarthWatch Expeditions. Dr. Laundré has been radio-tagging mountain lions for years. His latest Earthwatch expedition is in Mexico.
Has anyone done an EW expedition related to animals?