I don’t know why this amuses me so but it does and it’s definitely mundane and pointless. I live in Montgomery, capital city of a state so deep in proration that girls have to supply their own sanitary napkins in public schools and hiring freezes are pretty much everywhere, but one of the jobs on the City/County listings is for something that Montgomery is just crawling (or thundering) with qualified personnel for:
I underlined some of my favorite bits and pieces are underlined.
The reason I’m posting this here is that I’m guessing the city hasn’t gotten deluged with qualified applicants (I’ve got 6 months experience working with elephants in a circus setting of course but it was 5 and a half years ago, dang it) and crazier things have happened: perhaps there’s some Doper who has a brother-in-law who’s just been sitting around the house depressed and listless ever since Armando had to go answer those questions about the talking chimp he raised and subsequently vanished, and til now said brother-in-law didn’t think that he’d find a job handling elephants in this recession, and I’ll have made some dreams come true. So if you know anyone who’s got the qualifications and needs work, tell 'em about the ad. But remember that if their experience came from Honest Thuy Langtosak’s EZ Kredit Used Elephant Sales then the guy from the Cirque du Utica may beat them out.
Is the requirement for running, supposed to cover the situation where th elephant is getting very angry? I don’t think anyone would need to tell me it’s time to run
That’s Montgomery as well, except the machines are stocked with napkins brought in by the students. At the beginning of each school year parents are given lists of things to supply and the lists are embarassing: napkins (sanitary and lunchroom variety), pencils/pens/paper (for the school, not the student), paper towels, cleaning supplies, etc., because our education budget is that strapped. I knew one teacher who was rejected when she requested coathangers due strictly to budgetary reasons (she bought them herself- a dozen for a dollar or whatever- so students could hang their heavy coats in winter).
The posted position isn’t without some risk. I think it’s important you also have a co-worker that can maintain a clear line of thought in stressful situations… and that wears grippy shoes.
Nothing surprising about a demand for trained elephant keepers. Those elephants don’t take care of themselves. Actually I guess they do, technically. But it’s probably not a good idea in Alabama.
I suspect it may be the “must be able to run” qualification that’s keeping applicants away. That sort of caveat really doesn’t inspire confidence that the Montgomery Zoo is running their elephant facility on a truly professional level. It also raises the question of what happened to the elephant keeper who previously occupied that position.
Elephants are marvelously intelligent creatures, which no doubt has its advantages and disadvantages. Elephant keeping is hellaciously dangerous by all accounts, but it probably has its rewarding aspects as well. Plus, it entitles you to put “mahout” on your résumé, and who wouldn’t want that? It’s worth it just to have an excuse to say it. Mahout! Mahout!
Fun fact: a full-grown elephant produces roughly 200 pounds of dung per day.
The birth canal of an elephant is so long that the umbilical cord breaks about half way along. I suppose that’s a good lesson for the calf in “Life Sucks”, but it must be a rough trip out.
Another fun elephant act: elephants are closely related to dugongs and manatees, but one of their closest living relatives among land animals is the hyrax, an animal that rarely weighs more than 10 lbs…
What kind of zoo is Montgomery running? You need those kind of qualifications just to volunteer at the L.A. Zoo. To actually get paid, you need a graduate degree.
