Have you ever wanted to know what being a zoo keeper is like? Well, here’s your chance! This week is Zoo Keeper Appreciation Week, so we’re featuring a zoo keeper each day to give you a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on at the Zoo. Today’s amazing keeper is Mary Clarke, who has been a zoo keeper here for nearly 2 years.

Primates keeper Mary Clarke offers a stick to Kindu, our youngest Red Tailed Guenon.

Growing up, Mary’s mom was a vet tech so it only makes sense that she has been an animal lover from the start. As she learned about the animal world, her interests evolved from domestic/medical to exotic/caretaking, thus starting her journey to become a zoo keeper!

One of Mary’s favorite aspects of the job is that nothing is predictable. Each day is different from the one before because no matter how hard you try, you cannot predict animal behavior. The Primate department is a large one with many different sections and different animals. The keepers in this section generally rotate through the various exhibits so they have to adjust their days based on which animals they are caring for. The job keeps Mary on her toes as she always has to think about enrichment, diet and behavior for each individual animal.

Even though her days are filled with a variety of activities, I asked Mary what a typical day was like and of course there is a lot of cleaning! She generally cleans for 5-6 hours a day, starting with the exhibits, then moving to the inside night houses once the animals are out for the public to view. Throughout the day, each species gets fed 3-4 times and we cannot forget about enrichment! Every day after feeding, the animals get some sort of enrichment. Then with what time is left, the keepers work on projects and training if possible.

Mary says that the biggest challenge about being a primate keeper is constantly trying to come up with new enrichment ideas. Primates are so smart, and each individual has different interests. So the keepers have to come up with new, novel ways to present some of the same things. If you have any enrichment ideas you can share them with the keepers here at the Houston Zoo. Or, if you have an interest in purchasing enrichment items for some of our animals, you can check out their wish list at Amazon.com.

Mary works with a lot of different animals in the primates department including the babirusa, De Brazza’s monkey, siamangs, mangabeys, colobus, lemurs, and chimps…and it doesn’t stop there! When asked which are her favorite (a tough question for any keeper) Mary said that can depend on how they are behaving that day. But her current favorite is the baby siamang, Leela. She has started a lot of training with her and she is quite a rockstar!

Mary has been especially hard at work building a bond with Leela, the baby siamang. In order to build this bond, they spend a lot of time playing together through the wire mesh of the enclosure. This type of interaction is called “protected contact.”  Even though Leela is a baby, she will grow to be big and very strong, and the safety of the keepers and the animals is of utmost importance. By interacting with Leela, Mary has found that she is very ticklish under her chin and if she lets you tickle her there she makes a cute noise. To max out the adorable factor, when Leela gets excited she puts on a funny play face where she smiles really big, closes her eyes and tries to run around (with a tendency to run into things). After observing her mom, Jambi, the keepers noticed that she has the exact same play face!

The training and play time actually ties into what Mary said is one of the most rewarding aspect of the job: when an animal accepts you. They are wild animals, and you don’t want to push any boundaries. You need to work on their terms, and when they are willing to work with you it is pretty awesome.

Stay tuned all week for more keeper features!

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