- Volunteering at a local zoo
- Learning about zookeepers, either by reading about them or by visiting a zoo and asking questions
- Learning about and contributing to the causes that zookeepers are passionate about
- Gainesville - Cicada Wildlife Station. 352-665-4579
- Gainesville - Secret Squirrel Rehabilitation (squirrels, armadillos, opossums). 352-870-6213
- High Springs - Shirley Morgensen. 386-454-2702 or 352-538-7354
- High Springs - Sunrise Wildlife Rehabilitation. 352-222-2239
- For counties other than Alachua look at FWC's licensed wildlife rehabilitators list
As part of your efforts this week, please browse and check out books that focus on the causes that zookeepers champion. Below is a sampling from our collection.
- Wildlife conservation
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Not The End of the World by Hannah Ritchie. (2024). In this bold, radically hopeful book, a data scientist, drawing on the latest research, practical guidance, and eye-opening graphics, gives us the tools for understanding our current environmental crisis and making lifestyle changes that actually have an impact.
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60 Days to a Greener Life: Ease Eco-Anxiety Through Joyful Daily Action by Heather White. (2024). Are you worried about the climate crisis? Are you suffering from eco-anxiety? Do you want to help but you're not sure how? Do you want to learn how to make greener choices? If you answered yes to any of those questions, author and environmentalist Heather White's 60 Days to a Greener Life is the resource you need. You can read an entry every day or at your own pace. Each entry provides valuable insights and easy-to-apply ways you can live a more eco-friendly, joyful life. Each entry includes a topic or question related to our world. an easy-to-understand explanation of ways you can adjust your lifestyle. an energizing prompt that gives you simple ideas on how to apply what you've learned. 60 Days to a Greener Life will teach you about eco-anxiety, how to manage it, and why individual action matters.
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Good News, Planet Earth!: What's Being Done To Save Our World, And What You Can Do Too! (2023). Join sustainability enthusiast and climate activist Sam Bentley as he shares the hopeful developments combating climate change! Do you feel like climate change is just getting worse and there's nothing you can do to stop it? Good news—there are tons of efforts already underway to save our planet, and we'd love for you to join the fight. Good News, Planet Earth! is your go-to guide to learn all about the amazing sustainable developments that are happening worldwide to combat global warming, pollution, deforestation, the use of wasteful products, and threats to our diverse wildlife.
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Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard. (2020). Douglas W. Tallamy's first book, Bringing Nature Home, awakened thousands of readers to an urgent situation: wildlife populations are in decline because the native plants they depend on are fast disappearing. His solution? Plant more natives. In this new book, Tallamy takes the next step and outlines his vision for a grassroots approach to conservation. Nature's Best Hope shows how homeowners everywhere can turn their yards into conservation corridors that provide wildlife habitats. Because this approach relies on the initiatives of private individuals, it is immune from the whims of government policy. Even more important, it's practical, effective, and easy--you will walk away with specific suggestions you can incorporate into your own yard. If you're concerned about doing something good for the environment, Nature's Best Hope is the blueprint you need. By acting now, you can help preserve our precious wildlife—and the planet—for future generations.
- Animal welfare
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A Home Away From Home: True Stories Of Wild Animal Sanctuaries by Nicholas Read. (2020). A Home Away from Home tells the true stories of animals that live in sanctuaries across North America, from the tragic tale of Moby Doll, the first orca held in captivity in Vancouver, to the inspiring story of Thika, Toka, and Iringa, three elephants who traveled from a tiny zoo enclosure to a sprawling acreage in Sacramento, California. Often entertaining and sometimes sad, this book is an eye-opening read for children who care about the welfare of animals and want to know more about the organizations that help them.
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Animal Sanctuaries by Kelli Hicks. (2015). When animals are rescued from abusive or confining situations, they are often brought to an animal sanctuary. Here they are reintroduced into their natural-world setting they might have never known before. Beautiful photographs, facts on sanctuaries around the country, text boxes, and sidebars that give information and statistics of just how important the people who organize, oversee, and give these animals a second chance at life are all included.
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Our Animal Neighbors: Compassion For Every Furry, Fuzzy, Feathery Creature on Earth by Matthieu Ricard and Jason Gruhl. (2020). Introduces the importance of treating all animals with the care and compassion they deserve, encouraging readers to love and respect all living creatures, regardless of whether they have hands, hooves, scales, or fur.
- Zoo history
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Behind the Scenes At the Zoo: Your All-Access Guide To the World's Greatest Zoos and Aquariums by Ben Davies. (2021). Venture behind the scenes to uncover the secrets of the amazing animals and army of staff that make up these awesome attractions and vital conservation centers. Find out what keeps zookeepers busy as they care for hundreds of different animals, from mini meerkats to enormous elephants. Learn how they create the perfect habitats, moreish meals, and fun enrichment activities to keep their animals healthy and happy. Marvel at how courageous zookeepers learn to look after dangerous animals. Learn about the valuable research and conservation efforts that are so crucial for protecting our most vulnerable species. Featuring only the best zoos from around the world, this book takes you on a once-in-a-lifetime trip through zoo life to discover the enormous amounts of ingenuity and care it takes to make safe homes and futures for wild and endangered animals.
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Zoos and Animal Parks by Joanne Mattern. (2020). Where can you go to see lions, tigers, and bears? You can go to the zoo! A trip to the zoo can be very exciting. A trip to the zoo is also a great way to learn about animal habitats in faraway places.
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Worms for Breakfast: How to Feed a Zoo by Helaine Becker. (2016). Introduces the different types of food zoo animals eat, with recipes from zoos around the world, including predator popsicles, digger's delight, and presto pesto sauce.
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What's New? The Zoo!: A Zippy History of Zoos by Kathleen Krull. (2014). A millennia-long history of animal keeping shares facts about what zookeeping has taught humanity and how individual lives have been profoundly shaped by the wild creatures found in zoos all over the world.
- Zookeepers and other Zoo Staff
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What Do You Do If You Work At the Zoo? by Steve Jenkins. (2020). From Caldecott Honor-winning team Steve Jenkins and Robin Page comes an early introduction to one of young readers' favorite places: the zoo! Just a few things that a zookeeper might do at their job to keep their animals healthy, well-fed, and safe would be to brush a hippo's tusks, play soccer with a rhino, or pretend to be a vulture's mother.
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Zoo Scientists To the Rescue by Patricia Newman. (2018). Go behind the scenes and discover how scientists at three US zoos are helping wild and captive orangutans, black-footed ferrets, and black rhinoceroses.
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Bridge To the Wild : Behind the Scenes At the Zoo by Caitlin O'Connell. (2016). With stunning photographs and exemplary narrative nonfiction, the Sibert Honor-winning creators of The Elephant Scientist, Caitlin O'Connell, and Timothy Rodwell, give readers a heartwarming insider's look into a day in the life of a zoo curator and the meaningful bonds that she forms with her menagerie.
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Zookeeper For the Day by Wendy Clemson and David Clemson. (2013). Discover how zookeepers use math every day. Use real-life data to make actual zookeeper calculations. Practice your math skills by doing fun activities. Learn facts about zookeepers and zoo animals. With more than 50 math questions and activities, this entertaining series reinforces the math studied in school, plus literacy skills and science.