For the girls 12th Birthday we bought them a Zoo keeper for the day experience at Banham Zoo in Norfolk. (we also vlogged our day and you can watch our vlog here)
Now I know what you are thinking! “Why did you buy one in Norfolk when you live in Kent?”
Well I will tell you… We love Banham Zoo, Craig’s dad lives in Norfolk, so we have been to Banham Zoo quite a bit when we have visited him and to be honest I looked at the experiences at our local zoo’s and they didn’t quite do what I was looking for.
As I said, we got this for their 12th birthday however it took us nearly a year to get round to booking it! We finally booked it just before they turned 13, so it was almost like they did it for their 13th birthday.
You could either book it for the morning or the afternoon
and thinking about how long it would take us to get there, we opted for the
afternoon session.
We set off at about 9.45am and the journey up was nice and clear, so we arrived
at the zoo just after 11.30am.
It was quite a cold day, so we wrapped up warm and walked to the entrance,
booked in and then we were allowed to have a wander around the zoo before their
experience started at 1pm.
The girls had a little practice before they started by
feeding the Rats. Just next to the rats there is a machine that you pay 50p and
some food comes out (a bit like a sweet machine but for rats!) which you then
drop down a little shoot and it ends up in a tray in the rat enclosure for them
to eat.
There wasn’t enough time to walk around and see all the
animals before their experience started, but we managed to see Chloe’s
favourite animal – The Tigers. She would love to feed the Tigers but you have
to be 14 to be able to do that at Banham Zoo, so that’s her 14th
birthday present sorted haha!
After a little walk around, we got a quick bite to eat in the restaurant and headed back to the zoo entrance, ready to meet the keeper that was going to be taking them around.
First of all they got to have a look at where all the food for the animals was kept and prepared for the animals – Meat, fruit, veg, fish and dry food, which they found very interesting as that’s not something you usually get to see when you visit a zoo.
For the first job, we were off to the warmth of the Red-footed Tortoise enclosure, where the girls cleaned each tortoise and fed them some greens.
Next up and I have to say I was very jealous of this, was feeding the Giraffes!!! How amazing is that?
I think Giraffes have to be one of my favourite animals, the
way they move, their height and the patterns is all just amazing and
fascinating!
After the fun of feeding the giraffes it was time for the girls to put in a bit of graft and clean out the baboons. The keeper coaxed the baboons into their outdoor enclosure with some tasty food and then shut the door so that they couldn’t get back in, while the girls cleaned them out, washed the windows and put some more food in for the baboons to find. These animals look very cute and cuddly, but you should see the teeth on these things!!!
While the girls went and preparded the food for the red tailed lemurs, I had a little look at the penguins and sea lions, who both had fantastic enclosures.
Chloe and Lucy then went on to the Red-tailed Lemurs, to feed them and hold them. Unfortunarely because of the glass and positioning of where the girls were standing I couldn’t really get any photos or get to film them doing this, but the keeper took a few photos and as part of the zoo keeper experience package they each get a photo, so we picked the ones of them holding the lemurs.
On the way back to collect the girls photos and certificates there was one last animal to feed, anyone know what these timid creature is?
It is indeed a Mongoose. In that box, hidden in the straw are some mealworms and crickets for them to search for.
The girls had such a fantastic day (well we all did!) and this has made them want to become zoo keepers even more when they are older. It may not pay the most money, but I think it would be such a fulfilling job to do.
For anyone that is interested, this was the junior keeper experience at Banham zoo which you can find here. As part of the package you also get entrance to the zoo for an adult with every child participant, a t-shirt, printed photo and a certificate.
Don’t forget you can also watch our Vlog of our day too.