LEGO Zoo #0020: Tarantula Presentation

For the concluding mini-set of National Zookeeper Week, let's look at one of the most important functions that zookeepers do in addition to all of their other duties:  educating the public about the animals in their care.

Educating the public about animals is one of the most important roles of the modern zoo, and zookeepers play an integral role in that process through daily keepers chats and presentations.  Here, Marie is telling visitors about the important role that spiders play in controlling populations of pesky insects.  With any luck, her listeners may overcome some of their fears about spiders and think about letting spiders they find in the wild go about their business, instead of killing them.

Created with LEGO Digital Designer

LEGO Zoo #0019: Horse Hand-rearing

The fourth mini-set of National Zookeeper Week shows one of the hardest jobs that zookeepers have to do:  hand-rearing baby animals that have been orphaned or rejected by their mothers.

While many animal species, particularly fish and reptiles, show no parental care for their offspring, the situation is different for birds and mammals.  If a bird or mammal parent fails to care for its offspring, the animals are very likely to die without intervention.  This is where the zookeepers take over.  Hand-rearing is a time-consuming and risky task, because humans are not as effective at raising an animal as a member of its own species might be.  Baby mammals have to be fed milk diets with very specific nutrients, and keepers must often stay overnight in order to feed at regular intervals.  A lot of hard work will pay off, eventually, and the babies will grow up to raise offspring of their own.

Created with LEGO Digital Designer