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Hi! I'm Erika and I love reptiles. Today I'm at the reptile Discovery Center at the
Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Washington D.C.
Inside there are so many remarkable reptiles and they all require daily care. I'm about to take you
inside to go see some of those reptiles up close and meet Kyle, an animal keeper at the Zoo.
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You've probably heard of an animal keeper before. Maybe you think about feeding animals
or even scooping poop as some of their jobs. While those are important parts of the career,
there is so much more to being a keeper. Kyle even trains reptiles as part of his career.
Before we meet him, there are three things I can tell you about Kyle and his career.
First, he knows a lot about animal biology. Second, animal care takes
great teamwork and communication. And third, training a reptile takes a lot of patience.
[crickets chirping]
Let's go meet Kyle to get the inside scoop on his career! Kyle: Hi my name is Kyle Miller and
I'm an animal keeper here at the reptile Discovery Center at the National Zoo. My
job is to take care of all the reptiles and amphibians. That's everything from the small
salamanders to the biggest crocodiles in our collection and everything in between.
Erika: How do you train a reptile? Kyle: All right, so this is Rulon one of our aldabra tortoises. So
I'm working on target training with them. I'm using a red target frisbee here. These guys
tend to be attracted to bright colors and what we do is when he touches the target,
he gets his reward. So today that reward is a carrot. The purpose of this for managing
the animal is we can get them to turn, or come to us, or position any way we need them
for medical treatments, or sometimes it's even more simple than that we just need them out the
way so we can clean. Once he targeted perfectly we'd give them a big giant reward.
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Erika: What tools do you use when training reptiles. Kyle: Okay, so we have a snake hook and that's
what we use for handling our venomous snakes. In the middle here we have our aldabra tortoise
training target. Lastly we have our target buoy. Buoys are pretty standard targeting
tool. They use them for not only reptiles but other types of animals as well,
from birds to marine mammals. So yeah we made a smaller version for reptiles.
Erika: What skills does a good zookeeper need to have? Kyle: So to be a good zookeeper you need
really good observation skills. Know your animals really well so that you know when something's off,
you know how to report that to a vet in time before it gets worse. With reptiles a good
example, we make modifications to their environment all the time as we're constantly learning about
their wild habitats. One thing we tried with our Grand Cayman iguanas was increasing their
basking temperatures. So the hottest spot in the exhibit where they can access. Through observation
we learned that 150 degree basking spot is too hot, but 120 degree basking spot is perfect.
Definitely have to have good nerves. If you're too reactive the animals play off that and that
can often lead to dangerous situations. Erika: How do you work with and train venomous snakes?
Kyle: When you're working with venomous snakes, one thing that's challenging to do in certain habitats
or certain exhibits is when you have to lean in and pull them out, and that's also a little
more dangerous. So we have a scenario where we can easily just target them to us and get them
into uh get them into a secure container. The purpose of this is to feed them separately.
So we have two animals on exhibit. False water cobras are very food motivated, so if we were to
try to feed them together on exhibit you risk them both grabbing the same prey item.
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So even when they don't come all the bucket, just them being that close to the doors better. Reptiles don't always cooperate
perfectly, but with them not coming all the way out I can still easily hook them out from
here and put them into the container, which is what I'm probably going to do.
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Erika: What is your path to becoming a Zookeeper?
Kyle: So honestly the way I got my foot in the door, in addition to my education, was volunteering. For
younger kids they have Junior zookeeper programs There are Zoo camps even at your local nature center.
So if you have any of those opportunities open to you, and family or friends that can help get
you there, that's the first way to get your foot in the doors, through volunteering.
Erika: What advice can you give to students who might be interested in being a keeper?
Kyle: The biggest thing obviously is get outside and learn as much as you can about the natural
environment around you. That's what all this ties back to or what the goal of it is to tie back to,
is saving these animals out in the wild. Erika: Thank you so much for joining as we made career
connections and learned about some of the unusual parts of being an animal keeper. I loved seeing
how Kyle can train reptiles to participate in their own care and how he uses biology to
provide the best care for the animals here at the Zoo. You can practice being a keeper just
like Kyle. Help take care of a family or class pet. Read all about it first then look up what
it might like in its habitat. Finally keep a journal of all the things that you did to take
care of the animal. I hope you liked meeting Kyle as much as I did. See you in a while crocodile!
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