| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| rachiepotatoe |
Posted - 16/09/2010 : 18:25:04
Well, 3RD year at college, but new course ;D
So now I'm doing Animal Management!
They do have two beautiful corns along with a load of another reptiles who are lovely (unfortunately, couldnt see half of them because the vivs are too tall LOL...im 4'11 )
Been hit with my first assignment already and I'm already stuck for ideas!!!
I'm thinking of doing about animal behaviour, how it's different in a zoo compared to the wild ??
Or possibly about zoo's being good or bad for wildlife conservation??
We CAN plan, conduct and evaluate a breeding programme...but I don't have the animals/equipment to do that :(
Or we can design and create an enrichment product for a animal of a certain species...but again, it's hard to make anything other than cardboard tunnels. And with only a pet snake, I'm not sure there's many things you CAN make...
Any ideas would be truley appreciated |
| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Ammerz |
Posted - 20/09/2010 : 23:52:52
Firstly stay away from comparing wild and captive behaviours, as its very hard to do cuz generally your not gunna get a captive population to observe. Looking at breeding success in Zoo's compared to private breeeders is a good idea but you may find it difficult to get hold of infomation from private breeders. If you want to look at breeding success in general a good way to look at it is compare aspecs of the husbandry of a certain species throughout different animal collections and see if anything such as temperature, viv size, diet etc has effected their success. My friend did something along these lines with turacos, looking at the size of the enclosure to breeding success. Another one of my friends did a comparison of diets for galopagose tortoises. Looking at cultivated diets (lettuce, cucumber etc) with a wild diet (weeds etc). Again this was to look at the nutritional values and effects on breeding success.
If your intrested in a behaviour and zoo's you could carry out behavioural study at a zoo looking at enrichment, seeing if it has a positive effect on their behaviour. compare with and without the enrichment. Or you could go to different zoos and study two groups of the same species and compare and contrast their behaviours and find reasons that they may be like this due to the enclosures enrichment. My foundation degree disertation was this type of thing, i compared the behaviour of hand reared wolves with that of parent reared wolves to look at nature over nuture.
If you want to look at the pros and cons of zoos that may work. Or in order not to shatter your illusions of your dream job you may want to look at insitu and exsitu conservation, compare and contast. Look at which projects are more successful.
Also a piece of advice... DO AS MUCH VOLUNTEER WORK AS POSSIBLE!!!! Seriously. if you want to work in a zoo you need the experience. I've finished my degree and am finding it impossible to get a job despite having the degree and quite a lot of expeience, a month in greece working with a sea turtle conservation, well over a year volunteering at the uk wolf conservation trust, and now i am currently working at cotswold. Zoo jobs want a minumum of 2 years experience.
Any ways... good luck with the assignment. If you need any help or anything I still have loads of stuff from college that I can dig out for you.
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| rachiepotatoe |
Posted - 19/09/2010 : 16:34:22
Yeah pretty much any job with animals pays crap
Unless you're a vet or an animal technician within a lab *scowl*
and since I don't have science A levels, and I object to animal testing, I think a career in cleaning poop or washing dogs is in my future :D haha
You shouldnt let money put you off, you won't live in luxury but you'll have great job satisfaction!! |
| liesela |
Posted - 18/09/2010 : 21:42:15
you'll never be rich but you'll be happy! :D |
| drchino |
Posted - 18/09/2010 : 01:59:52
Its def something I'm going to look into! I'd be so happy to wake up at dawn every day to go work with animals!
Whats the rough pay for a zoo job? Unfortunately money is always a factor in these things  |
| Sta~ple |
Posted - 17/09/2010 : 19:22:46
Seeing snakes get randy is easy lmao and so is them hatching and egg laying if your there at the right time. Or you could get a viv cam :D |
| rachiepotatoe |
Posted - 17/09/2010 : 12:51:49
quote:
Originally posted by gingerpony
quote:
Originally posted by rachiepotatoe
We CAN plan, conduct and evaluate a breeding programme...but I don't have the animals/equipment to do that :(
how about planning a breeding program for somebody on here who has snakes of breeding age/size?
maybe somebody who has a lot of snakes?
or a lot of morphs?
and plan the pairing up and possible outcomes of that pairing morph-wise?
or you could research and plan the mating of my Dumerils? 
I've gotta observe everything though which wouldnt work unless I went and watched some snakes making babies, seeing them lay, hatch, etc
It's only possible if you breed mice or something like that
drchino, my advice is DO WHAT YOU ENJOY!!!
I did two years of horrible A levels, got into uni for teaching and everything, then last minute I found my own voice and told everyone to stop forcing me into it, so I went back to college to do something I wanted to do
You should do it before it's too late!! |
| drchino |
Posted - 17/09/2010 : 10:03:41
I clearly did the wrong courses at college! Maybe I should consider jumping ship from IT work.... |
| gingerpony |
Posted - 17/09/2010 : 08:38:44
quote:
Originally posted by rachiepotatoe
We CAN plan, conduct and evaluate a breeding programme...but I don't have the animals/equipment to do that :(
how about planning a breeding program for somebody on here who has snakes of breeding age/size?
maybe somebody who has a lot of snakes?
or a lot of morphs?
and plan the pairing up and possible outcomes of that pairing morph-wise?
or you could research and plan the mating of my Dumerils? |
| n/a |
Posted - 16/09/2010 : 22:41:10
Have you thought of looking at the breeding rates for snakes in captivity in Zoos and compare it to maybe sucessful breeding with private collectors? See if their breeding programs actually work in the last decade? |
| rachiepotatoe |
Posted - 16/09/2010 : 22:30:57
I've been jotting down ideas all night and It's pretty much what liesela just wrote!
I've decided to investigate how zoo's 'match up' or, don't in this case to natural habitats, and how zoo's can affect health and natural behaviour in certain species like elephants :)
Pros and cons of zoos, like breeding endangered species, but offer an alternative, like wild game reserves and stuff
I'm so keen to get started and I've only been given a few titles to take a peek at ! Isn't due for 13 weeks...lmao!
Just a little worried that my entire project is going to contradict my dream to work in a zoo...bumf. |
| liesela |
Posted - 16/09/2010 : 22:14:01
I start my second year on tues next week! I'm doing Animal Science and I think first assignment we get is planning and arranging a wildlife documentary of our choice :)
the behaviour one sounds pretty cool too, the differences in wild and captive you can talk a lot about having to provide enrichments, stereotypical behaviour and how it affects them or how we notice the effects when in captivity and how it gives zoos a bad name - eg pacing in lions or tigers in zoos is natural behaviour in wild they have huge territories to roam so they just patrolling their territories etc :) I'd opt for doing one where i could get more pets though! haha!
have fun! |
| Tiffany-x |
Posted - 16/09/2010 : 21:21:49
That sounds so interesting and like so much fun! :P Im sure whatever you decide to do it will turn out great and be enjoyable! Jealous. :( :P
Tiffany-x |
| rachiepotatoe |
Posted - 16/09/2010 : 19:00:39
OOOO THAT SOUNDS GOOD!
I am quite arty and on the suggestions list it does say design a habitat / enclosure thing
And I could do it relatively cheap, just pick sticks , peel them and stick em in! cus nothing would actually be living in there
hmm, this is a good idea
I have loads of ideas springing into mind now though and I'm stuck for choice xD!
Figs, my mom wouldn't let me bring an ant in the house never mind boxes of beetles breeding xD |
| Figs |
Posted - 16/09/2010 : 18:41:28
Ooooh i'm doing an animal management course too
I likes Stapes idea too - a fancy almost naturalistic viv. Would that count as enrichment?
Or you could always get some triops or some beetles or something. Both are pretty easy to breed and make easy and funnky pets! |
| Sta~ple |
Posted - 16/09/2010 : 18:37:54
If your arty you could get some polystyrene, carve and make nice backdrop and hides and then paint them and seal them. You could also make a special vivarium with lots of nice branches screwed in or something and when your finished, you could use it for your snake. |
