Find out what it takes to be a cheetah keeper at the Living Desert
It’s a childhood dream for many–and soon to be a reality for one lucky valley resident–the chance to be a zookeeper. The Living Desert is celebrating the year of the cheetah and letting someone take care of the big cats for a day. CBS Local 2’s Kelley Moody got to see what it takes.
If you’ve ever dreamed of being a zoo keeper, now’s your chance to spend a day with the animals and of course, you’ll need to dress the part. The lucky employee for a day will get outfitted–name tag and all then, it’s off to a behind the scenes look at the cheetah exhibit.
“We get all our tools from the cart that we need to take care of them. The food and of course the garbage bucket that we have to put things in. And then as we’re walking down to the gate, we kind of want to keep an eye out for them. We want to look for all our cheetahs and make sure that we get a head count,” said Ben Klopf, Animal Care manager at the Living Desert.
The Living Desert implements a “lock out tag out” procedure before entering an enclosure to make sure the animals are secured and separated from the keepers. When the cheetahs come into the service area, keepers watch their behavior to make sure they’re in good health from head to tail.
Animal keeper Lorena Muro says she can tell each of them apart based on their facial features, eye color, and of course, purr-sonality. And speaking of purs..
“Cheetahs do pur, especially when they’re very happy and eating. So it’s very very cute. They also have two other vocalizations, the bark and the chirp,” said Muro.
The enclosure is cleaned while the cheetahs lounge in the back, and let’s just say they aren’t quite litter box trained.
Once the enclosure is clean, it’s time to feed. And what better meal than some raw meatballs! They also serve as an incentive during the daily cheetah run.
“We run the cheetah’s every single day at 11:15 to give guests the opportunity to see them in action. So we ask the cheetah’s to run the entire length of the exhibit a couple of times to get them healthy and moving and get them doing a little exercise,” said Muro.
There’s a bit of exercise involved for the keeper for a day as well. I had to get my throwing arm going to toss some meatballs to the center of the enclosure for the cheetahs to enjoy post-run.
From there, the keeper for a day gets to spend some time with some other critters at the Living Desert and play a role in the daily reptile show.
But the cheetah’s are the main event.
The Living Desert hopes the contest will bring awareness to the decreasing population of cheetahs in the wild.
You can enter to win a chance at being a cheetah keeper for a day at the Living Desert. For more information, visit www.LivingDesert.org or call 760-346-5694.
