Welcome to the “Keeper Korner” at Out of Africa Wildlife Park, your exclusive portal into the fascinating world of wildlife care and education. Each month, we feature in-depth Q&As with our dedicated keepers, offering you a unique glimpse into the lives of our beloved animals and the passionate individuals who care for them. Discover the secrets behind the daily care of lizards, tigers, giraffes, and more, learn about vital conservation efforts, and get answers to your most curious wildlife questions. Whether you’re an animal lover, an aspiring zookeeper, or just eager to learn, the Keeper Korner is your go-to destination for all things wildlife. Dive into our interactive, educational experience and connect with the heart of Arizona’s premier wildlife park.
Check Out Our Keeper of the Month
Genesis is the newest keeper in the Serengeti department at Out of Africa. She started as an Intern at Zoo Montana before heading to California to join the Exotic Animal Training and Management Program at Moorpark College. There she earned her associate’s in science as well as receiving a certificate in animal training. She has a passion for training and even presented a poster at the 2024 Annual Animal Behavior Management Alliance Conference for her work teaching a temperamental baboon to file her own nails using a wooden block and sandpaper for the safety of the keepers. During her time there she chose to do an internship at Out of Africa where she fell in love with the park and specifically the Serengeti animals and team. She has been at the park for only 3 months now but has begun participating in the training of the hoof stock for their husbandry care.
Genesis has a passion for traveling to different animal facilities and hopes to continue this in her time as a keeper as well as expanding to conservation trips internationally. She knew she wanted to be an animal keeper after watching a documentary on Canned Hunting of lions in South Africa and wanted to make a difference. She loves working with a wide variety of animals and feels a special bond with hoof stock, but her favorite animals are Birds of Prey. She has worked closely with birds such as Harris Hawks, Kookaburras, and Vultures. She hopes to begin a Falconry Apprenticeship soon and eventually start a bird show of her own to educate the public on the conservation efforts of birds all over the world.
Soon after starting at Out of Africa, Genesis quickly picked up tours and began educating the public on the animals she works with. “I love the moments when I get to watch people’s eyes widen after telling them facts about my animals they would have never known.” One of the things she is proudest of since started is her work with Encore the Zebra. “Encore has a condition called Uveitis, which is inflammation of the eye. Because of this he needs special drops in his eye, but as you can imagine, administering eyedrops to a zebra isn’t exactly easy. I have worked with him for about 2 months now to train a voluntary eyedrop behavior. I started just gaining his trust and beginning to touch him and worked my way up to training him to tilt his head and hold while I administered liquid into his eye with a syringe. I am grateful for the bonding opportunity this has given me, gaining the trust of such a skeptical animal has been very rewarding.”
Genesis hopes to continue learning from the animals and people at Out of Africa and gain more hands-on experience with all the animals at the park. She also hopes to start volunteering at local animal rehabilitation centers and begin working with raptors again in her free time. Her next goal is to make a conservation trip to Africa where she can help the animals that first got her into this career as well as see all the animals she enjoys working with every day in their natural habitat.
Keeper Questions
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Can you tell me about the different types of rhino?
So there are five different types of rhino. Jericho is a white rhino. There’s also black rhinos- those are the two types you’ll find in Africa. Then there’s three more species. There’s going to be a Sumatran rhino, Javan rhino, and one-horned rhino. You’ll find those in Asia.
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If I travel to Africa, how would I tell a black rhino from a white rhino?
So if you take a look at Jericho, you’ll notice he has very wide lips, and it kinda looks like he has a rectangle at the top. That’s how you can tell he’s a white rhino. A black rhino is going to have the opposite features. Their lips are going to come to a point and going to be more triangular. And that is because Jericho eats things off the ground, while a black rhino is more of a browser. So you’ll see them grabbing stuff off trees. They have these prehensile lips to help them pick things off that they like to eat.
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Tell me about your journey in becoming a rhino keeper.
So I started at a little place called Zoo Montana. I was an intern there, and I asked the keepers how I could get where they are. They told me there was a school in California where I’d be working at a zoo on campus as I went through college. So I’d spend half my day in class and half my day with the animals. I moved to California and went through the program. One of my classes there was all about internships. So I got to choose anywhere in the world I wanted to go. And I chose here at Out of Africa! I did a week long internship and loved it here. After I went home I immediately applied to come back and luckily they took me, and now I’m working with all my favorite animals.
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What would you say is the most important advice you can offer someone who wants to work with rhinos?
So my advice is to talk to everyone. Anyone who’s a zookeeper wants to talk about their animals, so any park that you go to, or any zoo, just go up to a keeper and start asking them questions and get to learn more. We LOVE to talk.
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I heard September is a very special month for rhinos, Can you tell me why?
One of my favorite things I’ve learned since coming to Out of Africa is that I get to share a very special day with Jericho. Me and Jericho have the same birthday! But there’s also something happening that day that’s bigger than both of us. It’s World Rhino Day. It’s gonna be September 22nd. World Rhino Day is to celebrate and bring awareness to rhinos all over the world as well as the people that take care of them.
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Why is it important to raise awareness about rhino conservation?
So there’s a lot happening to these guys out in the wild. Their numbers are decreasing, and that is mostly just because of poaching. People are poaching them still for their horns, which a lot of people believe have some miracle qualities. But really it’s just made of keratin, which is the exact same thing our hair and toenails are made out of. Now people think that have medicinal purposes and that goes back generations and generations. So it’s hard to break these thought processes. When you think about it – using that in your food to cure you – that’s just like putting toenails in your food.
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The numbers are still going down?
There’s about one rhino killed about every seven hours in the wild, so that averages about three a day. With those numbers, that’s not going to last us very long. There is one subspecies that only has one or two rhinos left. So you can see how drastic those changes can be.
Submit your questions!
If you love animals and have a question – ask! We would love to answer your questions about our animal friends and what it’s like to be a Keeper!
If you are a classroom, we would love to hear from you! Please submit your questions all on one form (attach below). List your teacher’s name, the school, the class and the town. Limit your questions to no more than TEN, and try to only ask about one animal or area of the park. IE: Mr. Smith’s 3rd Grade Class from Harrison Elementary in Denver Colorado, asking about lizards, or Jericho the Rhino, etc. We will let you know if your class is selected, and answer all your questions, in a special Keeper Korner!
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