By Alesha Capone
ZOOKEEPER Lance Weldhagen enjoys spending his days hanging out with hippos and rambling with rhinos.
These school holidays, the Werribee Open Range Zoo employee is also sharing his love of animals with young people.
Mr Weldhagen said the ‘Keeper for a Day’ program, which takes participants behind the scenes at the zoo, allowed children to bond with the creatures they encountered.
“I think they connect more when they get to touch the animals, more than from a bus or behind a fence,” he said.
“I think you can get a good message across to them, the whole conservation message.” Mr Weldhagen said while the teenagers he takes around the zoo were often impressed by his job, older people were as well.
“The adults tell me I have the best job in the world, and I agree,” Mr Weldhagen said.
“I have an open-space office. It can be cold, but it’s worth it.”
Mr Weldhagen said one of the funniest questions he has been asked by a youngster was whether the keepers washed and brushed the zoo animals.
“But we used to brush and massage an older giraffe, Tony, with arthritis,” he said.
The zookeeper said he enjoyed spending time with all the zoo’s creatures, but he has a particular fondness for Tulip the hippopotamus, whom he has known since she was young.
“You just develop a bond with them when you’re working with them,” Mr Weldhagen said.
The animal lover has worked at Werribee Open Range Zoo for 10 years and said it was “fate” he became a zookeeper.
“Since I was six or seven I wanted to be a gamekeeper, this is as close as I could get,” he said.
The ‘Keeper for a Day’ program will be on 20 and 25 January for 13 –18 year olds. Cost: $99, bookings essential.
For enquiries see www.zoo.org.au or contact 9285 9406.
