Volunteers come to us from all walks of life and we are pleased to allow individuals the opportunity to spend time helping us out, in return for learning new skills and knowledge.
Joe joined us a couple of months ago, and volunteers once a week with his support worker Chip. Joe is autistic, and struggles with social situations. However, he loves animals and this really shows in his work.
At home, Joe has a menagerie of animals himself, including snakes, insects and a dog. He has joked about opening up a Zoo himself one day! He enjoys spending time working with our Keepers on the Mammals, and has a soft spot for the Meerkats. Joe is a dab hand at poo picking and spot cleaning the enclosures, and is meticulous with his raking, despite the Meerkats doing their best to make a mess!
Although most of our volunteers join us to help with the birds, we say that they have to earn their time flying the birds, and Joe was fortunate to get his first flying experience with Auckland last week. Auckland is one of our star birds during displays, as her small size means she will frequently fly between visitors and even sit beside them on the benches.
We are not currently doing displays, but visitors are welcome to watch us exercising our birds, and quite a crowd gathered while Joe and Chip were flying Auckland with our trainee Dolly and experienced volunteer Jan. Both the guys did really well with an audience and are looking forward to their next flying opportunity.
