Old McDonald Had a Zoo

I was several years into my career as a zookeeper before I first made the acquaintance of a guanaco, but it was very early on when I first met its domestic relatives, the llama and the alpaca.   They, along with goats and sheep, pigs and ponies, and a few small cattle, gave me some of my first hands-on experience working with large animals.   I am certainly not the only zookeeper to have had this experience.  For many of us, the road to working with big cats, bears, giraffes, and a whole host of other species begins in the zoo’s farmyard.

Almost every zoo I’ve ever been to, the large and the small, has a farmyard.  In the case of some of the smaller facilities, it practically takes up the whole zoo, to the extent that the zoo is typically thought of as a petting zoo.  These can be some of the most popular parts of the zoo for many visitors, especially for children.  Compared to the late 1800's, when many American zoos were first being established, very few Americans (especially younger ones) grew up on or around farms, so a goat is as exotic as a gazelle to many children – and far more approachable.  At the same time, visitors know what the animals are, even if they’ve never seen them before.  It can be a lot more pleasurable for a small child to see an animal that they recognize from their picture book or cartoon than a very rare, obscure creature that they have never heard of.

Being domesticated, farm animals have little fear of humans and are comfortable in close proximity to us.  They are easy for guests to see up close, and are often active and engaging.  Farmyards provide one of the few opportunities for zoo visitors to interact with zoo animals, whether it be feeding grain to a llama or brushing a goat’s coat.   A tiger is apt to be sleeping in the shade when you approach its habitat.  A goat will be all up in your business, ready to inspect your pockets for edibles.

Domestic animals are where many keepers cut their teeth as trainees in the field.  Domestics were seen as “easier” on many levels.  Compared to the mysteries of many zoo animals, we already know a lot about the care and welfare of farm animals.  They are safer to work with than many species – a mischievous Billy goat can be a pain in the butt, but nowhere near as lethal as a bull sable antelope.  Their comfort with humans makes medical management much easier; they are less inclined to hide symptoms and are much easier to get in hand for vet exams.  Their enclosures – usually simple corrals, pens, and coops – are easy to clean and maintain, without complicated life support or water features. 

The downside of all of this, of course, has been a tendency to treat farm animals (and their keepers) sometimes as… lesser.   So much focus on improving welfare and standards for exotic and native wildlife species under human care has sometimes resulted in overlooking the farmyard.   Pens in this section of the zoo, while certainly more spacious and comfortable that what might be encountered in a factory farm, tend to be small and stark compared to what the wild animals get elsewhere in the zoo.  The same could be said about enrichment and training (until fairly recently).  If efforts elsewhere in the park were being made to recreate “the wild,” as zoo staff understood it, then the farmyard was an effort to recreate a idyllic “Old McDonald’s,” without, perhaps, much understanding of what that actually looked like.

It’s not surprising, then, that farmyard keepers were often looked down upon.  They were seen as second-class keepers, who would either a) wash out and be replaced by the next crop of seasonal help or b) prove themselves and graduate into “real” zookeepers.

I’ve been happy to see that in recent years, the trend has changed.  The understanding seems to have dawned on many zoo professionals that farmyard animals benefit as much from modern care practices as wild animals do.  In fact, in some ways farm animals are easier to give higher quality care to – they respond readily to training and enrichment, having less inherent fear of their caretakers than many wild animals – you can often see a llama or a goat being taken for a walk around the zoo, which you can’t do with, say, an addax (at least, not more than once).  Their enclosures aren’t “natural,” so they don’t have to deal with the stigma of unnatural looking enrichment.  In many ways, they make ideal animal ambassadors.

As standards for farm animal care have risen, so has the importance of the farmyard keeper, to make sure that those standards are being upheld, ideally exceeded.  They’re being recognized more as “real” keepers… which they always really were.  Some people just didn’t notice.

The thing is, a goat doesn’t really know or understand that it’s a goat, not some fancy exotic ungulate – and even to the extent that it does know and understand that, it doesn’t care.  Being a common domestic animal in no way diminishes its need for quality care, a comfortable habitat, an appropriate social grouping, and a good relationship with its caretakers.

Being a common, “boring” animal should never justify receiving common care.