A zoo apprenticeship where every day is different - Love Your Zoo 2026 Blog

This Love Your Zoo week, we're focussing on the journeys of the inspirational people who make zoos and conservation thrive. James is an Apprentice Keeper at The Fenn Bell Conservation Project:

I’m James and a Level 3 apprentice keeper having already successfully completed my Level 2.  I started off at The Fenn Bell Conservation Project as a volunteer and was then taken on as an apprentice.  Working in the zoo industry has helped shape me as a person, helped me to come out of my shell and challenged me to think about the world I want to help form.  

Most people think that Zoo keeping is all feeding and watching animals but there is so much more to it than that. Alongside feeding them and cleaning their enclosures, we make sure to provide new and interesting enrichment that challenges their brains. We have to complete mountain loads of paperwork to ensure animal welfare is being carried out to the highest standard, highlighting areas that need improvement. An example of this is the welfare audits and enrichment evaluations that the keeping team fill out.  Recently, for our Squirrel Monkey’s enrichment, I made a hanging feeder suspended in the air, using a mixture of rope and hanging plant baskets.  The Squirrel monkeys have to climb on to the moving ‘planet’ and reach inside for their food that is in a metal bowl.   They loved it and sweet potatoes are a way to their hearts.

My favourite part of being a Zoo Keeper is the interactions with the public as this makes up a big part of what Zoo keeping is in my opinion.   Through these interactions we are able to influence people’s opinions and actions when it comes to mother nature and the impact we all can have on it.  This gives me great satisfaction as if I’ve just helped teach one person a new fact, it may change their outlook and their choices in the future.

Here at the Fenn Bell we are really lucky to have a (hopefully) breeding pair of Fishing Cats, that help to contribute to ex-situ conservation.  We are all so passionate and committed to preserving this important species that the Zoo Team, including me, completed a 12,000 ft skydive for the Fishing Cat Alliance in November where we raised over £5,000!  For me it was quite brave as I had only been in a plane once before actually jumping out of one. 

I want to work with animals, and in conservation in particular, as it gives me purpose and I feel that I am making a difference to the world future generations will inherit.  I like working in a small zoo as I feel you can have a large impact in the local area.  This is through offering services to local schools and youth groups who can visit us and can benefit from a personal zoo experience.  We also provide work packs for schools as part of our outreach programme, making sure everyone has the resources and access to learn. 

I am not able to define just one highlight from my apprenticeship  journey but some of them have been:

• Working with a variety of endangered animals such as Black and White ruffed lemurs
• Pulling my colleague out of an otter pool, during routine cleaning, as she got stuck in the mud.
• Helping build enclosures such as the tropical house which is now home to a two toed sloth called Nova.
• Going to my first ABWAK conference
• Completing a training session to accreditors from BIAZA
• Talks and tours for visiting schools 

My advice for people who want to be in the animal industry is to seek out volunteering opportunities and then, to set yourself apart from others - it is not about doing the not so fun jobs it is doing the jobs that no one else wants to do.

In my life I have faced many changes such as my early diagnosis of Dyslexia, autism and anxiety.  This has made learning difficult for me but not impossible.  My Primary school said that I wouldn’t be able to get a job, but with the right support and the family that my Zoo is, has helped to show me that I can achieve what I put my mind to and I will always have someone pushing me further.  Being an apprentice is an ideal mixture of practical and theory learning and I have great support from Annie Tallentire  and Jo O’Connell at Keits and Connor Gordon at The Fenn Bell Conservation project family

In the future, I want to become a studbook keeper alongside a full time position and carry on my career at Fenn Bell Conservation Project. I’d also like to complete in situ conservation in Madagascar but I’m always open to anything and never say never. 

- James Brett (he/him), Apprentice Keeper Fenn Bell Conservation Project.

All blogs reflect the views of their author and are not necessarily a reflection of BIAZA's position