Surrounded by playful black bears and a roaming grizzly, Hastings College wildlife biology major Chyenne Tidyman spent her summer learning the ropes of zookeeping as an intern at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas.
Tidyman, who is from Holdrege, Nebraska, had many duties at the zoo, including feeding, watering and cleaning up after the animals, interacting with elk, white-tailed deer, bison, black-footed ferrets, black bears, river otters and a grizzly bear.
The zoo also holds cougars, and while Tidyman had limited interactions with them because they require more seasoned zookeepers, she did choose to focus on them for an internship capstone project.
“I researched where cougars spend most of their time during the day, and then built a graphic and marked up a photo so the public would know where to look for the cats,” she said, adding that she also summarized the data and wrote a paper with her findings.
“All of the animals I interacted with had unique routines we had to follow,” Tidyman said.
For example, Tidyman said the elk routine began at 7:00 a.m. and was tedious. It’s a large exhibit that had to be raked because of the small pellets elk produce. From there, she’d move to raking and cleaning the elk barn to ensure that they would have a clean and cozy place to sleep at night.
“I learned a lot about the elk throughout my time doing the elk routine,” she said. “For example, when bull elk are in the velvet stage of antlers, their antlers are very sensitive, so the elk avoid touching their antlers to anything during this time.”
Tidyman said she loved watching the animals and learning their habits.
“My favorites to watch were the black bears because they were only a year old and played with a lot of energy,” she said.
Tidyman sought out the internship because the zoo didn’t advertise opportunities. Tidyman applied for the animal care position even though it was an unpaid position, believing instead that she may gain knowledge from the experience.
“The hours were flexible and they worked with my schedule, allowing me to also have a part-time paid job,” Tidyman said.
Tidyman said she learned a lot in her experience and wants to encourage others to apply for similar opportunities.
“It felt great caring for the animals and seeing the animals happy because of what I have accomplished,” Tidyman said.
Though zookeeping was not on Tidyman’s radar as a career, she is already looking ahead to next summer in the hope of working for another zoo.
“This experience taught me that zookeeping is definitely a career I could see myself pursuing one day,” Tidyman said.