Amy Twentyman

What animals do you work with?

I have worked in many divisions including the Taronga Wildlife Hospital, Bird division, Australian mammals, Asian division and Reptile Division I have worked with so many different animals at the zoo during my career.

As a vet nurse I get to look after every thing from tiny native mice to elephants. We also have the wildlife hospital so I get to see and care for lots of Australian wildlife and amazing seabirds.

How long have you been working as a zookeeper/vet nurse?

I have been a zoo keeper for around 9 years as a casual and permanent employee and of those 9 years I have been vet nursing for about 5 years.

How did you get into zoo keeping/vet nursing as a profession?

I started my career as a volunteer keeper on the bird division in 1999 during this time I was also studying the zoo keeping certificate at TAFE.  In 2000 I got a casual job with the Australian mammal division worked with them for about 18 months. I was then offered some work on the Asian mammal division and got to work with the large carnivores.

When my time there finished I worked on the reptile division as well as the live breeding unit.

But the best job came when I got to work at the Taronga Wildlife Hospital. I started here in 2003 and fell in love with my job -it's the best job ever! While working at Taronga Zoo I was also studying vet nursing and was lucky enough to get a permanent job and have been here ever since.

What do you love most about your job?

Everything, it's the best job and since I was young I have always wanted to do it. There is so much variety and every day there is something new and challenging. My favourite section is the wildlife intensive care unit as I love seeing all the amazing wildlife that I might never see otherwise, like the large sea birds that live out in the ocean like wandering albatross or Giant petrels. It is very rewarding being able to rehabilitate animals and get them released back out into their natural habitats. To be honest ......I cried the first time I got to release a Little Penguin back to the ocean off a beach near where he was found sick and injured. It was so rewarding and I was very happy and emotional.

What has been the wildest moment of your career so far?

I don't have just one wildest moment; every day at the zoo is WILD!! I never know what will happen from one day to the next day I could be bottle feeding an orphan baby possum one minute or helping do surgery on a tiger or taking x-rays of an elephant the next.

Given that Tacker was so incredibly small, did this present any unique challenges when hand raising him?

Raising Little Tacker was exceptionally challenging. Being so small you really had to be careful when handling the little guy to feed him. He weighed just four grams on arrival so he was treated with kid gloves.