Text version of video - STEM Career:  Zookeeper

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Science Technology Engineering Mathematics
STEM Career Connections

(zookeeper narration)
My name is Jen Kottyan, and I am a zookeeper here at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.

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Text on screen: What does a zookeeper do?

(zookeeper narration)
Zookeepers spend their days taking care of the animals. So we come in and we make sure all of the animals are healthy and accounted for. We also do their diet preparations, so we'll come in and we weigh and measure out all of their food on the scales to make sure we have enough food for everybody, and then we will feed them. We'll watch them eat to make sure everyone is eating and everyone is healthy.

(zookeeper explains food chart) So every penguin has its own number. So when we feed them, we'll give them a fish and then mark down on this sheet who ate what type of fish so we can keep track of how much they're eating.
Text on screen: What is a habitat?

(zookeeper narration)
A habitat is something that the animal needs to survive. It provides them food, shelter and water. An example of a habitat is the rainforest. So, there's different layers of the rainforest. The birds will use all of the trees and the bushes as their shelter, and for nesting too. It also provides them with food, and they also get water from the streams and the ponds. And they also get water from the fruit that are on the trees that are growing and also from the rain droplets that are falling off the leaves.
Here at the zoo we created the penguin habitat by making sure that we had plenty of water for them, since they are aquatic birds they like to spend lots of time in the water so they need lots of water to swim around in. And they also like to make sure that they have shelter for nesting, so we had to make sure that we had lots of nesting spots for them.
Another habitat here at the zoo that I work with is our African aviary, which houses a lot of different species of birds, and it's similar to the rainforest because it has different layers. It provides water, because they have a large freshwater pond, and it also has a lot of trees which also provide shelter for them and shade so they can get out of the sun.

Text on screen: What do you like most about your job?

(zookeeper narration)
The favorite part of my job is getting to work with the animals every day so closely. I get to work with all different species of birds every single day, and every day is different, no day is the same.

Text on screen: How did you become a zookeeper?

(zookeeper narration)
When I was young, I used to play with animals all the time, and I love the ocean, so I used to go in the ocean all the time and really, really love fish.  So, I went to school to become a marine biologist and study everything about the ocean, and that led me into working with penguins.