Bless the beasts and beastkeepers

Southern Living, May 1998 by Carlton, Michael

Southern zookeepers speak a language the majority of us don't understand-a language of coos, coaxing, and, most of all, caring that speaks volumes to our region's captive animals.

Here we visit two zookeepersone at North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro, the other at New Orleans' Audubon Zoo-about their very special calling.

"I don't know how my love for animals began," Marsha Fernandez says as she sits not 6 feet from a huge lowland gorilla at Audubon Zoo. "I guess I was genetically hardwired. I was allergic to fur and feathers and sick a lot as a kid, so I went the reptile route-box turtles and lizards and the occasional snake that my mother hated. But that didn't satisfy my `fur need.'

"Eventually I outgrew the allergy and got my first dog, a black cocker, at age 13, and I haven't looked back." Indeed she hasn't.

As assistant curator of mammals, Marsha is in charge of both the World of Primates and the sea lions. But it's the primates, it seems, she most enjoys. "Gorillas are shy and quiet and they have a great giggle," she says, leading the way along the boardwalk to the gorilla enclosure. "They are like classic third and fourth graders because they love physical humor. If they can scare you and make you scream, they'll just sit back and chuckle.

"Orangutans, on the other hand," she continues, walking to the overlook of the great shambling orangehaired primates, "orangutans are a little more sophisticated. They are the mechanics of the primate world. If gorillas see a box held together by screws, they will smash the box to see what's inside. An orangutan will take out each screw, screw by screw, to see what's inside."

At this moment one of the young orangutans is nestled inside a cardboard box, with only its arms showing. "They're just like children," Marsha says with real affection, as the sun dances through her long, gray-tinged hair and highlights her strong cheekbones. "The box is always the best part of the present."

Such presents are a big part of the day in the World of Primates. "Primates are intelligent, so we try to give them things to interest and occupy them," she says. "We put out new toys each morning. Sometimes we'll give them boxes or Tshirts, and sometimes we'll hide their food to keep them interested."

Marsha has had extraordinary success with the creatures, even convincing gorillas to give her their arms when it's time for an injection. "That's the most gratifying part, gaining the trust of an animaleven when you have to do something unpleasant. They still trust and like you, even when you give them a shot."

Marsha, who has been at Audubon Zoo since 1982, thinks such emotional attachment is necessary to be a good zookeeper. "When I look for a keeper to hire I look for one who knows the animals are dangerous but loves them and wants to be near them. You have to be emotionally involved and want the very best for the animals."

Sometimes, alas, the animals don't necessarily want what is best for the keeper. "I have friends who are missing a finger or have very interesting wounds," she says. "But I've been lucky. The only stitches I've gotten were from a golden lion tamarin who bit me. It was like being eaten by a tiny sewing machine."

Despite the risks, Marsha, along with most zookeepers, would be doing nothing else. She feels zoos have an important role to play in today's world.

"We show people what is out there in the world," she says as she approaches an enclosure holding a band of chattering pygmy marmosets. "You can tell people animals are endangered, but that doesn't necessarily touch them like it does when watching a baby gorilla or an orangutan being desperately cute. You can't reach their minds until you touch their hearts."

Many states removed, in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, another zookeeper echoes Marsha's words.

"It's important to talk with visitors about conservation," says Heidi Stout at the North Carolina Zoological Park. "It's important to get information out to the public, to let people know that there is a lot beyond Asheboro, that there's a whole world of animals out there that need help."

Heidi is standing in front of the arctic birds exhibit. Her charges19 horned puffins, 25 parakeet auklets, and 8 thick-billed murres-are preening and diving and swimming and eating behind the glass.

"It's not just keeping animals fed and watered anymore. We want them to have outlets for different needs," she says passionately. "Enrichment is part of the daily routine. We keep it varied; we present food differently. Sometimes we'll place food inside ice for the birds to play with or bury squid heads in the ice to provide an outlet for their inquisitiveness. And sometimes well give them seashells to manipulate."

Heidi, who was schooled at Virginia Tech and earned her veterinary degree at the University of Pennsylvania, is delighted to be working as a zookeeper. She joined this zoo in 1995, after three years with the Tri-State Bird Rescue service in Newark, Delaware.

"This is one of the great zoos," she says. "When I worked at bird rehabilitation they would get well and be out the door. Here I can work with a group of animals and their maintenance and see how they develop."