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There are many people who are enamored by elephants. The future is bleak for these massive creatures due to habitat loss, poaching, and other challenges. Of all the careers with elephants there are not too many places where you can get hands-on experience. One of those places is the Riddle’s Elephant and Wildlife Sanctuary.

Riddle’s Elephant and Wildlife Sanctuary was established in 1990. Located in the Ozark Mountain foothills in Arkansas, the 330 acre site is an elephant paradise. Founded by Scott and Heidi Riddle (Heidi and I went to animal training school together), this non-profit sanctuary accepts any species of elephant.

The Riddle duo have extensive elephant experience. Scott has worked with a variety of elephants since 1965. His work has encompassed zoological management, private sector performances, and elephant consulting.

Heidi started her career with elephants back in 1981. She has worked with both sexes of Asian and African elephants, oversees the activities of the place, and serves in the Elephant Manager’s Association.

The sanctuary always has a variety of activities and projects going. Past activities include an intensive semen evaluation project, a veterinary training program for ultrasound and elephant examinations, behavior studies, and much more.

In addition to their elephant experience opportunities, one of their most popular programs is The International School on Elephant Management. Instituted in 1994, the course covers the essentials of elephant care and management. Nutrition, husbandry, foot care, reproduction, and conservation related issues are just some of the topics.

The curriculum is vast and includes: Anatomy, Behavior, Physical Maintenance, Chaincraft, Ropecraft, Medication and Disease, Handling of Difficult or Dangerous Elephants, Elephant Training Techniques, and Elephant Breeding.

The top elephant experts from all over the world can be found instructing. Students come from all over the United States and from countries such as Canada, Australia, England, Germany, Japan, Africa, Spain, Sweden, and many more places around the globe.

Students and instructors stay on the premises. Although space in the school is limited, the bunkhouse is very comfortable and can hold over twenty people. It is quite nice and has both shower and toilet facilities. I visited in the summer and it was comfortable and very clean. The big social interactions took place in the cook house which is not just a place to dine.

When we drove into the place the first thing we saw was three elephants meandering down by a natural pool. It isn’t something you see every day and the girls were having a good time. They get walked out in the am and then walk trunk to tail on their way back to the barns for the evenings. Elephants on parade!

Sadly, Heidi emailed me to say that the school has temporarily suspended the two week training opportunities at the elephant school. I didn’t ask why yet but assume it has something to do with the fact that they have two elephant calves due in the near future.

At the moment the opportunities include a Elephant Ultrasound and Veterinary Procedures Workshop for professionals, with the elephant specialist vet, Dr. Dennis Schmitt, once year around May.

AND the newest addition for the general public is an elephant experience weekend. You arrive on Friday and spend that evening and the next two days under supervision to get a taste of hands-on work with elephants. Heidi told me that these weekends are really popular and usually run April through June and then again in September and October.

If you live in the area, or plan to travel through, they also have a visitors day on the first Saturday of every month when the facility is open to guests. So, if you think you want to work with elephants, or if you are interested in getting a first hand look and feel for what it is like–try this program.

For more information visit the Elephant School section of the Riddle’s website.

On a side note, when I visited they were collecting semen for an artificial insemination program for elephants. Now, I’ve been an associate of a clinic that was a cryobank for dogs–but collecting from elephants takes the process to a whole new level!

Diana L Guerrero is an animal career specialist and has extensive experience in many areas of the animal world. A well known animal expert, she has worked professionally with animals for over thirty years. Guerrero is the author of several books and the host of the syndicated, Ark Animal Answers.

Oiled Wildlife Response Workshop

Moody Gardens is proud to be hosting an Oiled Wildlife Response Workshop
October 5th and 6th 2007 in Galveston, TX. The workshop, taught by Wildlife
Rehab and Education Wildlife Center in conjunction with Texas General Land
Office, will include speakers from the U.S. Coast Guard, veterinarians, and
experts from the response field. This hands-on workshop will combine both
classroom lectures and laboratory exercises to encompass all aspects of an
oiled wildlife emergency response.

In conjunction with the American Association of Zookeepers National
Conference being held at Moody Gardens September 30 thru October 4, a
24-hour Hazardous Response training option is available and recommended due
to predicted changes in government regulations. Workshops such as Animal
Handling and Restraint and Zoo/Aquarium Safety as well as 4 additional hours
of appropriate training will be offered. This along with the 16 hours of
oiled wildlife training will allow the candidate to be eligible to receive a
24-hour OSHA certification. The training required for the 24 hour course
will begin with an evening 2 hour workshop on October 3rd , continuing with
4 hours of training on the 4th, 10 hours on the 5th and 8 hours on the 6th.
All must be attended for certification.

Cost for the class is as follows: 24-hour OSHA certification class -
$150.00 alone or $75.00 in addition to conference attendance. Fees include
all materials and breakfast and lunch on the 4th and 5th and dinner on the
4th. Hotel costs are $135.00/night at the Moody Gardens Hotel. For the 16
hour training class the cost is $75.00 (does not include OSHA
certification).

For workshop registration or information contact Diane Olsen at 409-683-4102 or
dolsen at moodygardens. Get the AAZK Conference dates and other information.

There are many people who are interested in working with birds. There are many different careers with animals and each has a variety of specialty areas. Studies for a career with birds may include ornithology, falconry, bird banding, or rehabilitation. There are also careers training pet birds, bird behavior, leading birding groups and more.

Today I am going to touch on banding birds. Banding is a process where a numbered band is placed on a bird’s leg. Believe it or not, bird banding has been a career area for about 105 years and the man credited with starting it all was Dr. Paul Bartsch of the Smithsonian Institution.

Today banding reports are still submitted and the band number is entered into a computer database and contains important information about the particular animal such as the species, sex, condition, age, and the area where it was banded.

Every time a banded bird is trapped and released again, or if the bird is found dead, the database is updated. The latest statistics available to me were that in 2001 a whopping 1,049,646 birds were banded in the United States and Canada, and 97,204 recoveries were reported to the Bird Banding Laboratory.

Traditionally a biology degree is helpful but studying ornithology is more appropriate. If you want more opportunities consider a field of study that allows you wider options…however for this field a degree is not always required.

Banders are a select group and there are only 2000 Master banding permits and 3000 subpermits in the United States. Those who apply for a banding permit must show that they are qualified to safely trap, handle, and band the birds.

To become a master at bird banding the minimum age is 18 years for the permit. A project proposal must be submitted and you will need recommendations by three licensed bird banders or professional ornithologists discussing your skills. The actual requirements I found are:

Applicants who are at least 18 years of age and are able to identify all of the common birds in their different seasonal plumages may apply for a bird banding permit. However, it is recommended that applicants initially request a subpermit under an existing bander. Applications are submitted to the Bird Banding Laboratory in the USA or the Canadian Wildlife Service in Canada. The applicants must furnish the names of three well-known bird banders or ornithologist who can vouch for their expertise as a bird bander.

To get experience prior to applying for a permit you should volunteer to help local bird banders in your area. Call the local universities, natural history museums, bird groups, or wildlife refuges to find out who is banding birds in your area. Most enjoy having volunteers.

If you do a good job and learn the nuances of bird banding, you may be able to obtain the recommendations you need to proceed. Each state varies in the way they regulate bird banding. There are both federal and state permits so you’ll need to check into the requirements for your particular state and also if you need special permits for trapping devices such as mist nets (specially designed nets for capturing birds).

• The formation of the National Bird Banding Program was heavily influenced by Frederick C. Lincoln.

• Read the executive summary about the North American Bird Banding Program at the United States Geological Survey website.

• Bird Ringing at Wikipedia

The Avian Flu has raised concern for some handling wild birds so the National Wildlife Health Center has a page you might be interested in viewing. It specifically updates those working with wild birds about health issues.

Birds are fascinating animals to work with and since there are so many varieties this is an area of focus you might want to explore.

Diana L Guerrero is an animal career specialist and has extensive experience in many areas of the animal world. A well known animal expert, she has worked professionally with animals for over thirty years. Guerrero is the author of several books and the host of the syndicated, Ark Animal Answers.

In the past few years there have been a number of new types of pet businesses exploding across the nation, many are prominent in urban areas and some pet businesses are more susceptible to challenges when there are fluctuations in the economy.

One of the reasons for this is that many consider them non-essentials. Pet food and veterinary medical services will always be needed but not every pet service or business will be.

At the moment, it looks like we are headed into tougher times. In the past, I’ve watched specialty boutiques, training businesses, grooming services, dog walking, and pet clean up services suffer from lower demand in the face of economic hard times.

Customer service and quality products or services can help fight against economic ups and downs but there are a few things to consider. One of the things many pet businesses do is diversify.

Not too long ago I remember when most groomers refused to sell products. I had been commissioned by one of the major pet wholesale distributors to open up that market since they had been unsuccessful at doing that.

It would seem like this would be a no-brainer but most didn’t want to deal with sales or keeping products on the shelf clean. I have to admit that in my training business at the time I preferred to refer to local pet businesses for products so as not to compete–and to create goodwill so that my business would thrive from the referrals for animal behavior instead.

However, as time passed many of those business owners realized that they were missing on out sales that could increase their revenue and create an additional income on a regular basis. Today, I still refer but I also have product on hand to sell to clients and have my own proprietary products as they are a big boost to the bottom line.

Another strategy is to network with other pet related services and businesses. Cooperation and cross referral creates good will and additional customer loyalty—not to mention the additional dollars from sales.

My point in bringing this up is to challenge those who are interested in pet businesses to use a bit of creative thought on how to make your business as profitable and stable as you can.

Think about ways you can increase revenue, keep current clients and customers happy, and attract new clients. If you make these efforts part of the business plan, should the economy takes a serious hit, your business will continue to move forward despite challenges.

While I am on the topic, many businesses start up with little capital to fund their first years. In general, most businesses will fail in the first five years and it would be a good idea to do ample research, construct a good business plan, and consult with experts who can help steer you in the right direction.

If you do decide your own business is the way to go, the groundwork you do in advance will save you heartache and stress in the future.

Diana L Guerrero is an animal career specialist and has extensive experience in many areas of the animal world. A well known animal expert, she has worked professionally with animals for over thirty years. Guerrero is the author of several books and the host of the syndicated, Ark Animal Answers.

I am pondering some longer articles on specific careers but had a thought about some of the current trends I am seeing. The trend is towards animal franchises. Franchises are established businesses that have a whole strategy behind them. They usually include national advertising, demographic studies as to where might be the best location to open shop, branding or name recognition, and much more.

If you are engaging in a profession that is a business that doesn’t deal with live critters that is one thing, but if it is something that requires skill—well, that is a whole other ball game. I recently came across two different franchises that concern professions that require skill for handling animals…skill that is developed over time or that comes from academic training, certification, or years of experience.

I have heard complaints about one of them–because it is related to dog training and behavior–but the other sort of shocked me.

My concern is that not everyone has the skill sets to engage in these specific professions. I need to do more research and exploration before I give a final opinion, but over time I have seen more harm than good for well meaning but unskilled people who are working with animals.

Franchises usually mean that you will be successful because they have a proven business plan and follow that successful model. They often provide ongoing education for a fee. You buy into the franchise and then pay the franchise a regular fee.

In these days I am pretty sick of the big box stores and lack of personality, not to mention customer service, behind many businesses, so I am leery of animal franchises beyond pet product retailers.

I am going to be traveling this week but be sure that I am going to get into the topic in depth in the future.

Diana L Guerrero is an animal career specialist and has extensive experience in many areas of the animal world. A well known animal expert, she has worked professionally with animals for over thirty years. Guerrero is the author of several books and the host of the syndicated, Ark Animal Answers.

Okay, even though I said I’d back off to posting three times a week—I had a thought. What kind of edge can you get when you first start seeking a career with animals? I had to think back (way back) to when I just got out of high school and didn’t have much experience.

One of the first things I did was find a professional resume person to help me out. I had volunteer experience but no paid positions under my belt. She spent loads of time helping me to pull out what skills I had and what other things I had done to work toward my goal. The result was a professionally done resume that didn’t look to empty. Now I have to cut and choose what to include because I have too much experience!

When you are starting out you want to make sure you take a few steps to help you be successful in your job hunt:

1. Take a personal inventory and list the qualities you believe are the strongest.
2. Next list animal experiences under your belt followed by any courses you have taken to contribute to your goal of a career with animals.
3. Ask friends, family, and employers for an evaluation of what strengths and weaknesses you have. Include those into your list and plan on working on those areas where you are weak.
   
4. Plan on investing in a good professional resume since your resume is the first impression someone is going to get of you—to get a competitive edge make it a good one.
5. Finally, each resume should also be specific to the animal job you are seeking.

I’ll have more tips on this later—but get started so you can get an overview of what you might look like on paper.

Diana L Guerrero is an animal career specialist and has extensive experience in many areas of the animal world. A well known animal expert, she has worked professionally with animals for over thirty years. Guerrero is the author of several books and the host of the syndicated, Ark Animal Answers.

Animal Career Secrets Shares Link to Pet Detectives. All content copyrighted 2007 by Diana L Guerrero. Some rights reserved.

In a recent post I discussed pet detective careers and gave you some resources for pursuing information related to the career along with a few book recommendations but I forgot to post some of the articles on working pet detectives that I thought you might find useful and interesting.

I am not endorsing any particular pet detective and have only included articles or videos I have found. If you are seeking a pet detective to help find your lost pet you can conduct a search from this site using the Google Box to your right. Use the term, pet detective, pet hunter, pet search and rescue.

As promised, here are a few articles. Feel free to add you suggestions by using the comment box below:

Kat Albrecht FAQ 

Hope McClure, Pet Detective Interview at the Founding Bin

Landa Coldiron, Pet Detective Article Links

Ellie Mae the Blood Hound Video

Millie Sharpe, Pet Detective Article

John Keane, Pet Detective Sherlock Bones

Animal Career Secrets explores how to avoid internet garbage content. All content copyrighted 2007 by Diana L Guerrero. Some rights reserved.

The Internet has changed drastically since I first launched my authority site in 1995. Today you have to be careful to sort through content that is generated simply to drive you into a site. The idea is that if they get you to their site, perhaps you will purchase something or click through to generate an income at that site.

Since I need to stay on top of the many changes and trends within the animal world, I track news and key phrases. When I started my authority site back in 1995 there was not a lot of garbage. Today, I see a bunch of it all around the Internet. These are sites that promise information but give out poor advice or erroneous material.

In some cases the websites or blogs are simply set up to attract people and generate an income. These website use click throughs or encourage visitors to purchase related material–some of which is just junk. Today alone, five emails promising valuable material on the animal career topic arrived but zero contained anything useful. Out of hundreds of promising content only about two dozen seem to give me anything worthwhile in all the topics I track.

This space waster titled, Careers with Animals offered nothing useful for anyone seeking an animal career. I link it here to show you an example of how the article came to me; it used key words and lots of them. In addition, they have a variety of ads for the key words. I was disgusted that I wasted my time to click onto the page and sadly they probably do well with their ads. This is the age of internet marketing–so what can you do?

In most cases, I would recommend that you review the link before clicking into a site from a search engine. You can use a mouse rollover to view the URL from an email or search engine and over time you begin to discern what is wasteful.

One solution is a nifty download from SNAP. It can be added to your browser or used in your blogs or websites–I have it on my other sites and hope to incorporate it here too. I like that I can preview the site before clicking over into it. I can’t tell you how many times it has saved me from wasting time surfing the web.

Careers with animals is a specialty area and poor material is a waste of your time. I’m tracking a few sites now to see how they develop. You can look forward to Animal Career Secrets providing website reviews, book reviews, programs, and linking to valuable content to save you time and hopefully helping steer you into quality animal career content.

My hope is that these efforts will save you some time and direct you to resources that are useful–because there are many that are not.

Here is a great commentary from Christie over at the Pet Connection about sorting through the mess.

Diana L Guerrero is an animal career specialist and has extensive experience in many areas of the animal world. A well known animal expert, she has worked professionally with animals for over thirty years. Guerrero is the author of several books and the host of the syndicated, Ark Animal Answers.