JAWNIE PAYNE
ZOOKEEPER
As a zookeeper, Jawnie Payne has a huge variety of responsibilities! She trains the animals, enriches them through playtime, observes them to ensure their emotional and physical health, and encourages them to engage in their natural behavior. She works with invertebrates (think: insects and worms!), mammals, birds and more. Plus, she gets to educate people about these animals so they can learn to love them.
She take care of “animal ambassadors” at the zoo which are animals “that people can have special, close up encounters with and are a great ambassador for their wild cousins. … Our hope is that after you meet an animal and learn about it, you will love it and then try your best to conserve/protect it in the wild.”
Ms. Payne studied environmental sciences and environmental education as an undergraduate and volunteered at her local wildlife center. She endorses Pangols, a site that sells sustainable products to support conservation efforts.
Further Resources
Watch some educational and animal videos on her YouTube channel!
Discover: Opossum or Possum? with Jawnie Payne
Buy some environmentally-friendly products at Pangols!
Follow her Twitter: @ZookeeperJawnie
Find cute animal photos on Instagram: @zookeeperjawnie
Catch her videos on Tik Tok @zookeeperjawnie