It’s Our 10th Anniversary! A Personal Reflection»
It’s been an amazing 10 years in business. Zooniversity was launched on June 1, 2001, with a simple legal filing, a dream, a few thousand in savings, and the non-stop encouragement of family and friends. Way back then we had eight rescued animals (mostly of the pet store variety), one employee (me and maybe one of my kids if I could bribe them), and our marketing efforts consisted of a small classified ad and a simple printed brochure. We taught only 24 wildlife shows in that first year (some for free or for family) and each one was most definitely a humbling learning experience! There were many lessons to be learned in how to do this "right."
Flash ahead 10 years. We now have more than 100 rescued exotic animals (mostly of the zoo variety), five employees (thank goodness), and we market using all possible digital and social media — our website, blog, a very active Facebook page (we just hit 2,000 fans), Twitter tweats, a YouTube channel (just launched), and listings on dozens of web directories. And, we now proudly teach more than 700 wildlife shows each year. We’ve learned many tough lessons over 10 years and our loyal clients seem to genuinely "like us" — more than 70% of our programs are repeat or referral business, and there’s no higher compliment! And, we’ve earned numerous "Best of…" titles, which is very flattering public recognition for what we do.
So, how’d we get from there to here? I’d like to brag that it all was part of a great master business plan. The truth is that a very tiny piece of our business success was carefully scripted, but mostly, Zooniversity had a mind and direction of its own and it all just happened — usually with me dragging and kicking along with it. I think of our growth as some great plan the Universe had written for us and we were just here for the ride. But, for what purpose?
TO RESCUE: Each of our animals has a story about how they came to us. Most were former pets. Some were ill, injured, orphaned, abandoned, or even abused. Our lives, and hopefully the lives of our audiences, have been touched by our animals’ stories. We’ve nursed back to health more animals than we can count — some survived, some thrived, and some did not. We are forever grateful to our staff of vet techs and zookeepers and to our team of on-call vets and specialists — your expertise provides our animal ambassadors with the finest of care and gives them the best possible shot at a quality life.
TO TEACH: In our 10 years, we estimate we’ve taught more than 350,000 students and adults about the animal kingdom. And our "teachers" are the finest on the planet — the animals themselves. We are wistful when we hear our students recall by name long-gone teachers like "Faith," the blind fox, "Camo," the chameleon, or "Sydney," "Boomerang," and "Sheila," our joey wallabies — great teachers are remembered!
TO INSPIRE A NEW GENERATION: It’s nearly too late for my generation to have a significant impact on our planet’s health, but we hope our programs help to spur a new generation of planet caregivers who have a healthy respect for the delicate balance of nature and the animals we share it with. Every animal, even those not so cute or cuddly, deserve our admiration…and they deserve our protection. Without their presence, our Earth would be a very different place, or perhaps it wouldn’t be here at all. We pray that in our all our efforts, we may instill just a smidgeon (or more) of curiosity in each child, that would inspire them to want to learn more.
Of course, Zooniversity wouldn’t be here at all without YOU and your undying support for the work that we do. Together, let’s celebrate our first 10 years and look forward to the future. What will the next 10 years bring? Whatever that crazy master plan has written in it! We hope you will join us for the continuing wild ride.
Beat the Heat this Summer — Come to Our Free Library Shows!»
It’s that time again…time to layout your family’s summer activity calendar. And, we hope you’ll include Zooniversity in your busy summer schedule.
Just like the last 10 summers, Zooniversity will again be offering free wildlife shows at more than 60 public libraries throughout Texas. See our Public Calendar for the nearest location. This summer we will be featuring a new program, "Animals That Dig," as a compliment to this year’s "Dig Into a Good Book" summer reading club theme. The program is designed for reading age children, ages 5 years and up. Check each library’s website for restrictions and reservations. Mark your calendars to join us — and be sure to come up and say a special hello to Miss Allison!
Help Zooniversity with a Mouse Click!»
Zooniversity is a finalist in D Magazine’s Best of Big D Readers’ Choice Poll!
But, now we need your help to win. Vote for us as the "Best Children’s Entertainer" in Dallas — here’s the link, just vote in our category and then click "submit" at the bottom of the page — it’s that easy!
VOTE FOR ZOONIVERSITY
Vote every day, up to once an hour, through May 29th!
Make it easy, mark the page as a "favorite" and visit often! And, please share with your family and friends, too. Or, vote on the road — on your smartphone simply go to surveys.dmagazine.com and scroll to #26 for a quick vote.
Winning an award like this doesn’t feed our ego — it feeds our animals! Help us to better market our educational services, in order to support our animal ambassadors.
Thanks in advance for your vote — we knew we could count on you!
PT Animal Keeper Position Open – Sunday Shift»
PERMISSION TO CROSSPOST
Need a part-time job for a little extra cash? Need to gain more exotic animal husbandry experience? Have another job or school or kids and need flexible scheduling? If you are an experienced zookeeper, vet tech, rehabber or animal caretaker, then consider joining our animal care team! We have a rare opening in our animal keeper schedule and are seeking an experienced individual for part-time work on Sundays. Here are all the details:
PART-TIME ANIMAL KEEPER, NW DALLAS, NEEDED FOR SUNDAY SHIFT, 3-4 hrs per day, flexible scheduling
Zooniversity LLC, a Dallas-based wildlife education company, seeks a reliable, self-motivated, responsible individual for the position of part-time animal keeper. Work 3-4 hours per day, NEEDED FOR SUNDAYS; hours are flexible to work around your other job, school or family commitments. Relief keeper days also available, as needed by other keepers. NOTE: this position is strictly husbandry duties – no public speaking (so, wanna-be educators shouldn’t expect additional opportunities).
Must have experience in the care of multiple species as a zookeeper, veterinary technician, rehabber or animal caretaker. You must be willing to handle arthropods, amphibians, reptiles, birds and small mammals.
Daily duties include:
- Maintenance and cleaning of animal cages and surrounding areas
- Daily diet preparation
- Inventory and pick-up of food and supplies i.e. produce, feed & bedding
- Washing/disinfecting of animal dishes and laundry
- Conduct "rounds" to ensure enclosures are secured & animals have fresh water and food
- Administer medications or treatments
- Monitor health and behavior of animals
- Construct and provide behavioral enrichment
It takes more than a love of animals. It takes a solid respect of animal boundaries and behaviors and an ability to follow directions. Candidates must be at least 21 years old, have a high school diploma and valid driver’s license, be able to lift 25 pounds, and have a strong work ethic. Must work well on your own and be responsible, reliable, punctual, and committed. Additional hours available for the right individual. Pay is commensurate with experience. Training time is paid. Located in North Dallas, near Hwy 635/LBJ and Marsh Lane.
Learn more about us at www.zooniversity.org. Send inquiries and resume to Allison at allison@zooniversity.org.
UPDATE: The position has been filled — thank you to all those who applied!
Back From the Brink — Colby’s Story»
"Hi, Colby bird!" It’s truly miraculous, she’s back from the brink. "Thank you" just isn’t enough to express how grateful we are for everyone’s help . You did it, you pulled our brave little 16-year old double yellow-headed Amazon parrot, named "Colby," through a harrowing medical crisis — one which repeatedly tried to take her life over the past three weeks.
We will be forever indebted to all of you. We owe Colby’s life to our two amazing avian veterinarians — Dr. Anna Osofsky and her medical team at West Carrollton Pet Hospital, who saw Colby through the first critical 48-hours, and to Dr. Hugh Hayes and his amazing team of technicians at Summertree Animal Clinic, Dallas, who painstakingly nursed Colby through three weeks of intensive care. Our love and thanks to all the family, friends, and facebook fans who prayed and sent those powerful positive, healing energies to her every day. Hugs and kisses to our St. Thomas Aquinas Zoo School students, who added Colby to their nightly bedtime prayers. Without your medical expertise, without your unwavering love and your heartfelt pleas, this little feathered teacher wouldn’t still be with us.
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What happened? One tiny cut. One microscopic bacterium. That’s all it took to take a robust, high energy, applause-motivated parrot to the brink of death. One Sunday, three weeks ago, Colby looked a little fluffed-up, so we gave her the day off. "Rest, little one." The next morning at 6 am, she was unresponsive and mouth breathing. At 7 am, we were at the avian veternarian for emergency care. At 9 am, we were told she had little chance of surviving. Twice more in three weeks, we got that same phone call. "We wouldn’t be doing our duty if we didn’t tell you that Colby is critically ill, she may not make it. You should come visit." Septicemia. Nasty, blood-borne bacteria that used to be called "blood poisoning." One cut, one bacterium, that’s all it took to devistate this outwardly hearty, but secretly delicate, creature. It took nearly super-human medical intervention to keep her going — three strong antibiotics, anti-inflamatories, narcotics, detoxifiers, tube feeding, subcutaneous fluid therapy, probiotics – all administered with care, two to three times a day, for three long, arduous weeks. There she laid, on the floor of an incubator, looking helpless. You can read the progress reports on Zooniversity’s facebook page, but you’ll have to read between the lines to sense the real angst that Zooniversity’s educators and keepers felt each day. Our hearts were breaking as we dealt with the roller-coaster daily reports. A final plea was posted for prayers and healing on a particularly bad day during the second week. By that same evening, Colby had rallied, she fought back. You can’t tell us that prayer and positive energy doesn’t work! It’s been an exhausting lesson, but one that every wildlife person has to learn — every life is fragile, every life can end when you least expect it, every life is precious and worth saving, no matter what it takes.
Colby still needs more time to fully recuperate, so it’ll be a while before she can travel, show off, and bask in applause again – but she’s still here! Colby obviously has many more students to teach and many more people to inspire — she has a reason to be here. "Good bird, Colby." And, please keep those well wishes coming her way, as we’ve learned you never know when they’ll be needed. With our sincere gratitude — thank you, everyone.
