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Michael Stenbring - Zookeeper Spending most of your summers camping in different provincial parks, you tend to acquire a love of nature in general, and in my case, a love of reptiles and amphibians. This interest grew with me, and when I turned twelve I finally got a pet corn snake for my birthday. The owners of the store where I bought that snake happened to have a close connection with Little Ray's, and so they suggested that I check it out. My first visit to the zoo was amazing, and after that I became one of the many kids who came to visit regularly, knew all of the animals by name, and had Little Ray's birthday parties. I spent two summers in Eco-Zoo camp, and then came one of the most exciting phone calls of my life (admittedly I'm not much of a phone person). Little Ray called me up asking if I wanted to volunteer, and my response was an immeadiate "For sure!". I started volunteering in the summer of 2005, and eventually made the jump to staff somewhere during the course of 2006. Only two years after I stopped attending camp myself, I found myself as a counsellor to kids who will hopefully end up following their passion like me. Although I don't do shows for the public as of yet, I love doing the "dirty work", and being right up close and personal with all of the animals in the zoo seems to be where I work best. Other then working at the zoo, I'm still in high school (which unfortunately takes up most of my time), I spend most of my time playing and reffereeing soccer. Unlike many of the staff at the zoo, my goals for the future are not in biology or zoo keeping but rather I am hoping to become a lawyer. Reptiles fascinate me, and like many zoo keepers, I take my work home with me. I have plenty of reptiles at home (although not even close to as many as some of the people I know) and the collection is always growing. My biggest passion is for venomous snakes, and my goal is to someday be able to work with these amazing animals. The genus of Bitis is my favorite, along with the non-venomous Green Tree Python. The only way to sum up how quickly I've moved from being a visitor and camper at the zoo to being a zoo keeper is "Wow". I realize how lucky I am, and I can honestly say that I have the best job in the world. Michael |
