Eureka! Institutional Repository

The first zoos were created at the beginning of the 19th century, with the single goal of entertaining the public, without any respect towards the captive animals. Nowadays zoos have improved on many levels. Attica Zoological Park is the only zoo in Greece, accommodating a large variety of species. The purpose of this paper is to present the structure of a zoo, the duties of the staff, with emphasis on zookeepers, and the species accommodated in Attica Zoological Park. Birds, terrestrial and marine mammals, reptiles and amphibians live in Attica Zoological Park. An important part of the care of the animals is the appropriate feeding regime and the maintenance of hygiene in the animals’ enclosures. It is important for a zookeeper to possess knowledge of epidemiology and animal behavior. In addition to that, the way the public interacts with the animals is of vital importance, because it affects the animals’ wellbeing, as well as the public’s education and awareness of the public, and measures must be taken on the level of infrastructure (enclosure) to the safety protocol. Those standards are defined for European zoos by the EAZA. The duties of a zookeeper are covering the animals’ daily needs (feeding, sheltering etc.), but also their secondary needs (enrichment), training animals, rearranging their habitats etc. Zoos might be enterprises, whose main goal is to make profit, but in a good zoo, the staff certainly covers the animals’ needs to an optimal degree and cares for their health, but often participates actively in educating the public and protecting endangered species, offering a lot to the protection of wildlife and the environment.