An Animal Trainer trains animals to become familiar with human voices and contact, and to respond to commands. Trains dogs to assist people with disabilities. May train animals for a health, competition, or show. May train other animals such as horses, dolphins, and apes.
The Instructor II is an educator for the Arizona Center for Nature Conservation (ACNC) and the Phoenix Zoo. This position assists in the presentation and facilitation of education programs about the natural world to groups of people of all ages. Most of these programs will be Night Camps (October-May) and Day Camps (both summer and seasonal), but this position may also be asked to assist with Zoo events on or off Zoo grounds. In addition, there are two (2) options for Instructor II responsibilities: Level II Animal Handling OR Camp Lead 1.
Level II Animal Handling:
Train and certify to handle Ambassador Animals. These are animals that are safe and appropriate to bring to educational programs, such as non-venomous snakes, lizards, frogs, insects, and small mammals. This responsibility will present educational and entertaining presentations at Phoenix Zoo camps, events, and birthday parties while following all animal handling protocols to collect, present, and return animals independently. 2.
Camp Lead:
This is a leadership role within the Night Camp programs, with responsibility to manage the logistics of individual camp programs, direct teammates, and communicate safety policies to camp guests attending the program. The Camp Lead can choose to participate in Level I animal handling which consists of presenting a limited number of ambassador animals during camp programs only. Instructor II must have availability for: 1. Nighttime and overnight shifts during the Night Camp season (October-May). 2. Some daytime shifts during the Summer Camp Zoo season (June-July) and/or Seasonal Camp Zoo weeks (school holidays). 3. All mandatory meetings and trainings. 4.
For Level II Animal Handling:
Some daytime weekend availability to handle animals at Zoo events.
Essential Duties:
1. Provide quality guest service to all Zoo guests by maintaining a WILD (friendly, helpful, positive, and professional) working attitude and appearance. 2. Present and facilitate scheduled programs about the natural world utilizing a variety of animals, plants and media or other props. 3. Follow an established curriculum and schedule in order to provide high quality guest experiences to audiences of all ages and sizes. 4. Serve food to program guests in camps. 5. Attend scheduled meetings and training for all department team members to become familiar with experiences, logistics and responsibilities. 6. Check e-mail at least once a week and respond in a timely manner when appropriate. 7. As a secondary responsibility, assist Program Supervisors and the Formal Learning & Engagement Manager as needed in the development of education programs. 8.
For Level II Animal Handling:
Responsible for knowing and abiding by proper handling, transportation, presentation, and interaction protocols for a diverse collection of animals in preparation for and during programs. After completing animal handling training, must be able to pass a written and practical test to certify. Must re-certify each year to maintain animal handling certification. 9.
For Camp Lead:
When assigned lead shifts, oversee logistics of Night Camp program which includes checking in the camp group, providing needed information to main contacts, ensuring the successful facilitation of program curriculum, directing and delegating to teammates, and acting as the program representative when Program Supervisor and Assistant Supervisor are unavailable. This is by no means an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, skills, duties, requirements, efforts, or working conditions associated with the job. Management reserves the right to revise the job or to require that other or different tasks be performed when circumstances change (e.g. emergencies, changes in personnel, workload, rush jobs, or technological developments.
