Keeper Educational Exchange Programme - KEEP, Trumpington (2025)

21/10/2025

📣NEW PLACEMENT ALERT! 📣 - LESS THAN 2 WEEKS TO GO!!

ZSL London Zoo is offering an exciting 3 day placement with their flying birds and penguin team!
The successful candidate will be working alongside the keepers and will get to experience working with a large colony of 79 penguins, birds of prey, parrots, vultures, emus and small mammals!
You will also get to assist with their free flight bird displays!

To get the chance to work with these fantastic animals whilst working with their dedicated and experienced keepers, register with us and get your application in.
Please remember to attach your CV and cover letter explaining why you would like to work with the team and what you are hoping to get from this experience!
* Minimum experience requirement is 1 year of full time animal keeping experience in the UK and Ireland. *

https://www.keeperexchange.org/vacancy/penguins-and-flying-birds-keeper/

Deadline for application is 31/10/2025
Placement dates: 24-26th November 2025
🐧🦅🦜

14/10/2025

🥳 KEEP PLACEMENT SUCCESS!🥳

Guido from Bioparco di Roma took part in an exchange with the exceptional elephant team at Howletts Wild Animal Park, where he got to work with the largest breeding herd of African elephants in the UK!

Guido said:
“Thank you very much for the opportunity, it was a wonderful experience! The Howletts elephant team were kind and very helpful. I hope I can take part in similar experiences like this in the future because this was very constructive and I learnt a lot to take back with me."

We want to say a huge thank you to the elephant team at Howletts for being fantastic hosts, and to Guido for taking part and getting stuck in! 🤩
Don't forget, if you're currently a Zookeeper with over a year's paid experience, you're eligible for the programme! To register now, head to www.keeperexchange.org - you never know where you may end up!

12/10/2025

🥳Exciting announcement time!!🥳

We are excited to announce the launch of an official partnership between ourselves and the amazing team at UKACT - UK Animal Care Technicians

The values of KEEP and UK animal care technicians (UKACT) closely align as we both strive for animal and animal keeper welfare - and with this partnership we are working together to create and launch college based animal technician focused placement scheme in the near future!

UKACT (for those who don't know) do fantastic work already for the staff and animals in college animal centres, and we are excited to support this work moving forward!

We look forward to working closely with the UKACT team to explore meaningful ways to collaborate and advance our mutual goals and are excited about the possibilities this partnership brings and look forward to sharing more in the near future.

We are very grateful for their support as we move forward with our 5-year plan and we cannot wait to see what we can achieve together!

💪🦏🦧🦅💪
https://www.keeperexchange.org/
https://www.ukact.org/

11/10/2025

🥳 KEEP PLACEMENT SUCCESS!🥳

Katherine from Howletts Wild Animal Park took part in an exchange with the amazing browse team at ZSL where she got chance to work with their specialist team and learn all things tree browse!

Katherine said; "Thank you SO much for the opportunity to work with Lou, I had SUCH a great day! It was fantastic to have a "behind the scenes" experience and learn so much about browse management at London Zoo. I got to drop off the browse we collected to all the different animal sections and then collected even more browse! Then I learnt about the recording system to understand how it's all managed and got to walk the site with Ben who leads the horticulture team to learn about various planting around the site. Thank you Lou and Ben for answering my questions and for the inspiration to enhance our own browse management at Howletts and Port Lympne."

We want to say a huge thank you to the team at ZSL for being brilliant hosts, and to Katherine for taking part and getting stuck in! 🤩

Don't forget, if you're currently a Zookeeper with over a year's paid experience, you're eligible for the programme! To register now, head to www.keeperexchange.org - you never know where you may end up!

08/10/2025

🇫🇷🎉NEW PLACEMENT ALERT🎉🇫🇷 - OPEN TO MAINLAND EUROPEAN APPLICANTS - LESS THAN A WEEK TO APPLY!

Parc de Branféré (France!) is offering an amazing 3 day placement with their penguin, otter and red panda team! An excellent opportunity to work with their small carnivores and the largest Humboldt penguin colony in Europe!
Experience hands-on care with a diverse range of incredible animals while working alongside a highly skilled and collaborative team to learn how the Parc de Branféré team care for this fantastic array of animals.
During this placement, you will also gain insights into the technical aspects of pool maintenance, including filtration systems — an essential skill for ensuring optimal animal welfare.
To get the chance to work with these fantastic animals whilst working with their dedicated and experienced keepers, register with us and get your application in.
To help with attendance, team KEEP are excited to be able to offer a £75 stipend towards the transport cost of the successful candidate! More info on travel to Parc de Branféré is available on request - and accommodation is free!
Knowledge of French valuable but not essential 🙂
* Minimum experience requirement is 1 year of full time animal keeping experience in the UK and Ireland. *
🐧🐧🐧
Deadline for application is 15/10/2025
Placement dates: 4th - 7th November 2025 (flexible on which days this week)
https://www.keeperexchange.org/.../penguin-and-small.../

08/10/2025

🇫🇷🎉NEW PLACEMENT ALERT🎉🇫🇷 - OPEN TO MAINLAND EUROPEAN APPLICANTS - LESS THAN A WEEK TO APPLY!

Parc de Branféré (France!) is offering an amazing 3 day placement with their okapi and primate section! A fantastic opportunity to work with their hoofstock and primate species including okapi, pygmy hippo, variegated spider monkeys, howler monkeys and callitrichids!
Experience hands-on care with a diverse range of incredible animals while working alongside a highly skilled and collaborative team to learn how the Parc de Branféré team care for this fantastic array of animals.
To get the chance to work with these fantastic animals whilst working with their dedicated and experienced keepers, register with us and get your application in.
To help with attendance, team KEEP are excited to be able to offer a £75 stipend towards the transport cost of the successful candidate! More info on travel to Parc de Branféré is available on request - and accommodation is free!
Knowledge of French valuable but not essential 🙂
* Minimum experience requirement is 1 year of full time animal keeping experience in the UK and Ireland. *
🦏🐫🦏
Deadline for application is 15/10/2025
Placement dates: 4th - 7th November 2025 (flexible on which days this week)
https://www.keeperexchange.org/.../hoofstocks-pygmy.../

05/10/2025

KEEP shout-out! 😍🦒

We would like to say an enormous thank you to the wonderful team at West Midlands Safari Park for their amazing generosity!

They have kindly funded our running costs for the next year which allows to keep offering exciting zoo keeper placements across the UK and increasingly more opportunities further afield, whilst allowing us to work on exciting ideas and projects that we hope to share with you in the near future!

KEEP is run by keepers for keepers and so initially when we set up this project we had to dig deep into our own pockets and so financial support means so much to us as it allows us to fund our mission moving forward!

Furthermore they have already supported us by hosting visiting keepers and sending some of their own on placements to other institutions!

04/10/2025

📰 KEEP Bi-Annual Newsletter 📰

Due to technical difficulties we are struggling to get this emailed out to you all. So instead we are sharing it here. Have a read to see all the great news that KEEP has been up to these last 6 months!

We couldn't do this without all the support from both keepers and collections alike! Happy international zookeeper day!

04/10/2025

Happy International Zookeeper Day! 🥳🤩

"What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make." - Jane Goodall

In a week where we sadly lost the great Jane Goodall, we thought the work and passion of zookeepers couldn't be said more succinctly than her famous quote above.

We want to give a massive shout to our friends and colleagues the zookeepers! You are the most incredibly dedicated, passionate and hardworking community of people you could wish to be part of and whether you realise it or you all make a difference on a daily basis whether you realise it or not!

KEEP is run by zookeepers for zookeepers, and we continue to be inspired by the fantastic keepers who have helped KEEP get to where it is now whether taking part in a placement or hosting a visiting keeper and sharing your passion, ideas and experience.

Thank you for all that you do and thanks for supporting us, we are actively working to seek out more opportunities near and far for keepers to realise and develop this passion.

🦁🐒🦇🐍🐠🐊🦍🐘🦛🦒🦧🦦🦜🦩🦂🐣🐧🪲🐌🐟🦋🦏🦛

https://www.keeperexchange.org/

01/10/2025

🇫🇷🎉NEW PLACEMENT ALERT🎉🇫🇷 - OPEN TO MAINLAND EUROPEAN APPLICANTS

Parc de Branféré (France!) is offering an amazing 3 day placement with their penguin, otter and red panda team! An excellent opportunity to work with their small carnivores and the largest Humboldt penguin colony in Europe!
Experience hands-on care with a diverse range of incredible animals while working alongside a highly skilled and collaborative team to learn how the Parc de Branféré team care for this fantastic array of animals.

During this placement, you will also gain insights into the technical aspects of pool maintenance, including filtration systems — an essential skill for ensuring optimal animal welfare.

To get the chance to work with these fantastic animals whilst working with their dedicated and experienced keepers, register with us and get your application in.
To help with attendance, team KEEP are excited to be able to offer a £75 stipend towards the transport cost of the successful candidate! More info on travel to Parc de Branféré is available on request - and accommodation is free!

Knowledge of French valuable but not essential 🙂
* Minimum experience requirement is 1 year of full time animal keeping experience in the UK and Ireland. *
🐧🐧🐧
Deadline for application is 15/10/2025
Placement dates: 4th - 7th November 2025 (flexible on which days this week)
https://www.keeperexchange.org/vacancy/penguin-and-small-carnivores-red-panda-otter-keeper-placement/

01/10/2025

🇫🇷🎉NEW PLACEMENT ALERT🎉🇫🇷 - OPEN TO MAINLAND EUROPEAN APPLICANTS

Parc de Branféré (France!) is offering an amazing 3 day placement with their okapi and primate section! A fantastic opportunity to work with their hoofstock and primate species including okapi, pygmy hippo, variegated spider monkeys, howler monkeys and callitrichids!

Experience hands-on care with a diverse range of incredible animals while working alongside a highly skilled and collaborative team to learn how the Parc de Branféré team care for this fantastic array of animals.

To get the chance to work with these fantastic animals whilst working with their dedicated and experienced keepers, register with us and get your application in.

To help with attendance, team KEEP are excited to be able to offer a £75 stipend towards the transport cost of the successful candidate! More info on travel to Parc de Branféré is available on request - and accommodation is free!

Knowledge of French valuable but not essential 🙂
* Minimum experience requirement is 1 year of full time animal keeping experience in the UK and Ireland. *
🦏🐫🦏
Deadline for application is 15/10/2025
Placement dates: 4th - 7th November 2025 (flexible on which days this week)

https://www.keeperexchange.org/vacancy/hoofstocks-pygmy-hippo-okapi-and-primates-spider-monkey-tamarin-keeper-placement-2/

30/09/2025

🥳 KEEP PLACEMENT SUCCESS!🥳

Henry from Exmoor Zoo and Georgie from Hobbledown Zoo took part in an exchange with the excellent hoofstock team at Howletts Wild Animal Park, where they got to work with a range of ungulate species as well as giant anteaters and ostrich!

Henry said:
“I had an amazing time. Everyone was so lovely and welcoming. I had the best time! I learnt lots and got to see and get involved with even more. Honestly it couldn't have been any better!"

Georgie said: "I had the most amazing time. I learnt so much because the hoofstock team at Howletts were brilliant, excellent hosts and teachers!"

We want to say a huge thank you to the hoofstock team at Howletts for being fantastic hosts, and to Henry and Georgie for taking part and getting stuck in! 🤩
Don't forget, if you're currently a Zookeeper with over a year's paid experience, you're eligible for the programme! To register now, head to www.keeperexchange.org - you never know where you may end up!

Keeper Educational Exchange Programme - KEEP

21/10/2025

14/10/2025

12/10/2025

11/10/2025

08/10/2025

08/10/2025

05/10/2025

04/10/2025

04/10/2025

01/10/2025

01/10/2025

30/09/2025

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