Country

Malaysia

Location

Zoo Negara, Kuala Lumpur

Duration

14 days

Summary
of Programme

You will start your programme in the vibrant capital city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.  You will have time to explore the night life of KL, as it is fondly called, and then transfer the next day to the National Zoo. 

At the Zoo, you will be working with a variety of animals on husbandry and enrichment activities.  The aim of the programme is have you work with the Malaysian zookeepers to understand the conditions they work in.  As you work alongside them, you will be able to assist in improving conditions of the animals in captivity living at the zoo.  This programme will also allow you a chance to learn about the wide variety of Malaysian animals and the need of captive animals for enrichment.

Understand that the standards of zoos in Malaysia and much of Asia is not what you are used to at home.  Though a long process, a lot of effort is being made to improve conditions of captive animals to an internationally acceptable level.  You support is important in ensuring this change happens, however small the contribution.

While you work alongside the Zoo Keepers, you will have the opportunity to learn some Malay and teach them some English.  The low English levels are the main reason zookeepers refrain from communicating. 

You will have the weekends off, giving you plenty of time to explore colourful Kuala Lumpur and its surrounding areas.

Project Site

Project Site: Zoo Negara, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia’s National Zoo, better known as Zoo Negara, is based approximately 10km outside the Golden Triangle of Kuala Lumpur.  Set up in 1958, Zoo Negara is managed by the Malaysian Zoological Society, and NGO established to set up Malaysia’s first zoo.

Situated on 110 acres of land, Zoo Negara has more than 5,400 individual animals making up more than 470 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish.  The zoo’s long term objective is to develop into a world-class zoo and is in the midst of making changes to their systems and protocols.

By working alongside zookeepers and the management, we are able to assist in up scaling animal welfare, an area that is not yet of international standards in most zoos in Asia.  Through our support and encouragement, the zoo has made some positive modifications and will continue to improve in various aspects

Project Activity

PROJECT DAYS are days where participants will contribute towards the care of the animals at the zoo they are working with.  Some of the possible activities are listed below:

Husbandry: This involves cleaning cages and feeding. You will rotate working with different animals depending on the needs of the zoo, the keepers, or the animals themselves within the primates or ape section as well as in other sections.  Cleaning is vital to the zoo as better hygiene helps to prevent disease. You must be capable of cleaning up animal faeces - this can be extremely smelly!!

Some daily maintenance work may be included and you always have to clean up after enrichment activities.

Enrichment: The idea of enrichment is to stimulate the animals and improve their living conditions as much as possible to mimic their natural habitat.  Some sample activities are:

Provide leaves in cages for bedding and nesting purposes

Buy special fruit to give a variation on diet

Put branches from fig or fruit trees in their homes to observe behaviour

Rope work - make this fun and varied for the animal

Hiding food around cages to encourage foraging behaviour

Construction: You may be asked to design and work on small construction projects to improve the night dens or enclosures of selected animals, this may include assisting in building new exhibits and extensions to improve the zoo facilities, or improving existing exhibits by adding furniture or painting.

Education: There is an education centre and library at the zoo. Volunteers should learn as much as possible about the animals. You may be asked to guide and talk to school children about them. You may also be asked to prepare displays and information on them.

Note:

Not all of the above activities would be included on your itinerary as they would change according to the month the programme is being conducted.  Changes to the activities will occur subject to weather conditions, festivities, zoo and project requirements.  Activities not listed above may also be included.