Do zookeepers work at night?

Moment of Um

American Public Media

Kids & Family, Education For Kids

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you go to the zoo during the day - you can see that things are hopping! Animals are being cared for, people are milling about, and there’s a lot of action to observe. But what happens at night? Who takes care of the animals then? Or is everyone just sleeping? We asked Nancy Hawkes, Director of Animal Care at Woodland Park Zoo to help us find the answer.

Got a question that’s zookeeping you up at night? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help you find the truth – we won’t be lion!

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the brains behind brains on, this is the Moment of Um.
0:03.0	Moment of Um comes to you from 8pm Studios.
0:10.0	I'm Penelope Sanders and I'm a pygmy marmoset.
0:13.0	Um.
0:15.0	Hey everyone, sorry, we have to be kind of quiet because all my brothers and sisters are sleeping.
0:20.0	It's really peaceful here at the zoo at night.
0:22.3	All the lights are off.
0:23.7	Everyone's calm.
0:24.8	It's a good time for us to take a break from seeing so many people.
0:27.5	And I like to cuddle up in my favorite tree hole right behind this tangle of vines right here.
0:33.4	Here's the thing, though.
0:34.4	It's hard for me to go to sleep tonight because my water bowl is empty.
0:42.7	Normally I like to take one big gulp of water right before I drift off to sleep, but there's no water in my bowl.
0:44.5	During the day, I can just go like this.
0:55.0	E! E! E! E! E! E! E! E! E! E! And one of the animal keepers will come see what I want and then help me, but tonight no one is here. I will say, though, sometimes they are here at night, and I'm not sure why.
0:58.3	You know, I think I remember listener Amara asking about this.
1:03.1	My name's Amara, and I'm from San Francisco.
1:11.6	My question is, do zookeeper's work at night? What an interesting question.
1:14.6	So the answer is yes and no.
1:17.6	Animal keepers do work at night at all zoos in aquariums sometimes.
1:24.6	Hi, I'm Nancy Hawks, and I am the director of animal care at the Little Park Zoo in
1:30.3	Seattle, Washington. So I'll tell you a little bit about the reasons why they might work at night.
	...

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