I work at the zoo and have trained more than 20 types of animals! My wife is a zookeeper too. We have a daughter who just graduated valedictorian from high school. She wants to be a vet. I watch nature documentaries. I just about never buy anything. I am good at saving money.
I like forest animals. I like nature a lot. I enjoy exploring the forest. I like the rush of buying stuff. I might be addicted to spending money. I am trying to save money and having a hard time doing it.
I trained a new animal at the zoo during my shift.  That must be exciting. What animal did you train. Is it a skill that can be acquired or is it something that is natural to a person to be able to communicate with animals. It was a polar bear; I've been working for years on training animals to properly react to humans in their space. That's the biggest part of zoo animals to overcome; these animals are not used to humans being in their space. How do you do it. Does it take time to get into confidence with an animal. You said it was a polar bear. They can be dangerous too. Do you take precautions. I always take precautions. Much of the training doesn't involve me actually being physically close to the animal, it's more about learning their conditions and their responses to different, unexpected stimuli in their known environment. Once we can predict how they will react to unknown situations, only then will we start entering their space. It takes months and sometimes over a year to become confident with a new animal. That must be exciting. I am sure you need a lot of patience. I love animals and see them in the wild sometimes. But being close to them and making friends with them is something entirely different. Have you ever given up on any animal. No, we've had some animals that were particularly difficult to train, but it's all about gaining trust. Gaining that trust can be done with different methods, including rewards. The most stubborn animals that I've encountered usually respond to rewards (treats). Knowing that some tasty food is coming is usually enough to train even the most stubborn of animals. Wow. That is news. Food is the bait here. An animal likes to be treated with food. Do you decline to treat it with rewards if it does not do what you want. I wish I could spend time watching you train an animal. Like I said, food is always a reward, but we never TAKE anything from the animal. Doing so with a (typically) wild animal always results in negative reactions and decays trust. It may take longer, but we only reinforce positive responses, never punish negative ones. We do occasionally have classes which allow the public to see us interact with animals which are not yet ready for public zoos. I will watch an animal being trained some day. I know however that it takes days and sometime years to do that, but still it is fun. I think love for animals is in your blood. You tell me that your daughter also wants to be a vet so I am not wrong in my assessment Many of the children I interact with in my daily operations also want to do what I do in their future. What's not to love? I spend my days with animals some people only ever see pictures of. How lucky you are. Though I love animals too I do not have the chance to be like you. I really do not know if I will have the patience. I do watch animal planet tv show most of the times and some animal habits are amazing. It is so beautiful and peaceful to watch them