Animal Keeper (Zookeeper) CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is for a keeper who started in an animal rescue centre and boarding kennels, moved to a small wildlife park and now works the hoofstock and carnivore section at an accredited zoo. Names are invented. If you are trying to get your first animal job, the section further down is written for you.

Keeper jobs at accredited zoos get dozens of applications each, often hundreds. The people shortlisting are looking for reasons to keep reading, and it is almost always one of these five.

• Species. Hands-on time with the taxa in the advert. A big cat keeper is not automatically hired onto a bird section, so match your list to the job.
• Safety around dangerous animals. Protected contact, locking and animal-moving procedures, escape drills, and a stated record of no protocol breaches. This is the single biggest risk the curator carries.
• Training and enrichment. Operant conditioning work, the specific behaviours you have trained, and how enrichment is evaluated rather than just provided.
• Records. ZIMS entries, daily reports, weights, behavioural observation data. Keeper records feed medical care and research, and sloppy record keeping is a real disqualifier.
• Physical and rota reality. Weekends, bank holidays, early starts, working outside in all weather, lifting 20 to 25 kg feed sacks, and knowing that animals do not take days off.

Three lines at the top: years, the taxa in your section, one training or record detail, and a safety line. Use a career objective only if you have no paid animal work yet.

Put a short species block near the top, above or beside your skills. Group it so the reader can scan for the taxa in the advert, and be honest about the difference between routine care and occasional cover.

• Husbandry: diet preparation and weighing, feeding schedules, enclosure cleaning and disinfection, substrate and bedding, water quality where relevant, browse cutting and identification.
• Behaviour: operant conditioning, positive reinforcement, desensitisation, target training, crate and scale training, behavioural observation and ethograms.
• Enrichment: design, safety checking, rotation schedules, response scoring, working within an enrichment approval process.
• Safety: protected contact, locking and animal-moving procedures, containment and perimeter checks, escape drills, zoonotic disease awareness, quarantine and biosecurity.
• Medical support: restraint and handling, giving medication, sample collection, wound checks, weight monitoring, hospital and quarantine care, post-operative watches.
• Records: ZIMS or an equivalent database, daily reports, diet sheets, medical logs, incident reports, research data collection.
• Site work: fencing and containment repair, pump and filtration basics, exhibit furnishing, tools, utility vehicle and forklift operation, chainsaw work for browse.
• Public side: keeper talks, visitor questions during cleaning, media and filming days, volunteer and placement student supervision.
• The honest realities: weekends, bank holidays, early starts, outdoor work in all weather, lifting 20 to 25 kg, and the emotional weight of euthanasia decisions and animal loss.

Zookeeping is one of the hardest fields to enter and almost nobody enters it directly. The usual route is volunteer or work placement hours plus a related paid job, then a seasonal or relief keeper post. Write your CV to show that path in progress.

1. 1Get hours anywhere with animals: rescue centre, boarding kennels, veterinary practice, wildlife hospital, riding stables, farm, pet shop, dog walking. All of it is relevant experience and all of it belongs on the page.
2. 2Volunteer at a zoo, aquarium or wildlife rescue centre and count the hours. "340 volunteer hours in the diet kitchen and reptile house" is a real credential in this field.
3. 3Do a work placement or internship if you can afford one, and treat it as a job entry with species, duties and hours.
4. 4Add a species list even if it is domestic animals. Handling and restraint experience transfers.
5. 5Learn the records side. Any experience with animal record software, medication logs or observation data sets you apart from other beginners.
6. 6Say you will work weekends, bank holidays and early mornings, and that you will take seasonal or part-time work. Most first keeper jobs are seasonal.
7. 7Get the cheap credentials: Emergency First Aid at Work, a full driving licence, forklift training if you can, and an up-to-date tetanus vaccination.
8. 8Apply widely and outside your region. Keeper jobs are few and willingness to relocate is a genuine advantage. Say it on the CV.

• Qualifications: UK keeper adverts commonly ask for a Level 3 qualification in animal management or zoo animal management, a foundation degree, or a degree in zoology, animal science or a related subject, together with practical experience. Some zoos also offer keeper apprenticeships. Rescue centres, kennels, stables and wildlife hospitals usually do not require a degree.
• Professional membership: ABWAK, the Association of British and Irish Wild Animal Keepers, is the keepers' main professional body. Membership, conference attendance and workshop involvement all read well.
• Professional development courses and workshops in animal training, enrichment and management are run by keeper and zoo associations. Name the course and year.
• Health requirements: an up-to-date tetanus vaccination is commonly expected. Primate work often involves occupational health screening such as TB checks, and bat work may require rabies vaccination.
• First aid: Emergency First Aid at Work is expected, and cheap to hold.
• Aquarium roles: a recognised dive qualification such as PADI Rescue Diver with logged dive numbers (check what the employer needs for diving at work), plus an RYA powerboat certificate if the role involves a boat.
• Companion animal roles: a Level 2 or 3 qualification in animal care, or a veterinary care assistant qualification.
• Practical extras that get noticed: forklift and utility vehicle operation, a chainsaw certificate for browse cutting, small engine maintenance, welding and fence repair, a trailer (B+E) or C1 entitlement for animal transport.

• One to two pages for most keeper roles. Use the second page for research work, publications, conference presentations or responsibility for a section and staff.
• Plain single-column layout, no photo, no date of birth. Larger zoos and charities run applications through online applicant tracking systems that mangle columns.
• Order: contact, personal statement, species experience block, work experience, skills, certificates, education. The species block near the top is what makes a keeper CV different.
• Mirror the advert: "husbandry", "operant conditioning", "protected contact", "enrichment", "ZIMS", "browse", "quarantine", "keeper talk", "section". Use the zoo's own job title, whether that is animal keeper, zookeeper, keeper or animal care assistant.
• If the zoo or charity uses an application form, fill it in exactly and repeat your CV content in their fields. Some organisations score the form, not your PDF.
• Include volunteer and placement hours in your experience section, not in a separate lesser block. In this field they are experience.
• Say whether you will relocate. Keeper vacancies are scattered and mobility gets you interviews.
• Send a PDF named firstname-lastname-animal-keeper-cv.pdf.

“The CVs that stand out say what animals were in the section, how many, and what the person trained or documented. Everyone writes that they love animals. Almost nobody writes that they entered every ZIMS record for four years without a gap, and that is the person I want on the rota.”