Europe/Africa/Middle East

Louise Gordon
Johannesburg Zoo
louise@jhbzoo.org.za

Education: Bsc.Education – Zoology, Botany and education
Bsc.Hon – Zoology

Taught high school (grade 8-12) from 1986 –1988 – subject General Science

I love working at the Zoo. I have been employed for 17 years at Johannesburg Zoo and I am still learning every day. It is the greatest job in the world to educate visitors in a zoo setting.

I was first employed at Johannesburg Zoo in October 1988 as an educationist.

My duties consisted of designing and implementing all school programmes, tours for schools and general public, education events such as World Environment days and the public transport system on weekends

Promoted to manager of educational services in 2001, I am now responsible for 6 staff members, implementation and design of all tours and education programme and implementation and design of interpretive signage. I am responsible for training volunteer guides twice a year, new staff and the Learner Zoo Keepers. We host informative talks once a week where guest speakers, including staff, are invited to do presentations on their specialty topics or conferences they have attended. We offer community service for all high school students as part of their required 3 day community volunteer work, and, two youth clubs that meet once a month on a Saturday that focus on behaviour enrichment projects.