In 1991, I progressed to curator of large mammals and then in 1996 I became head of the animal collection, until I recently moved to New Zealand for this job. I have had broad experience working with animals worldwide, so I am now learning more about New Zealand. It's a learning process and a challenge. Because New Zealand and Australia are reasonably isolated from the rest of the world we work together, but we have restrictions on breeding programmes and which animals we can acquire, so it can make it more difficult to maintain and develop an interesting collection. What I enjoy about working at the zoo is the variety of species we deal with and the contact we have with animals.
Every animal has a personality and the challenge is to understand their behaviour.
I am losing contact with the animals and I am more of a people manager now, but I need to know something about the animals and be a source of information for the staff. I think my perceptions of the zoo industry have changed since I started. I was just glad to have a job. I now look at the bigger picture and feel that zoos have an important role. I think zoos are often the only place where people can see their national animals.