NEW VOLUNTEER JOINS ANIMAL CARE TEAM!

Lindsay Poole started with us yesterday as a Volunteer Animal Keeper. Lindsay lives in Cosham, Portsmouth, and is keen enough to be commuting across the Solent aboard the Catamaran on a weekly basis in order to be part of the Team at Seaview Wildlife Encounter.

Lindsay is 27 years old; she graduated with an honours degree in Computer Animation in 2003 but has found it very difficult to break into this field. This difficulty prompted Lindsay to pursue studies in her other area of interest - Animal Management – she’s in her first year of a BTEC at Southdowns College and is simultaneously taking on two or three volunteering jobs working with animals.

On behalf of us all at Seaview Wildlife this is a warm welcome to the Team!

We seem to be on a roll with ‘pig tales’ this week - this image (right) shows Lindsay, on her first day of training yesterday, having some up-close-and-personal time with Willis!

At the end of Lindsay’s first day of training to become a Volunteer Keeper, I asked her a few questions:

How was your first day as a Volunteer-in-training Animal Keeper?

“I found it very interesting. You don’t realise how much there is to do and how much goes on behind the scenes!”

Was your first day what you were expecting?

“Yes and no! I thought I’d be doing a lot more cleaning but it’s been very varied with feeding, painting Penguin houses and getting to know the Park and the different species. There’s a lot to remember but I’m sure I’ll get used to that!”

What are you hoping to learn and do in the next few weeks at the Park?

“To be able to learn a lot more about the different species, what they eat, health checking and general information on each of them”.

What was your favourite experience of the day?

“Probably feeding the Penguins!”

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

“It’s been really enjoyable. I’ve learnt such a lot in such a short amount of time!”