11/13/2025
🐅 Happy International Zoo Educator’s Day! 🦒
Today, we’re shining a spotlight on our incredible Zoo Educators - the passionate people behind our Camps, Tots & Turtles, Field Trips, Flashlight Safaris, Zoo Crew programs and so much more!
Our zoo educators inspire conservation-minded behaviors in children as they learn about the world around them. Through investigative play and inquiry-based learning, they encourage children (and adults!) to examine their relationship to nature and develop a personal connection that will continue throughout their life, making them wildlife warriors for conservation.
The Zoo's Director of Education, Julia, answered a few questions to learn more about what it means to be a Zoo Educator.
👩🏫 What is the best part of being a zoo educator?
Getting to see a child experience the natural world in a way they haven't before, whether that's feeding a penguin or showing compassion for an insect or experiencing the fuzzy feel of lamb's ear leaves... Watching their eyes light up as they make those connections reminds me that this work creates lifelong memories for our guests and participants.
📚️ What do you care about the most when you work on education?
I care about people going home feeling that they've made a personal connection to the content. People want to save the things they love, so if we can get people to love animals from the tallest giraffe to the smallest naked mole rat, the animal kingdom has a better chance at survival.
🌍 Any message to the people all over the world?
Your zoo does so much work in your community, across the country, and even around the world to ensure that wild animals and wild places are still here for generations to come. By supporting your local zoo and learning more from zoo educators, you are contributing to that mission. Thank you!
Today and every day, we celebrate our educators - thank you!
