Zoo Keeper for a Day

Ever wondered what our zoo keepers do? Well, they take care of our animals and ensure everything is running smoothly. You can now experience the day in a life of a Twycross Zoo keeper by working alongside them to get our animals ready for the day.

This once-in-a-lifetime experience lasts 7 hours, starting at 9am and finishing at 4pm. All participants must be over 18 years old.

The experience includes:

• Keeper for the day experience
• Lunch (in the form of catering vouchers)
• Zoo admission
• Souvenir

What Animals Are Included in the Keeper Experience Day?  

Our zookeeper experience is a hands-on adventure that will give you the chance to help our keepers take care of some of our biggest, most majestic, and unfortunately some of our critically endangered species. The animals you’ll be meeting are:

• Eastern black rhino
• Giraffes
• Zebras
• Amur leopard
• Snow leopard
• Bush dogs
• Meerkats (which is officially called a mob or gang)
• Yellow-throated martens
• The Apes: chimpanzees, orang-utans, bonobos and gorillas

You can come up close to wallabies and help the keepers to feed them while learning about these special animals. And, of course, you can’t miss our new, multi-million-pound tiger habitat either where you can hear stories from the keepers about these fantastic and endangered species.

What’s Included in Our Zoo Keeper Experience?

Zoo keeper life is not all about watching and feeding! Our busy keepers need a hand with the dirty bit too.

• You will be helping clean some of the primate enclosures by sweeping, scrubbing, and mopping – while being watched by many monkey eyes!
• Once the enclosures are cleaned, it’s then time to check on the animals and give them their breakfast.
• To keep the animals busy and entertained, you’ll be helping keepers hide the food in enclosures, scattering it in their outside area or throwing it on the roof to motivate them to climb, hang and jump.

This experience will help you learn about our animal’s personalities, what excites them, and how they make our zookeeper’s life full of fun (and sometimes a bit of chaos).

You will also meet an ape keeper and take a stroll through the zoo up to our amazing Chimp Eden building, the home of our two chimp groups. Maybe the most famous of all of our animals, they are nothing like you would imagine – noisy, funny, scary and super-intelligent.

You will watch a group training session and hear from the keepers about how we train our apes for voluntary medical procedures. If you ever wondered how to train your dog (or your child?) solely in a positive way, these guys can teach you a few tricks!

You will then go to our gorillas to view the family playing and socialising in the off-show area whilst the keepers give the apes some of their favourite fruit tea and chat about our gorilla family. They are a really funny bunch and especially the two young boys love to mess around, while the adults try to enjoy some quiet food time.  Oh, and if you are really lucky you can hear one of them signing or grumbling (it’s awesome)!

The rarest of all apes in zoos is certainly the bonobos and the only place in the UK where you can see them is right here at Twycross Zoo. You will not only learn about their unique social structure (where the females are boss), but you will also help to feed one of our Bonobo groups.

To end the experience, you will head to the Orang-utan house to meet our family of Orang-utans and watch the babies playing.

Book the Zoo Keeper Day Experience  

You can book the Keeper for a Day experience here for £195 per adult. Tickets are available for up to 2 adults from the same household.

Zoo Keeper Experience Days Availability

The experience is available on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. We hope you’ve enjoyed learning about what to expect from our Zoo Keeper for a Day Experience. We look forward to seeing you!

Twycross Zoo Terms & Conditions

• The experience includes zoo admission. Please note any accompanying family or friends will be charged the normal entrance price and will not be allowed access to the zoo until the normal opening time at 10am.
• The Keeper Experience is only valid on the date of booking. If you do not redeem the Keeper Experience on the date it is booked for, it will cease to be valid and no refund or extension will be offered.
• Session lengths are approximate and may vary, depending on the day-to-day requirements of specific departments.
• Twycross Zoo reserves the right to amend, change or cancel bookings at its discretion.
• The health and safety of our animals is our number one priority therefore we ask that anyone suffering or showing symptoms of a contagious disease (Covid-19, flu, cold etc) do not take part in the experience. Twycross Zoo reserves the right to refuse entry and we ask that you contact us before your visit, re-book and do not attend the experience or zoo whilst ill.
• We ask that guests over the age of 11 show either a Covid pass to show double vaccination or Proof of a negative lateral flow test taken within 48 hours of the visit