Birds curator goes the extra mile to care for her feathered children

Birds curator at the Johannesburg Zoo, Grace Ntsoane is so dedicated to her job that she stayed at work overnight to care for a recently-hatched wattled crane chick.

“People don’t realise how much work goes into this job. They assume we just throw food into the enclosures and clean them every now and then, but my job involves so much more than that,” said Ntsoane.

She began working at the Joburg Zoo in 2015 after studying a diploma in nature conservation at the Tshwane University of Technology and working as an animal attendant at the Pretoria Zoo.

Her current job involves overseeing seven animal attendants and three animal keepers, acquiring and dispossessing animals alongside an array of other responsibilities.

“I started loving nature conservation as a child when I watched animals on TV. I used to see people out there in nature and it motivated me to do this,” she said.

She started out hand-rearing African grey parrots in Pretoria and is now doing the same with the endangered wattled crane at the Joburg Zoo.

“The chick I have been looking after came from a farm in Parys. The parents had laid two eggs. One hatched and the parents neglected the other egg, so we decided to bring it here and put it in our artificial incubator machine.”

Ntsoane explained that the egg hatched after two days in the incubator. “I decided to stay overnight to check in on it. Hand-rearing is tough as the bird needs to be fed every two hours and walk around four times a day for 30 minutes.” Once the chick has grown more, it will be taken back to its parents in Parys and reintroduced to them.

One of the joys of her job is seeing a chick learn to feed itself. “I’m a mom to over 1 000 birds here at the zoo. I have to learn their behaviour and bear with their mood swings and know if there is something wrong. It’s not just a matter of throwing the food in the cage and walking away. I have to check how much each bird has eaten and even check faeces for problems.”

She arrives at work before 6am each day to ensure that all her office work is completed before other employees arrive at 7am. “It’s better to manage animals than people. As long as I’ve got that love for them, I can do anything. When the animals are happy, I am happy.”

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Also check out:

https://www.citizen.co.za/rosebank-killarney-gazette/237488/elephant-turns-39/

https://www.citizen.co.za/rosebank-killarney-gazette/233366/tweets-visit-joburg-zoo-check-spectacular-elephants-videos/

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