The Idaho Falls Zoo is a place where the community can engage with the natural world by seeing animals up close, making memories with family and friends and learning about a variety of different species. And behind the scenes are a group of people who are passionate about animals, education and conservation, and who care for these animals.
One being Amy Tracy, the zoo’s primary carnivore keeper. “I’ve always had a passion for animals my whole life,” Amy said. “I always thought I wanted to be a vet tech or something like that. Then I started working here.”
At the age of 14, Amy started volunteering for the zoo under the Junior Zoo Crew where she fell in love with the aspects of the job. She went on to apply for the kid zookeeper position, and for the past 10 years has been a year-round zookeeper at this local zoo.
“I’ve been at this zoo my whole life,” she said. “I love the size of it. We all know each other and we’re friends, and we connect with each other really well. We’re just a really good community, and we’ve got a good variety of animals to work with, which is really fun.”
As the zoo’s carnivore keeper, Amy’s days are spent caring for the large cats, fennec foxes, sloth bears, camels and red pandas. Her work includes live checking the animals, prepping their yards and providing them with any of the medical care they require.
Amy also ensures that the animals’ physical and mental well-being is catered to with an individualized approach and weekly enrichment practices. “We make sure that whatever diets we’re giving them, whatever enrichment we’re giving them, it’s geared toward that individual,” she said. “So for carnivores, we do a lot of meat-type enrichment, searching for and tearing things apart, which is very natural.”
Amy goes above and beyond for the animals in her care, but it doesn’t come without its challenges.
“Working with wild animals, every day is so different,” she said. “You can come in with a plan. But until you get here, you don’t know what your day is going to be like.”
Before moving into the carnivore keeper position, Amy worked with most of the animals in the zoo at one time or another. Over the years she has developed a deeper passion for animals, but one of the things she’s most proud of is implementing the zoo’s wallaby desensitizing program.
“Wallabies tend to be very leery of people. With Amy’s initiative we have successfully hand-raised five joeys, including three that still live here,” according to the Idaho Falls Zoo. “Getting them used to being around and handled by people and in doing so have made our entire mob overall more comfortable and less stressed when interacting with keepers or when medical or husbandry procedures are needed.”
Aside from her daily tasks and the strides she’s made, she enjoys connecting with and educating others. “I love being a keeper and working with the animals, but also being able to educate the people,” she said. “I love being able to talk to people and help them make a connection with these animals.”
Whether it’s educating zoo patrons or members of the community, the knowledge she’s gained over the years has been influential to the Idaho Falls Zoo.
“I love this work because I can work with the animals every single day and actually build a connection with them.”
