Head of Section – PRIMATES

THIS POSITION IS NOW FILLED

Wingham Wildlife Park is a family run wildlife park with big emphasis on animal husbandry, conservation, education and safety for our animals, staff and visitors. We are looking for a like minded “team player” who would develop and lead our primate team.

The role;

Taking a hands on approach to ensuring that animal care is conducted to the high standards we expect on a day to day basis. Leading a team and supervising all aspects of animal husbandry, with duties including but not limited to;

- Managing all areas of animal husbandry within the Primate department

- Liaising with the Head Keeper to conduct diet reviews and ensuring these are prepared and given out correctly

- Developing animal training protocols and implementing them

- Ensuring correct medication is given to animals and liaising with the Head Keeper any concerns

- Ensuring enclosure security and reporting any concerns immediately

- Developing and implementing any health and safety protocols within the department

- Communicating with the Head Keeper any stock that needs ordering, including dry stock, fresh produce and medications

In addition, you will also;

- Report directly to the Head Keeper, Curator and Directors

- Train and develop a team of up to 11 keepers under your supervision

- Assist the Head Keeper with conducting performance reviews of staff and suggest improvements

- Supervise volunteers, work experience students and interns when on section, including during the interview process

- Engage with visitors and develop public keeper talks

- Ensure all paperwork is kept up to date and correctly filled in

What you need to be considered for the role;

- Proven experience working with Primates in a zoo setting, including Great Apes

- Experience managing a team of people

- Be a team player with the ability to motivate your team whilst under pressure

- Excellent communication skills

- Some IT skills with a working knowledge of Zims (however full training will be given)

About Employment with WWP:

This full time position (45 hours per week) requires people to be comfortable working outdoors in all weather conditions, including working on weekends, during school holidays and on bank holidays.

All applications or questions about this position to be addressed for the attention of Ruth Wilder to headkeeper@winghamwildlifepark.co.uk along with a covering letter and CV. For applications to this particular job please use reference HEAD in the email title. Any applications through other channels will be disregarded.

You must be eligible to work in the UK.

This vacancy will close as soon as sufficient applications have been received, therefore you should submit your application as soon as possible. All successful candidates will be contacted via email to arrange an interview.

Unfortunately we are unable to give comment on unsuccessful applications.

FYI

This vacancy has been posted out to the many thousands who read the popular Zoo Jobs Blog Page and then on to the 129,400 plus followers of the ZooNews Digest Facebook Page. It is then immediately forwarded on to Twitter and then to Pinterest and Linkedin (8,000+ connections). Many vacancies are shared to individuals and groups. In short your vacancy will have the potential of reaching something in the region of some 80,000 plus people within 24 hours. Most of these people are working in a zoo environment, Keepers, Curators, Vets, Zoo Directors, Trainers, Aquarists and more.

ZooNews Digest has subscribers in over 1200 Zoos in 150+ countries. Zoo professionals are International.

The number of people who will actually read the posted vacancy will actually be considerably less. Usually this will be between two hundred and three thousand. This will depend on the type of post, the time of the year and where it is located…of course not all will apply. I wish you the very best of luck in finding the right candidate for your post.

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