Jersey Zoo is fortunate to have a dedicated staff. without whom its results would not be nearly so impressive as they have been.
Some of them have been with the zoo for many years and here some of the longest serving and senior staff members are featured
Some of them have been with the zoo for many years and here some of the longest serving and senior staff members are featured
Phillip Coffey — Education Officer
Phillip Coffey wanted to work outdoors when he graduated from Portsmouth College of Technology and although most zoos turned him down as ”over qualified” he became Jersey Zoo's first graduate keeper.
While he was waiting for his interview, Oscar, the mischievous male Bornean orang utan broke out from his cage and a year later he was to take over responsibilities for the great ape section and Oscar, with whom he developed a special relationship.
He held this position for nine years and then began to develop two new interests — the school groups visiting the zoo and photography.
He resigned to attend a one-year teacher training course in Exeter and during his absence the Jersey Education Department agreed to provide a grant for an education officer at the Zoo and he was offered and accepted the post.
He hopes that Jersey teachers now see a visit to the Zoo as more than a day out — more as an integral part of a course of study.
Phillip is concerned and actively involved with the design, presentation and variety of education aids around the zoo and with the successful volunteer guide service, for which he selects and trains the guides.
He is also editor of the trust’s newsletter for its junior members, the Dodo Dispatch.
Betty Renouf— Administrator
Betty Renouf, then 15, joined Jersey Zoo as office junior in 1962.
”It was everything but,” she says. ”I painted cages, collected calves and even had to man the aquarium paybox, entrance 6d a head, which was a table outside what is now the staff kitchen, piled high with Mars Bars and sweets.”
There was a hare living in the office ("I think we just called it Hare”) and Celebes Apes regularly jumped up and down on her typewriter.
On one- occasion Betty recalls arriving back from town with Cathy Weller, then administrator, to meet Cholmondley and Sheena, the two full-grown chimpanzees, walking out of the reptile house hand in hand.
Betty remembers making a run for it with Cholmondley’s nose pressed up against the opposite car window which had been hastily wound up.
She can also remember clearly when Pedro, the spectacled bear, escaped and headed straight for her window, through which he gazed at her adoringly until being rounded up. To this day she is very concerned that all windows remain securely fastened.
She does all the buying for the zoo shop and is greatly looking forward to the planned new visitor entrance and shop.
Most important of all to the staff, she does the wages, and is naturally careful with money having lived through the days when it was almost impossible to pay the bills.
Betty Renouf, then 15, joined Jersey Zoo as office junior in 1962.
”It was everything but,” she says. ”I painted cages, collected calves and even had to man the aquarium paybox, entrance 6d a head, which was a table outside what is now the staff kitchen, piled high with Mars Bars and sweets.”
There was a hare living in the office ("I think we just called it Hare”) and Celebes Apes regularly jumped up and down on her typewriter.
On one- occasion Betty recalls arriving back from town with Cathy Weller, then administrator, to meet Cholmondley and Sheena, the two full-grown chimpanzees, walking out of the reptile house hand in hand.
Betty remembers making a run for it with Cholmondley’s nose pressed up against the opposite car window which had been hastily wound up.
She can also remember clearly when Pedro, the spectacled bear, escaped and headed straight for her window, through which he gazed at her adoringly until being rounded up. To this day she is very concerned that all windows remain securely fastened.
She does all the buying for the zoo shop and is greatly looking forward to the planned new visitor entrance and shop.
Most important of all to the staff, she does the wages, and is naturally careful with money having lived through the days when it was almost impossible to pay the bills.
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