A Zookeeper Shares a Sneak Peek of His ’Wild’ Job to Awaken a Love for Animals in Everyone

The main thing that animals can teach you is “true empathy.” Chad Staples who takes care of the entire wildlife park in Sydney shows this perfectly. He wakes up every day surrounded by hundreds of beautiful animals who share their love and kindness with him. This is not a dream life but a reality for Chad.

We at Bright Side met this amazing person and would like to share his exotic story with you.

Each animal has its own personality and Chad can feel it every day.

If you haven’t been waking up with a smile on your face, Chad can change that and charge you with positive energy. He shared with us that he feels truly happy to spend his life surrounded by animals. His life differs in comparison to other people who live in big cities and the biggest treasure of his life is the zoo where he started to work more than 20 years ago.

“I grab my coffee and go for a walk, immersing myself in the animal world to see if everything is okay,” Chad says as he describes a normal day in his life. You understand very quickly whether they are OK or not.

He knows the animals in the zoo very well and just a simple look can help him figure out what’s wrong. Each animal has its own personality, “we have more than 2,000 animals here and every single one of those animals has individual requirements.”

In the interview with us, Chad shared that it’s actually hard to understand animals and that it’s something that comes with time: “I think the main thing is true empathy. I learn it from animals every single day. They are absolute passion.”

When you look at Chad, there is no doubt that he is on the right path. His face is beaming with a smile and he is ready to open his world to each person: “I feel so blessed to be able to spend every day with them.” The wildlife park that he manages can be an excellent experience for kids because they can learn how to put themselves in the position of the animal and to see the world through their eyes.

Bushfires in Australia were like “Armageddon” and it was the hardest time.

Nobody said that it’s easy to be a zookeeper. Chad has also had some challenging times and it happened almost a year ago. Flames covered the bushes in Sydney and it was spreading so quickly that there wasn’t enough time to evacuate the animals. Chad decided to stay and defend the wildlife.

Smaller animals like red pandas and monkeys were put into different boxes and moved right into rooms at Chad’s house.

Larger animals like tigers and lions were moved to their night enclosures. Animals like giraffes and zebras were allowed to walk outdoors where the grass was short and wet, to escape the risk of fire again. It was “like Armageddon” but zoo staff managed to save every single animal.

Some animals get closer to the heart than others.

Despite the fact that Chad’s heart has enough space for each animal, he still has his favorites. He is raising Archer the koala who has had tough times after his mother sadly abandoned him. Chad was like a real parent and for the first few weeks, he got out of bed 3 times a night to bottle-feed him.

Now Archer has become the face of the park’s individual animal sponsorship program and he even has his own public profile on social media and has been recognized as “Australia’s Cutest Animal.” We wish the best of luck to Chad and the wildlife park and hope they will bring many more happy hours to visitors in the future!

When was the last time you went to a zoo? Would you like to try to live closer to nature? Please share your opinion with us and the pictures you took with the animals!