Being around zoo animals all day may sound like fun — seeing all those monkeys, birds and big cats — but it’s demanding and very hard work.

Zookeepers feed animals, clean their enclosures, care for sick animals, observe behavior carefully for signs of problems or ill health.

They regularly examine animal waste — from bird guano to elephant dung — to check on the animals’ health. Some take care of baby animals and work in breeding centers.

It can be very routine, but it is also rewarding. Zookeepers are present at the birth of baby animals and watch them grow. Many have close bonds with their charges.

It usually takes around six years to train a committed rookie into a professional zookeeper. A good zookeeper is knowledgeable and has a strong sense of responsibility. He or she must also be observant and careful.

It goes without saying they should love animals and not be afraid of getting their hands dirty.

“The job of animal keeper is not considered very good because we have to handle waste and feed the animals. But not many people are good at taking care of animals because the job is also demanding,” says Huang Kangning, who works at the penguin-breeding center of the Shanghai Zoo.

The zoo has 132 zookeepers, which is not enough. It recruits every year.

The local zoo welcomes people who major in zoology or biology-related subjects and are willing to be part of a team and do hard work.

“It is difficult to spot suitable people who love the job, but our recruitment draws a lot of attention every year,” says Bai Jiaming, a zoo official.

Shanghai Daily talks to three zoo keepers.

Huang Kangning, 28

Huang Kangning probably has one of the most “fun” jobs at the Shanghai Zoo — she takes care of “Happy Feet” penguins.

When she says “Come,” they gather around her.

But gaining the penguin’s trust and affection wasn’t easy. They are wary of strangers, and it took Huang six months to become accepted, along with her zookeeper teacher who was well known to the birds.

Huang, a 28-year-old Jiangsu Province native, has worked at the zoo and cared for penguins for two years. She received a master’s degree in aquaculture from Shanghai Ocean University. Her husband, a classmate, works in a fisheries research institute.

Huang works at the penguin-breeding center, which contains 14 birds in seven pairs. They range in age from two years to older than 10.

“Penguins are afraid of strangers and are very timid,” Huang says. They only eat food from Huang and two other keepers. They won’t take food from strangers.

“When I first stepped into the place with my teacher, they all gathered around him and ignored me,” she recalls. They would not take fish from her.

After half a year, she has been accepted and has a deep bond with her charges.

“Now, when I come close and say ‘come here,’ they gather around me immediately,” she says.

One three-year-old female follows her wherever she goes and lies at her feet when Huang washes fish. “She’s a good girl and listens to my words,” Huang says.

Huang doesn’t allow the penguin to follow her all the time, because she should not become too attached to people instead of other birds.

All the penguins are tagged with numbers on their wings.

“To many people, penguins look the same, but zookeepers recognize individuals instantly,” Huang says. She knows their personalities and habits.

Newborn chicks are gray and later turn black and white. “They grow like ugly ducklings into swans,” she says.

Huang does everything in the penguin-breeding center. She feeds, cleans, observers, tends the hatching room, holds penguins down so they can receive injections, and does every other penguin task. There’s a shortage of keepers at the zoo, so Huang pitches in.

She is always studying and learning from her teacher, a veteran zookeeper and penguin expert.

“The job of animal keeper is not considered as good as others because we have to handle guano and feed the animals. But no many people are good at taking care of animals because the job is demanding,” Huang says.

“My parents did not oppose this work, but they were not supportive either when I said I would be an animal keeper,” she says.

Keen observation is required, including observation of the guano when the area is cleaned. Once Huang noticed blood in the guano of a Rhea penguin, which became sick with an intestinal infection. It got better later after tender care.

The saddest time is when animals get sick. Last year a penguin had a liver infection. “If penguins catch mold, it’s like an incurable disease,” she says.

These penguins were introduced from South Africa where the weather is very dry, while Shanghai is damp. One 10-year-old male couldn’t adapt to the climate and fell ill. It received transfusions of medicine for two weeks but did not survive.

“It kept shivering because it was in pain,” Huang says. “I cried when it died. I feel so sad when they get sick.”

Huang works from 7am to 5pm. Other keepers take night shifts in the hatching room.

He Weiguang, 37

After 14 years as a zookeeper, He Weiguang has worked with rhinoceros, elephants, and now lions and tigers, to name just a few. Today he specializes in artificial breeding and care of newborn cats.

It’s never boring, despite repetition, because the animals always react differently and He has formed deep bonds with his animals. Some that he tended after they were born still follow him around when they can.

“It is a fun job,” says the 37-year-old zoo veteran from Changshu in neighboring Jiangsu Province. “They are like my own children and seeing them grow is full of touching and joyful moments.”

He, who grew up on a farm, majored in aquaculture at Shanghai Ocean University and joined the zoo in 1999. His first job was caring for all kinds of fish, amphibians and reptiles for five or six years. He went on to herbivores such as rhinoceros, buffalo and horses for another five or six years. For more than two years, He has been working with cats, big and small.

“Tiger cubs rush to me, clinging to me and holding onto my leg. Spotted hyenas don’t like people hugging them, but they like me to stroke their heads. Small lions like running after you everywhere, like kittens,” He says, smiling.

“The animals recognize me since I spent a lot of time with them,” He says with pride. Though elands are typically skittish around strangers, one adult antelope still follows him around because he took care of it when it was a calf.

He’s responsibility now is artificial breeding and nursing newborns — two cougars, a spotted hyena, a south China tiger and an eland.

He feeds his carnivore cubs milk, meat paste, then pieces of meat, and finally chunks of meat. “You must be very careful with newborns,” he says.

He feeds all his baby animals four times a day.

He arrives at the zoo at 6:30am for the first feeding and returns home at 5pm, then he goes back to the zoo at around 9:30pm and leaves after 10pm after feeding.

Over the years, he worries when one of his animals gets sick.

Once the zoo introduced two rhinoceros from South Africa. He watched them day and night for fear they would get sick in a different environment.

A female rhinoceros got sick several times. Once it fainted because of an extremely low blood count. Another time it had skin ulcers.

“The ulcer situation was serious, we tried everything and finally saved it,” he says. Zookeepers and veterinarians used disinfected mud, applying it twice a day to the body for almost a year. The rhino got better.

“The experience left a deep impression,” He says.

Being a zookeeper requires hard work. He especially remembers cleaning the elephant enclosure twice a day and shoveling the dung, each pile weighing at least a kilogram. It’s especially hard work in summer.

“Elephants are mischievous and like to use their trunks to overturn a wheelbarrow filled with dung, so you have to shovel it all up again,” He says with good humor.

Training a professional animal keeper takes at least five or six years, he says. Daily work, such as basic cleaning and feeding is simple.

“But it takes a long time for a zookeeper to learn to read animals’ expressions, habits and movements, to know when they pregnant, in estrus and ready too mate, or when they are distressed and sick,” he says.

In addition to education and smarts, a good zookeeper must have “a sense of responsibility and must be caring,” He says.

He wants visitors to be better behaved. Some throw food into animals’ enclosures and some throw water bottles on sleeping animals to wake them up and get a reaction, he says.

Li Qing, 33

Li Qing seems more of a ladylike office worker than a zookeeper. The soft-spoken, 33-year-old keeps her skin white, wearing with hats and gloves, so she doesn’t look as though she has been doing manual work in the sun.

Li, who comes from Harbin in Heilongjiang Province, takes care of around 100 tortoises, turtles and small lizards at the Shanghai Zoo’s amphibians and reptiles pavilions.

She majored in wildlife protection and management of nature reserves at the Forestry University in Harbin. She has studied on her own and learned from experienced animal keepers.

In 2004, she started working at the zoo, caring for the animals and educating visitors about her charges. She feeds the animals, ensures they have eaten and observers each of them carefully to ensure they are healthy. She also cleans their cages and enclosures.

Many of turtles, tortoises and lizards used to be pets, purchased while their were little. Owners didn’t realize some would grow quite large and become difficult to accommodate. Some owners just got bored.

“Raising pets is increasingly popular and many people are fond of the animals at first. They don’t consider what the animals would really need,” Li says.

Some people buy rare baby tortoises, such as the African spurred tortoise (geochelone sulcata), but turn them over to the zoo when they don’t have enough space and don’t want to abandon them.

The zoo space and resources are also limited, however, “we cannot reject these requests because it’s one of the functions of a zoo to take in homeless animals,” Li says.

The zoo has received several thousand turtles in the last year and a half. Small turtles have difficulty adapting and many die.

Once, a large red-eared slider turtle, a rescue case, bit the tail off a lizard that ventured into its space to drink water.

“Although we have very limited facilities, we try to give each animal the best care. We are trying to meet the demand and improve facilities,” Li says.

Some chameleons, former pets, also find homes at the zoo, but they are difficult to raise because males get aggressive and they need to be separated in their own cages.

Small lizards don’t drink water from basins, so Li and her colleges obtained medical transfusion bottles and used them to drip water onto leaves, as in the lizards’ natural habitat.

Different species and individuals have different characteristics, and Li enjoys observing them. Each has a number on its shell, so keepers can tell which ones are eating, which are sick.

She gives some pet names. She names an Aldabra giant tortoise Dada.

People may not know that tortoises can learn because they always look calm and stoic and move slowly, the keeper says.

Once Dada wanted to get past a barrier but a radiated tortoise blocked the way. Then an elongated tortoise came along and figured out a detour. Dada also took the detour.

Tortoises are famously patient and they persevere. Li remembers that a tortoise tried to climb a very high iron fence, and fell down hard, but it kept trying.

“I am astonished and touched by these moments,” Li says. “It’s a pleasure for me to communicate with these species.”

The most exciting moments are births, and Li enjoys watching animals grow. She tended one- and two-month-old chameleons, which survived and even reproduced. The eggs are artificially incubated.

Of course, it’s sad when animals die. When small turtles/tortoises catch cold, it’s hard for them to survive.

Li has a six-year-old son and tells him funny bedtime stories about the animals.

Every night he reminds her, “It’s zoo time, Mom.”