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My guest this week is Kayla Freeman, the Large Mammal Supervisor at Blank Park Zoo. She cares for a variety of large hoofstock, including rhino, giraffe, camel, and okapi. As a working supervisor, she spends a good portion of her week out in the field, working with the animals. However, she is able to dedicate one day to doing office work. Like so many others in a working supervisory role, Kayla is busy! She shares that efficiency and time management are so critical!

Kayla is a mom to three, but when Kayla started working at Blank Park Zoo she was 20 weeks pregnant with her first child. Kayla and I talk very candidly about the postpartum period. She shares how different each of her postpartum periods were and she opens up about her struggles during her third postpartum and how it made her realize that she needed to take care of herself and her mental health.

Now that her children are getting a little older, Kayla is working towards being involved in the larger AZA community. She feels that her capacity to focus on professional involvement has changed, especially since she has been able to set boundaries around what she is involved in by asking, "What commitments are involved?" This is such a great question to set expectations up front when starting to involve yourself in larger professional projects!

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Click here to send me a text! Have a story to share or just want to chat? Let's connect - because moms need moms!

My guest this week is Sarah Radecker, a Wildlife Connections Supervisor at the Houston Zoo. Sarah manages a team of 21 keepers while overseeing a very diverse animal collection, including reptiles, small mammals like mongoose and meerkats, and ambassador animals!

Sarah and I dive into the postpartum period and what it is like to return to work. We talk about how it feels easier to return to a job you are passionate about as well as how returning to a team with other moms can really help the transition.

Sarah's journey in the zoo field also includes a brief amount of time spent working out of the field. We talk about the emotions that come with stepping away from that "zookeeper" identity and how reframing her mindset helped with that pivot to something new. She made an intentional choice to focus on motherhood during this time, and she shares how she embraced that - as well as how she ultimately made her way back to the zoo!

Mothering Wildlife links:
Facebook MotheringWildlifePodcast
Instagram @motheringwildlife
Email: motheringwildlife@gmail.com

Click here to send me a text! Have a story to share or just want to chat? Let's connect - because moms need moms!

My guest this week is Channing Milchuck, a Primate Swing Keeper from Zoo Atlanta. Channing and I talk about how being a zookeeper is a second career for her. She started in vet medicine and spent almost a decade doing that before transitioning into being an animal keeper.

We also spend a fair amount of time talking about what it is like to have a husband in the Navy and how that has impacted their family life and the start of her zookeeping career.

Channing has great advice for other moms in the zoo field: she always tries to put family first and makes sure that she feels positive about her home life because that makes her then feel more energized at work. Prior to having children she would not have considered herself an organized person but now she is and she says it has been a game changer.

Mothering Wildlife links:
Facebook MotheringWildlifePodcast
Instagram @motheringwildlife
Email: motheringwildlife@gmail.com