Animal Care Specialist - Aviculture Temporary Part-Time

Overview

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Animal Care Specialist - Aviculture I [Temporary Part-Time]

Collaborate with a passionate Zoo Crew in San Antonio
Choosing where to grow your career has a major impact on your professional and personal life, so it’s equally important you know that the place you choose to work at will support and guide you. With a diversity of passionate people, San Antonio Zoo is a place where you can collaborate with others securing a future for wildlife.

The Impact You’ll Make in this Role
As a Part Time Animal Care Specialist in the Aviculture Department, you will be responsible for assisting with all aspects of daily animal care, maintenance of exhibits and plants, data collection, and documents. Knowledge and/or experience with husbandry for a diverse group of bird species is required. Your work involves an amount of independent action with less immediate leadership given after expertise is acquired.

This position has a start date of February 2026 and ending in August 2026.

As an Animal Care Specialist, you will have the opportunity to tap into your curiosity and collaborate with some of the most innovative and diverse people in San Antonio. Here, you will make an impact by:

Daily Care

• Assist Full Time Aviculture Team Animal Care Specialists with the following listed responsibilities. Actively work alongside in a supporting role with the sections within the Aviculture Department.
• General husbandry and daily care of assigned animals/birds, including preparing and distributing approved animal/birds diets.
• Inspect, clean, and maintain both exhibit and off-exhibit areas, including substrate work, perching, trimming, and vital plant care.
• Demonstrate critical thinking skills and the ability to maintain, train, and troubleshoot complex animal/birds behavior daily.
• Maintain detailed daily records on assigned animals/birds.
• Knowledge of safety SOP, safety concerns, and reporting protocols.
• Demonstrate the ability to assist other team members with their animal-related goals and challenges and support team growth.
• All work must perform the following industry best practices, safety protocols, standards, and guidelines established by San Antonio Zoo, governing agencies, and regulatory/accrediting bodies including AZA.
• Upholds all company policies as outlined in the Standard Operating Procedures, Team Member Handbook, and Code of Business Conduct.
• Consistently exhibit an attitude of service inside and outside of the Zoo, showing hospitality to all.
• Be fully committed to the mission of San Antonio Zoo to create awareness that inspires action to care for the wild world we steward and animals we protect.

Behavioral Observations

• Increase the behavioral repertoire of all assigned animals.
• Continually observe and evaluate animal behavior and conditions for animals in the department and report any problems to the appropriate manager.
• Maintain detailed daily records on assigned animals, area routines, and medical treatments.

Safety

• Ability to exercise sound judgment in analyzing animal/birds behavior concerns or emergencies, and to respond with the appropriate action.
• Ability to work safely around delicate, wild, unpredictable, and potentially dangerous animals/birds.
• For the safety of our internal and external guests, you must secure animals/birds, their enclosures, and other associated structures.
• Propose and perform species-specific enrichment.
• Understanding of principles and application of operant conditioning training for advanced husbandry behaviors and public demonstrations.
• Assist veterinary staff in the treatment of the collection of animals/birds.
• Act as a liaison between vet staff, leadership, and the aviculture team.
• Assist in animal/birds procedures including, but not limited…