Zookeepers are possibly the most important staff members in the entire Zoo Tycoon franchise. It is their job to care for the animals in the player's zoo, by feeding them and providing medical assistance, as well as clean up after animals and maintaining their exhibits.
Zoo Tycoon[]
In Zoo Tycoon and its expansion packs, Zookeepers can only take care of non-extinct land animals. Zookeepers may be hired from the staff menu and handle feeding, healing and clean up after animals in the player's zoo. Zookeepers have a 50/50 chance of being male/female when hired and each have a slight variation in their graphics to indicate sex.
Assignments[]
Zookeepers may be assigned to exhibits by clicking on the assignment button in their staff info screen and then clicking inside exhibits the player would like them to take care of. One zookeeper is able to attend to several exhibits. Care must be taken to not assign too many exhibits to one zookeeper as it may cause the player's animals to become unhappy due to running out of food, too much poo and/or sickness.
Behavior[]
Poo[]
Zookeepers will constantly be looking for poo while inside an exhibit and will pathfind to any to clean it up. If the path to the poo is blocked, a message will appear saying the zookeeper was unable to reach the poo.
Healing[]
Zookeepers will constantly be looking for sick animals while inside an exhibit and will pathfind to any to heal them. If the path to a sick animal is blocked a message will appear saying the zookeeper was unable to reach the animal.
Feeding[]
Zookeepers upon entering an exhibit or being placed in one immediately perform a check to see if there is animal food in the exhibit. If there is no food, the zookeeper will place food down and will not perform this check again until it has left and returned again (being picked up and set down again by the player also counts). This means that trapping a zookeeper in an exhibit without leaving a space for them to step out of the exhibit (example: placing a hedge on the space immediately outside the gate) will starve the animals in that exhibit. A trapped zookeeper will continue to heal animals and clean up poo in the exhibit as necessary though.
Capturing Escaped Animals[]
A zookeeper will capture any non-extinct land animals that have escaped by shooting them with a tranquillizer dart. Animals then will pass out and a crate will appear around them containing the animal until they are placed back inside a valid exhibit.
Zookeeper Cheats[]
Naming any zookeeper Dr. Dolittle will increase the chance of animals breeding in the zoo.
Naming a male zookeeper Chuck Frizelle or a female zookeeper Susan Kittleson will increase the effectiveness of the zoo's marketing.
Ultimate Zookeeper Contest[]
The Ultimate Zookeeper Contest was a contest sponsored by Zoo Tycoon to determine the "Ultimate Zookeeper". While information about the beginning of the contest has been lost, it is known that a public vote on September 19 to October 10, 2002 was held to determine the 5 finalists of the contest out of 12 semifinalists. The five finalists then competed in a challenge hosted by Fort Worth Zoo on November 20-21, 2002. The contest was originally going to be on November 14th but was postponed for unknown reasons.
During the final contest, the five finalists would compete in four "competitive zoo-themed tasks" including a short presentation on their approach to animal care and conservation, testing their knowledge in a zoo-logic trivia quiz, building the ultimate "Zoo Tycoon" zoo and racing in a zoo-themed obstacle course, complete with manure identification. The winner of the contest would be crowned the Ultimate Zookeeper, which would win the prize of being implemented into Zoo Tycoon and a cash donation from Microsoft for their home zoo of $20,000 USD to be used for animal care.
Jonathan Gilmour of Zoo New England was the one that won the Ultimate Zookeeper Contest, and a downloadable cheat was made available for players to download. When installed, naming any male zookeeper Jonathan Gilmour will change the zookeeper's sprite and give said Zookeeper all available training.
Jonathan Gilmour Cheat Download (Archive)
The other finalists were:
- Jason Barr of the Fort Worth Zoo
- Valerie Beardsley of the Dallas Zoo
- Phil Colclough of the Knoxville Zoological Gardens
- Matt Thompson of the Memphis Zoo
Zoo Tycoon 2[]
In Zoo Tycoon 2 and its expansion packs, zookeepers are responsible for taking care of all animals in the player's zoo, including aquatic and extinct animals. Also, since Zoo Tycoon 2 has Zoo Guest Mode, the player no longer has to hire zookeepers, as the player can do everything a zookeeper can do. However, it's usually easier to hire zookeepers than run around manually caring for all the animals in Zoo Guest Mode, depending on how large the player's zoo is.
Much like the previous game, in Zoo Tycoon 2 it is the zookeeper's job to care for animals and maintain exhibits, including filling and placing food dishes, washing animals, raking poop, and healing sick animals. Zookeepers will also tranquillize and crate animals if they escape, provided the animal isn't rampaging.
Zoo Tycoon (Xbox)[]

Zoo Keeper Center
Zookeepers in Zoo Tycoon (Xbox) are unlocked when a zoo reaches level 5 in zoo fame and can be hired from the Zoo Keeper Center. The player will spend different amounts of money hiring zookeepers depending on their level when being hired. Once hired zookeepers will help the player by cleaning up poop, refill feeding and cleaning stations and repair enrichment items. Occasionally the player will see some of their zookeepers wandering their zoo or beside the fence of an exhibit with a clipboard.
Upgrading the Zoo Keeper Center will unlock more staff slots for more zookeepers for the building. Upgrading the facility will also increase zoo fame and attract more guests, at the cost of raising the building's upkeep. Training Zookeepers themselves will increase the zookeeper's work rate, but will also increase their salary.
Small Animal Keepers[]
There are two Small Animal Keepers that the player can hire under the Entertainment menu in the Concessions menu. The Lemur and the Macaw Keepers, which provide entertainment to guests within a certain radius, can be interacted with if the player is in Zoo Guest Mode. When the player interacts with them, a short cutscene will play. The Lemur Keeper has a Ring-Tailed Lemur and the Macaw Keeper has a Blue-And-Yellow Macaw.
When the Small Animal Keepers are upgraded, it will increase in value, meaning it will increase the zoo's fame, attract more guests and meet guest's entertainment needs better, at the cost of raising the upkeep cost.
Gallery[]
Zoo Tycoon[]
Zoo Tycoon (Xbox)[]
Trivia[]
- The Jonathan Gilmour Cheat is one of only a few bonus downloads that does not come with Zoo Tycoon: Complete Collection.
- Zookeepers were supposed to have a third training topic available for research in Zoo Tycoon. Judging by the icon as well as the value the file targets, it was more than likely repurposed into the Reduced Feeding Costs research topic instead.
- Despite the player being able to have a custom zookeeper avatar in Zoo Tycoon (Xbox), including customizing their uniform, the player isn't able to have the same outfit as the zookeepers they hire.
- Zookeepers that spawn with clipboards beside exhibits will put away their clipboard if the player is too far away from them. They will bring their clipboard back out if the player gets closer to them.
- Clipboard zookeepers will despawn after some time if the player hangs around them long enough. Likewise, wandering zookeepers will also despawn after some time if the player follows them.
- A free Lemur Keeper is always present at the entrance of the zoo in Zoo Tycoon (Xbox). This keeper doesn't contribute to staff costs or fame and isn't able to be moved or fired, however it can still be interacted with.