Hear Confessions of a Zookeeper at Hurstville

Residents of the Hurstville local government area will have a chance to hear Terry Boylan, colourful senior zookeeper and recent author, speak at the end of this month on modern zoos and his role in them. The talk will take place at the Hurstville City Library on Thursday, July 21.

The Hurstville area includes Hurstville, Peakhurst, Peakhurst Heights, Oatley and Lugano, as well as parts of surrounding areas.

Terry’s career in zoos, both nationally and internationally, has lasted over 40 years. Currently, he is working with the Taronga Conservation Society. His book, The Keepers and the Kept – Confessions of a Zookeeper, is a full and light-hearted account of his career, mostly from the perspective of his time as zookeeper at the Taronga Park Zoo, but also mentioning time spent in other places including London.

Among the topics in this books – and which will no doubt feature in Terry’s talk – is that of the (thankfully rare) escapes from zoos. Perhaps not surprisingly, these are usually effected by that brainiest of creatures, the primate, and Terry’s examples include some particularly sneaky macaque monkeys as well as a great ape or two. Anyone involved in poster printing might sometimes have paused to look into the eyes of some pictured monkey or ape and wondered just what was ticking in that mind.

There would be no bigger mistake, according to Terry, than to take monkeys and apes for granted. Especially when they seem to be looking the other way.