Mother by day, Trainer/Presenter by night.

Meet Kenzi, a Senior Trainer/Presenter here at Night Safari’s Creatures Of The Night presentation! Ever wondered what it’s like to be a presenter in a 1000-seat amphitheatre? Read on to learn more about her work, the challenges she faces and what keeps her going.

Why made you decide to be a Trainer/Presenter?

I love animals! I can't remember a time in my childhood when we didn’t have some sort of animal in our house whether it was cats, hamsters, birds, stick insects, rabbits and even chickens. I enjoy working with animals as they have a mind of their own and basically do what they really want to do. It makes every presentation and interaction with them a unique experience.  

I also chose the role as a trainer/presenter because it fits my personality well! I’m someone that can’t really do the same thing every day. No offence to the people working in office hours, but if I were to be in a desk bound job, I would probably lose my mind!

What are the challenges that you face in your role?

Being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes adds an extra layer of challenge to my role. To manage my condition, I always have snacks or a sweet drink nearby for when my blood sugar drops. I also wear a medical device on my arm to check my blood sugar levels periodically throughout the day.

On top of that, I have a 5-month-old baby! Working nights can be tough because I miss putting her to bed and have to wake up to feed her just a few hours after getting home. I'm definitely nocturnal now! However, I start work at 2:30 pm, so I maximise my time with her before I leave.

It was really tough when I first returned to work after maternity leave, but every day since then, I video call her during my breaks and know that my hard work is worth it cause it will be for her.

How long does it take for the animals to learn their behaviours and be ready for presentations?

It really varies from animal to animal. For example, Toffee, our raccoon, he’s a superstar and catches on to things very easily, so it takes him a couple of weeks to learn a behaviour. This may sound long, but it’s actually pretty fast when you compare it to other animals that may take up to months to learn a similar behaviour.

We also take in to consideration the capabilities of the animals and their natural behaviours when deciding what they will learn. A geriatric animal may be trained to do a simpler behaviour as compared to what a younger animal would because we have to look longer term and gauge whether they would be able to sustain the behaviour in the years to come.

Do you have a favourite animal that you work with?

I would have to say it’s Foxtrot, our fennec fox! We raised him ever since he was a baby. We had to bottle feed him, we would buy him little toys and play with him between our presentations.

He’s like our office baby and my first baby and I think that’s why I feel very bonded to him, even though I have one of my own now!

What is the key message of the Creatures Of The Night presentation that you would like your audiences to take home with them?

There’s a lot of messages that we would like to share with our audiences but the number one key message would be conservation. We have these beautiful animals with us now, but that may not be the case in the next 30 years. We want them to be around for our children, grandchildren and our future generations to come.

And the way we are trying to achieve this is to inspire and share with our audeinces the wonders of these creatures through our presentations hoping that they will grow to have a deeper appreciation for them.