From menagerie to modern animal keeper
The story of how animal husbandry became a trade
Taking care of animals in captivity is not new — humans have kept wild animals for thousands of years. But animal keeper as a proper trade, with knowledge of animal welfare, nutrition, behavior and enrichment, is relatively young. To understand why the trade looks the way it does today, it's worth following its path from the prince's private animal collection to today's zoos and animal parks.
§Animal collections and menageries — the roots of the profession.
Already in ancient times, rulers kept exotic animals as a sign of power and wealth, and something suggests that people were employed as early as ancient Egypt to care for the animals' wellbeing. Through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, princes and kings kept so-called menageries – private collections of wild animals. Later, the menagerie also became a traveling business: animals such as lions, bears, and monkeys were exhibited on markets for a fee. It was entertainment and exhibition, not care in the modern sense.
The animals typically lived in small, bare wooden and iron cages. Little was known about their actual needs, the feed was often wrong, and many animals lived short lives. The person who looked after the animals was more of a keeper or caretaker than a professional — the job was to feed, clean, and keep the animals alive so they could be displayed.
§The public zoological gardens
In the 1800s a decisive shift occurred. The first real zoological garden with both exhibition and scientific study of the animals opened in London in 1828 and in the decades after gardens in among others Amsterdam Antwerp Berlin and Frankfurt. The idea was new: animals were not just to entertain but also to be studied.
In Denmark the ornithologist Niels Kjærbølling opened a zoological garden in Frederiksberg Have in 1859 — initially a small menagerie on a modest area. It became the foundation for Copenhagen Zoo. Records from the late 1800s show that the garden in addition to musicians and an animal tamer also had employed actual animal handlers. The profession was taking shape but animals still lived in relatively narrow cages with bars.
§The major shift: nature is imitated
Perhaps the most important turning point came when animal dealer Carl Hagenbeck opened his animal park near Hamburg in 1907. Here he showed animals for the first time in open outdoor enclosures without cages — separated from the public only by moats. The idea was to imitate the animals' natural surroundings instead of locking them behind bars. Hagenbeck is therefore often considered the father of the modern zoo and his idea of naturalistic enclosures has set the direction ever since.
| Period | What happened |
|---|---|
| Antiquity and Middle Ages | Rulers kept exotic animals as power symbols; early traces of people employed to care for the animals |
| Renaissance and forward | Royal menageries and traveling animal collections at markets — display, not care |
| 1800-tallet | Public zoological gardens appear (London 1828, Copenhagen 1859)—animals are studied, not just displayed |
| Omkring 1907 | Carl Hagenbeck introduces naturalistic open enclosures without bars — the modern zoo ideal |
| 1900-tallet | Growing knowledge of nutrition behavior and disease; animal care becomes a real discipline |
| Today | Focus on animal welfare enrichment conservation and breeding of endangered species; professionally trained animal caretakers |
§How the learning objectives flow through the entire course
In early menageries and gardens the care was often characterized by guesswork. You fed with what was at hand kept animals alone even though they were herd animals and did not systematically combat infection. Through the 1900s scientific understanding grew: people learned that different species have vastly different needs for food temperature light and company and that animals can suffer both physically and mentally.
- 01Iron and concrete pens have been replaced by facilities that mimic the animal's natural habitat.
- 02Feed is no longer guessed — it is adapted to the species' digestion age and condition.
- 03Enrichment and natural behaviour have become central so animals don't get bored or develop stereotypies.
- 04Quarantine, hygiene and infection protection are systematic rather than random.
- 05Logbook, veterinary cooperation and documentation have become a permanent part of care.
§The animal keeper today
Where the task once was to feed and keep animals alive for display, the modern animal carer is about something far broader: ensuring animal welfare, understanding their behaviour, setting up facilities according to their needs and — in many gardens — contributing to the conservation and breeding of endangered species. The animal carer works closely with veterinarians and biologists, keeps logs and uses enrichment as a fixed tool. The trade has gone from craft and guesswork to an education built on biology, behaviour science and animal welfare.
“The history of the animal keeper is the story of a change in perspective: from the animal as a spectacle behind bars to a living, sentient being whose needs we have a duty to understand and fulfill.”