Noli Doody's photostream

While working at a zoo for more than 11 years, I had great access to behind-the-scenes animal areas and got to know the animals well. The lives of animals come full circle when you're there at their birth and many times, at their death.

Now working for an entirely different "animal," a wildlife/theme park, we have fewer animals, but more access to them as part of the uniqueness is the interactive animal programs, which can be a disconnect for someone coming from the hands-off zoo mentality, but a thrill too that we can have such close proximity to them.