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News > Alumnae Interviews > Alice Vassallo (Class of 2009) Big Cat Keeper

Alice Vassallo (Class of 2009) Big Cat Keeper

Alice works with Sumatran Tigers, Manned Wolves, Asian Small Clawed Otters amongst many other amazing species at Shepreth Wildlife Park
Alice at her workplace Shepreth Wildlife Park
Alice at her workplace Shepreth Wildlife Park

Alice graduated from SWPS in 2009 and went onto study Classical Studies at Royal Holloway University in London.  Alice told me she wasn't sure what career path she wanted to follow, so she chose Classics as it was a subject she enjoyed.  Alice only had 7 hours of lectures a week so had time to fill and came across a leaflet advertising for Volunteer wildlife rehabbers.

Alice went onto Chessington World of Adventures, giving talks and presentations about the animals to the public, she also was able to help feed some of the animals with the zoo keepers.  It was while working here, Alice decided that this was what she wanted to do and set about her career path to become a zoo keeper.

Many internships and years of volunteering later, Alice secured her first job as a Seasonal Keeper at ZSL London Zoo, one of the best collections in Europe, and here she learnt to care for over 75 different species.

She then joined Shepreth Wildlife Park as a Carnivore Keeper where she continues to care for animals such as Sumatran Tigers, Manned Wolves, Asian Small Clawed Otters among others.

Alice has certainly fit a lot of interesting projects into her 10 years after leaving SWPS, she even lived in the Costa Rican jungle rehabilitating Sloths and running a Release Site for recovered animals to be released back into the wild!

Alice is also part of a fundraising committee, organising events to help conservation projects all over the world, if you are interested in supporting this please see the links below. My personal favourite is the virtual experience the Wildlife Park are offering: a one-to-one zoom call with an animal of your choice for £50 - definitely something I will be doing.


To access the GoFundMe link please click here

Our virtual experiences can be found by clicking here.
      
We are very proud of Alice achieving her dreams and we hope you have enjoyed hearing some of her story.  

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