[Becker] I kinda look at the Animal Kingdom as a lot of people
aren't going to be able to afford to see the animals in the wild,
so they come here to see them. And so we can actually--
That's maybe their only chance to be able to see them in person.
And so to be able to tell their story, the challenges that they face in the wild,
and even being able to turn that into how can you help your animals
in your backyard.
For me, anyway, it's as much fun
as just the day-to-day, you know, the dirty part of the job. [chuckles]
My name is Kris Becker.
I am an animal keeper here at Disney's Animal Kingdom,
and I've been here just over 20 years.
Usually when we first get in, we come in at 06:00.
We check the records from the night before,
make sure nothing happened overnight with the night keeper and the night team.
Our animal nutrition center delivers our diets.
So, this was one of the kangaroo diets.
They actually get three Cambros full of food so they have...
What do we have today? So, we've got--
This is their enrichment bucket, so they've got greens and carrots.
The bulk of their diet is actually greens.
It's very healthy.
Yeah, they, they eat better than we do in, [chuckles] in a lot of cases
'cause it's all restaurant quality.
You know, it's-- Everything is inspected...
by our nutrition staff before we actually get it even down here.
We take what they deliver and do a little bit more final prep to it.
And then soon as we're done with that, we go check in on the animals.
Come on, Barry. Come on, Pepe.
Our training is as simple as asking in our lemurs
to participate in their own health care,
whether that's sitting on a scale,
whether that's going into transport kennels.
Really, the things that we do
are things that help us better take care of them.
This is Theory. He's our old man, so he's 32 years old.
And so some of the training that we do
are all things that kinda help us take care of them.
So, get a good look at their overall body condition.
Make sure he doesn't have any injuries.
We check his hands. We check his feet.
There's something about the trust that you have to build,
that relationship that you have to build with your animals.
They rely on you for everything.
And so having that ability to train them to come up for food,
makes it a lot easier for us to kind of, you know,
just to monitor their health and keep track of them.
These guys aren't like a dog or a cat that seeks out any sort of personal attention.
And so for him to be here and standing with me willingly
and letting me touch him,
it takes a lot of trust on his part to know that I'm not going to do something
that's going to hurt him.
Lemurs are, by far, my favorite.
I fell in love with them many years ago,
and besides just working with them here,
I've actually been able to be involved with
more their conservation end of things and with them on a national scale.
Here at Disney's Animal Kingdom,
we have a great opportunity to tell the animals' stories
to a lot of people
and also the opportunities that we have
to actively participate in conservation projects.
Whether it's helping lemurs through national organizations
like the Prosimian Taxon Advisory Group.
As keepers we're encouraged and we're supported
in working on those conservation projects.
So, I think that's one of the great opportunities
that we have at this park.
Hi, guys.
Hi, Hops.
All right.
These are the largest species of kangaroo.
They can get up over six feet tall.
And our big male, Hops, is probably close to that.
He's the heaviest of the lot,
and so is Boomer.
And if you get a face shot of Boomer when he's eating a piece of banana,
it's the cutest thing 'cause his tongue just comes out.
He tends to lick a lot. Like that.
[chuckles]
Yeah, it's easy to get connected,
especially when you're working with animals,
specific individuals on a daily basis.
I know. I woke you up.
-[flamingos honking] -All right, come on.
Yeah, they have access to food 24/7.
So, but we give 'em fresh food like twice a day, so...
When we get a chance to interact with the guests
and when they come up to any of our exhibits,
you know, everybody comes in,
that's one of the first exhibits they see are the flamingos.
And then we also do a lot of guest education.
When we're training our animals, we always have somebody talking about them,
explaining to the guests what we're doing, why we're doing it
and just kinda give that opportunity to tell the animals' stories.
Now, what was your question again, sweetie?
How does-- How do they sleep?
That is a very good question.
So, these guys, they don't sleep-- You know when you guys--
When you go home, you sleep in a nice soft, cushy bed, right?
Well, these guys actually sleep standing up.
They lift one leg up, and they sleep like that,
with their head all, kind of, tucked in their feathers.
You can be having the worst day in the world,
and as soon as you get out, you know, and get a chance to talk to people,
especially the little kids that are just so--
Everything is so fresh and new for them, and they're so excited.
Yeah, it really makes your day.
I love doing this every day.
Even when it's raining or 90 degrees outside,
you tend to take it for granted sometimes when you've been doing it for a long time.
Every now and then I just have to stop and think about the fact
that I'm, you know, two feet away from a kangaroo
and not everybody can say that. [chuckles]
There's something about that that just makes me happy.
[chuckles] This is my dream job.