Anonymous asked:

Hey, I know you've worked with animals, so I have an animal working question. I'm currently applying for jobs, and one of the ones I've got a potential interview for is working as a vet tech for primates. I've only really worked with marine animals and never primates. Do you have any experience working with them? How did it go?

I do have primate experience, though I’m not really driven to work with them the way many primatologists are.  The bulk of my experience in the family is with smaller monkeys, but I have also worked with lemurs, lesser apes, and occasionally great apes.  Primates of any kind require highly specialized care because of their extreme intelligence and often social natures.  Daily, varied enrichment is vital to their well-being.  I’m not sure what a primate specific vet tech job description entails or to what kind of facility you are applying, but it will be considerably different from marine wildlife.  I didn’t expect to enjoy working with primates because while I love all living things, monkeys have never particularly appealed to me - to similar to humans, I imagine… But I did find the time I spent with them quite rewarding, especially the Saki monkeys and Titi monkeys.