Hi!

I'm a zookeeper at the Alaska Zoo, and while relatively new to having zookeeping be my full time job, I've grown up in zoos through volunteer experiences.  Trying to track down new informational resources at a small zoo such as ours can be difficult.  I am a member of both the national and local AAZK chapters, and have a small library at home, but what I'm looking for is an interactive web forum for professional zookeepers.  This does not appear to exist to the best of my knowledge.  What I'm wondering is whether this is something that the AAZK has considered starting up on your website, given your current networking and communicative abilities with keepers from across the country.  It would be a fantastic place for keepers of all taxa to get together to discuss husbandry techniques, training procedures, enrichment ideas, exhibit design, etc.; all in basically real time, from their home or work computers.  It would be especially helpful for some of us "new" keepers, who don't have a lot of contacts yet in the field to ask questions of.  Monthly paper publications are excellent, as are books, but there's nothing like actual, live discussions with other keepers keeping the same animals as yourself.  I guess I'm curious as to whether something like this already exists (I haven't been able to find it, even with extensive google searching) and if not, whether it would be possible to start up.  Thank you for your time! And if this message is directed at the wrong individual in AAZK, I'd love to know who I could chat with about this! 

Zach Shoemaker
Zookeeper, The Alaska Zoo