Growing up, Addy Cuellar always had animals on the brain.
“I was the kid that watched Animal Planet,” Addy says. “My mom would be like, ‘How can you watch the crocodiles eat the zebras?’ I was like, ‘It’s wildlife. It’s amazing.’”
With a degree in wildlife management, Addy is currently living her dream as a zookeeper at the Fort Worth Zoo, working with the Asian elephants and the greater one-horned rhinoceros.
“I was always kind of drawn to [elephants],” Addy says. “I did an internship nine years ago at an elephant sanctuary in Arkansas… I was just going to feel it out. I was like, ‘Let me do an internship and see if it’s something I’m interested in doing.’ And I haven’t stopped since.”
As a zookeeper, Addy cares and provides for the elephants while also teaching zoo guests about the animals. This past fall, she even got to help welcome baby elephant Brazos into the world.
“Since it was [his mom’s] second birth, it went really smoothly,” Addy says. “We’re just there to make sure that his vitals are good. [The] vet staff was there and he did great. He was nursing right away, and it was just perfect.”
Including Brazos, Addy and her fellow zookeepers care for eight elephants, the largest of whom is Romeo — Brazos’ dad — who weighs over 10,000 pounds.
“They eat an average of 100-300 pounds of food each,” Addy says.
The elephants eat everything from hay and grains to fruits and vegetables, and because they’re so food motivated, zookeepers don’t have much trouble maneuvering the multi-ton animals.
“They love the reward,” Addy says. “They are eager to earn that. It’s really fun [to see] how much they’ll do for us just for that training biscuit. Since we work with them every day, the relationship that you build with them is amazing.”
When she’s not on the clock, Addy is often still at the zoo, taking photographs of the animals she loves to care for.
“[I love] watching the elephants really enjoy just being elephants, just enjoying their life here,” Addy says.