Raymond Hren ran a soothing hand along the side of Maggie, a 30-year-old Malayan tapir, so she’d be relaxed and calm for her pedicure. Maggie was already pretty mellow, resting in the shade in her Milwaukee County Zoo quarters on a warm, summer day, but Hren needed to trim her toenails to make sure her feet stay healthy.

When Hren, a UWM alum, says his job as a pachyderm keeper at the Milwaukee County Zoo is never routine, he means it. On any given day, he may be giving a tapir a pedicure, helping weigh a baby giraffe, preparing a mud bath for a rhino or answering questions from visiting children.

Hren, who earned his bachelor’s degree in anthropology, found his career after working part-time in the zoo’s grounds department while in college. His interest in animals started when he was young. At 16, he volunteered at the Humane Society, and in his 20s he worked at a pet store.

“I thought this would be a cool job to have because I like working outdoors and I like working with animals.”

After graduating from UWM in 1995, he gradually worked his way up at the zoo and is now one of six pachyderm keepers, with four working per day. While the keepers work different shifts and care for all the pachyderms as well as with other animals, each also has a specialty. Pachyderms, while not an official scientific classification, generally include rhinos, hippos, elephants and other thick-skinned animals.

Hren’s specialty is the black (or hooked lip) rhino, an endangered species.

Taking care of them means more than just feeding them or making sure they’re comfortable, Hren said as he moved among the animals with easy confidence.

“We wear many hats during the day – we’re responsible for their nutrition, cleaning up after them, training, talking to the public.”

His job includes all kinds of preventive care — checking a rhinoceros for a skin problem, or brushing its teeth, administering a vaccination and looking after the animals’ mental and physical well-being. Maggie, for example, has just moved to a new home that has a better pool for her to wallow in, and Hren says he can tell she’s happy with the change.

He works regularly with the rhinos and other pachyderms to train them to do different tasks. This training not only helps the zookeepers take care of them, it also provides mental stimulation for the animals.

“You always have to respect that they are wild animals, but we build up a trust and rapport with them. They come up for a treat or a scratch,” said Hren.

That trust allows him and other keepers to give vaccinations, draw blood or do minor procedures without using anesthesia, making the experience less stressful for the pachyderms.

While many zookeepers major in biology or zoology, Hren said, his anthropology degree has helped give him a broader view of his work. At UWM, he took courses in primate studies, zoology, physical and cultural anthropology and spent time at the zoo observing bonobos, an endangered species of great apes. “Anthropology really helped me round out my education.”

That background has helped him in the broad range of activities that go beyond working with the animals at the zoo.

“Zoos have changed from menageries for the elite,” he said. “They’ve evolved, and the zookeeper’s role has changed dramatically.”

Few rhinos in the wild

Hren is on the board of directors of the International Rhino Keeper Association. In that role he’s traveled to Australia and England and zoos around the U.S. The association is dedicated to researching and caring for rhinos in captivity, but also helps in preserving them in the wild.

The number of black rhinos, one of the five species of rhino, has declined to fewer than 5,000 in the wild because of widespread poaching and loss of habitat. “They’ve been poached and hunted nearly to extinction,” Hren said.

He helps raise awareness and funds through the association and such events as the Milwaukee County Zoo’s Party for the Planet. The money supports projects such as orphanages for baby rhinos whose mothers have been killed for their horns and programs to prevent poaching.

While recently there has been some criticism of keeping animals in captivity, zoos and zookeepers have evolved to play an important role in preserving species, Hren said.

“Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world where animals in the wild can remain undisturbed. It’s just a reality.”

The rhinos and other animals at the zoo help in teaching the public about these issues, he added. “They are quite important. They are ambassadors for the rhinos in the wild.”

Those education efforts give Hren job satisfaction.

“It’s very important to show people we are not only doing the best we can to take care of them mentally and physically here, but we’re also helping the rhinos in the wild. That’s why I do what I do.”