PREPARING FOOD and ensuring a comfortable environment is not the job description of caretakers of children in a day-care centre, but that of someone who tends to one of the most highly endangered creatures in the world. Certainly, it is a job that is busier than you might expect. Imagine cutting 10kg to 14kg of bamboo for each of the giant pandas to munch every day. These gentle, solitary bears have five to six meals a day. So, chopping up bamboo and preparing other supplements such as high-fibre biscuits, bamboo shoots, fruit and vegetables, and cleaning the habitat will keep panda keepers busy from 9am until noon. Jacky Chui, who takes care of An An and Jia Jia at Ocean Park with three other team members, knows the job well. Mr Chui, the theme park's giant panda and butterfly supervisor, said: 'My typical work day of nine hours here starts with arranging and co-ordinating people for the various tasks, such as food preparation, replacing food, medical behaviour training, and habitat inspection and cleaning.' Also part of Mr Chui's routine is to make sure the habitat has the right temperature and the noise level is kept to the minimum. 'We have people from our team to monitor the habitat, making sure phones or other types of beeping device carried by visitors are turned to their lowest volume.' When An An and Jia Jia are not eating, it is time for them to receive medical behaviour training that includes dental checks, blood tests and other examinations. Mr Chui said dental checks were done every afternoon and blood tests once every two weeks to ensure both pandas stayed healthy. Body checks aside, medical behaviour training does have its fun part - the panda enrichment. 'We give An An and Jia Jia a variety of objects from fruitsicles to cardboard boxes, with most containing palatable panda treats,' Mr Chui said. Such enrichment activity is designed to give the pandas something challenging to do and elicit behaviour they might exhibit in the wild. Do not think Mr Chui and his team can call it a day when all these are done. In the evening, they are dealing with the pandas' food again, so the pair will have food for breakfast next morning. Mr Chui said he and the other keepers finished their day at 6pm or 7pm, depending on the shift schedule. During the night, the two pandas head for their separate dens to eat and sleep, watched by the patrolling security staff through the surveillance cameras outside their dens. Mr Chui, who has spent seven years at Ocean Park, started as a bird trainer, which was also his first animal-related job. It took Mr Chui some years before he realised his passion for animals, despite being a long-time animal lover. 'After I finished secondary school, I spent a few years working in the banking and trading sectors. But my stay in Canada gave me the opportunity to rethink what I really wanted to do, which was to take care of animals.' Mr Chui has kept pets such as birds, dogs and cats. 'I have never been separate from animals in my life,' he said. Interestingly, his formal animal-care training focused on horses, though birds were the first he dealt with professionally. 'I have not taken care of horses since I finished my two-year horse-care training in Canada, but that is still important to my career because from such training I have learnt to put theory into practice,' Mr Chui said. Formal training might give you the ticket to the animal-keeping field, but never underestimate the amateur skills you have acquired from your experience with pets. This could well be a starting point on your career path. 'Usually, animal keepers are animal lovers who have much experience with pets at home. This is one of the things we look at when we hire animal keepers,' Mr Chui said. Love for animals aside, equally important for animal keepers was their keen observation of animals, he added. Patience is another must-have quality. 'I have tended to different animals within seven years. All of them are different. They have different habits and different characteristics. It takes a patient person to understand them and learn to take care of them.' A strong sense of responsibility is something an animal keeper should have. It is especially true for highly endangered creatures such as pandas. 'In practice, it is very important to follow the guidelines and instructions, as well as communicating with your supervisor, in order to provide the best care for the animals.' An animal caretaker must also be willing to learn. 'One must also continue to read, so as to expand animal knowledge and upgrade their skills, Mr Chui suggested. For academic qualifications, a giant panda keeper needed to complete at least Form Seven. Though biology studies or theoretical knowledge about animals were not requirements, Mr Chui said those who had such backgrounds were at an advantage. Even if you are equipped with formal training and experience like Mr Chui, training provided by the organisation one works for remains essential. 'As I switched from birds to pandas, Ocean Park sent me for panda-care training in San Diego and China before I tended to An An and Jia Jia here.' The theme park is not the first place he met the pair. 'Before the giant pandas came to Hong Kong in 1999, we already met in Sichuan, where I started to learn to take care of them.' Mr Chui remains passionate about taking care of the two pandas after spending five years with them. Asked if he would want to switch to taking care of another kind of animal, Mr Chui said: 'There are still lots about pandas for me to learn and I want to further upgrade my skills in taking care of them.' Salaries Curator 10 years' experience or more Salary subject to experience and academic background Supervisor Five to 10 years' experience $16,000 to $24,000 Giant panda keeper Up to four years' experience $10,000 to $15,000 Salary figures are for reference only Got What it Takes? Love for animals Experience with animals Strong observation power Strong sense of responsibility Patience Willingness to learn Form Seven or above