Taking care of the family is a 24-hour job for every parent. Besides the material aspect of it, siblings need to sense the presence of love, trust and stability in the home. Parenting means coping with the habits and difficulties of growing years, in effect, keeping on top of every situation!

When your charges include bears, elk, bobcats, otters, alligators and snakes the challenge becomes even greater.

Donna-Mae Nelson has followed her heart, answering the call of nature from an early age. She has created a niche for herself in what has been predominantly man's domain.

Regular visitors to the Emperor Valley Zoo will remember the first female zookeeper employed to look after resident wildlife. Donna-Mae immediately made her presence felt and earned the love and respect of her peers and endearingly, her animal siblings.

From this intimate knowledge and experience in handling the needs of the dependent animal population of our local zoo, Donna-Mae went on to be accepted as a wild animal keeper at Queen's Wildlife Centre in Flushing, Meadow's Park, USA.

She rapidly gained promotion through the ranks to her present post of assistant supervisor in the animal department. The Wildlife newsletter of the wildlife Conservation Society and several magazines have all featured Nelson's special chemistry with animals. Mind you, these include large South American animals such as spectacled bears and those of the northern hemisphere such as elk.

Feeding them, cleaning their dens and entertaining them are all in a day's routine for Nelson. To visitors, it seems these animals have recognized and acknowledged her as their surrogate mother.

Nelson's mother, Margot Butcher, remembers her daughter's early signs of her intense love for animals. Her home in Diego Martin was always a place filled with happy labradors, alsatian, terriers and pompeks. Donna-Mae felt joy in their happiness and pain in their sadness.

There were a few traumatic instances when Donna-Mae was so aggrieved for example when her dog Rocky, a labrador/alsatian succumbed to cancer. Recently, Chubby passed away. Mrs. Butcher could have felt the pain in Nelson's voice as she struggled with this sad news over the phone.

However, dogs were not the only members of the adopted family in Nelson's early days. She brought home a wide range of brothers, sisters and cousins in the form of an owl, an alligator and believe it or not, a macajuel. There were snakes in jars all over the house!

When a baby otter got sick, Donna-Mae brought it home and nursed it until it responded to her care and was soon up and bounding enough to return to the zoo.

When the Emperor Valley Zoo accepted Donna-Mae's application to work with the animals, it was no surprise to her parents.

The zoo is the place where most youngsters love to visit during the holidays and weekends. Wildlife is there to be viewed at close proximity, closer than you will ever get them to be when compared to their frisky life in the wild. Though their freedom has been curtailed somewhat and the knack for a chase after a catch seems to have been lost, they are cared for in a manner as close to that of their natural habitat as possible.

On Christmas Day of all days when the zoo is closed and most workers remain at home with their families, Donna-Mae would go to visit her own surrogate family first thing in the morning. For, as she put it, "The animals need to eat and be happy too!" When the first baby lioness came to Trinidad, Donna-Mae was the first to volunteer to go to Piarco to bring it to the zoo. She had already grown to know the habits and mannerisms of the resident male.

Her fieldwork here at home included patrolling the east coast beaches in an effort to protect the nesting areas of the leatherback. She also assisted in research on bats. This, coupled with her experience with a vast range of animals in our small zoo has played its part in her necessary preparation for her present occupation in the wide expanse of the Queen's Wildlife Centre.

The range of animals both in Trinidad and at Queen's, where there is a huge population of South American animals being cared for, is more than enough for Donna-Mae's dedication to the conservation for all resident species.

Donna-Mae also supervises the staff, showing her expertise and loving care with her peers. She ensures the department runs smoothly.

This is not all to Donna-Mae's life however. She enjoys white-water rafting with her friends and this too enables her to view life in the wildest of the wilds, a place that continues to call those who must come.

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