Mothering Wildlife

Mothering Wildlife Community helping moms navigate the challenges that come with caring for wildlife and caring for kids

My guest this week is Alexis Fitch from Animals Anonymous Apparel! Alexis started her career as a zookeeper, however ult...
06/11/2026

My guest this week is Alexis Fitch from Animals Anonymous Apparel! Alexis started her career as a zookeeper, however ultimately decided to leave the field with the birth of her first child and started an amazing apparel company dedicated to making the anonymous animals known. 

Animals Anonymous offers a wide variety of apparel, tumblers, decals, and more all designed by Alexis herself with the help of images submitted to her, often by zookeepers, of the animals and species that they work with! Alexis’s passion though is education and she feels strongly about spreading the message about species that are less known. She believes that every species has a story worth telling and hopes that her apparel can start conversations about wildlife conservation. In fact, Animals Anonymous has currently donated over $300,000 to wildlife conservation. 

Alexis’s advice is simple; do the thing and do it scared. From zookeeper, to mom, to small business owner making a difference for wildlife, Alexis believes that if you want to do something you should just dive right in. 

We talk about being a small business owner and a mom and how she manages to make both work. Alexis has four children and shares her stories of how she was back to work within days of giving birth, worked as a breastfeeding mom, and how she has managed to grow a business and online presence. 

My guest this week is Paige Tamayo, a Lead Zoologist at the Dallas Zoo. Listen here 👉🏼 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/pod...
05/29/2026

My guest this week is Paige Tamayo, a Lead Zoologist at the Dallas Zoo. Listen here 👉🏼 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mothering-wildlife/id1694414470?i=1000769948301

Paige and I know each other and used to work together when I was at Dallas. She joined my team in the Middle Wilds right before I moved back to Florida. Having both gone to the same college (although many years apart), we originally bonded over that, however I have loved seeing her career blossom and her start to grow her family.

I reached out to Paige after I saw her post a video on Facebook talking about body image during pregnancy and how more people should be talking about it...and I agree! Our bodies are amazing and grow human beings; however, that doesn’t mean that we can’t feel a certain way about what is happening (very quickly) to our bodies and how that makes us feel. Sometimes those changes bring up feelings about our bodies from the past. Sometimes they bring up feelings we didn’t know we had about our bodies, and learning how to live in this new body, whether during pregnancy or postpartum, is hard and often feels shameful and frustrating.

I’m so appreciative to Paige for sharing her feelings and experiences on this topic! She very candidly shares her struggles with her own body image during pregnancy and she talks about how to support someone who might be struggling during pregnancy. She also shares how she has tried to support her inner dialogue by reminding herself that she’s in a hard season right now, but that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

05/17/2026

Always thinking. Always planning. Always trying to stay one step ahead, even at work.

The hum of the Kubota is peaceful and provides good white noise for thinking doesn’t it?! Being out in nature helps to sort your mind as well ❤️

My guest this week is Clare Belden-Walker, an animal keeper at the Seneca Park Zoo. Clare’s great love is primates, and ...
05/15/2026

My guest this week is Clare Belden-Walker, an animal keeper at the Seneca Park Zoo. Clare’s great love is primates, and she tells us all about her journey into zookeeping through the world of primate conservation! Listen here 👉🏼 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mothering-wildlife/id1694414470?i=1000767700417

Pregnant zookeepers do some amazing things at work while pregnant and Clare shares stories about how she navigated pregnancy at work, doing physical labor almost up until her due date, and then helping to watch videos of their new mother giraffe until she finally went out on leave.
Clare shares stories about being pregnant with severe morning sickness and trying to train new keepers to shift animals while navigating needing to run to the bathroom. She talks about how she adjusted her mindset to just accept being sick, instead of dreading it as a way to cope.

Even more since becoming a mom, Clare loves to observe maternal behavior in primates. She even feels that being able to observe non-human primates “mother” their offspring has helped her in her own motherhood journey. We talk a bit about co-sleeping with our children and really leaning into our instincts when it comes to mothering them, especially early on.

We also talk about Clare’s postpartum period and how she advocated for herself to get the time she needed to be able to return to work, which included an additional month of leave as well as a gradual return to work in the form of half days and a reduced schedule.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the working moms out there caring for wildlife at work and then coming home and caring for mor...
05/11/2026

Happy Mother’s Day to all the working moms out there caring for wildlife at work and then coming home and caring for more “wildlife”.

When I started this podcast I wanted to share your stories with the world so that everyone knew exactly how hard working moms in the wildlife world worked. Putting their blood, sweat, tears, and passion into taking care of animals and educating guests and then going home and doing it all over again, sometimes with depleted reserves, but always rallying to be “mom” at the end of a hard workday. What I didn’t expect was how truly inspiring every single one of your stories would be and how much hearing different motherhood journeys would mean to listeners.

Working moms are some of the toughest people I know; basically holding two full time jobs, one of them unpaid. We sacrifice our bodies and minds to bring life into this world and then show up every day for our kids as if we would go to battle in an instant to defend them.

Some of us have spent years building fulfilling careers that we never thought in a million years we would walk away from - yet are surprised how frequently we consider it for the sake of our kids.

We’re all just out here doing our best! So, Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there who are kicking butt at holding it all together at work and at home. ❤️

My guest this week is Charley Shepherd, a Senior Mammal Care Specialist at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens in Jacksonvi...
05/01/2026

My guest this week is Charley Shepherd, a Senior Mammal Care Specialist at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens in Jacksonville, FL. Listen here 👉🏼 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mothering-wildlife/id1694414470

At the time of this interview, Charley was pregnant! She and I talk about the differences between her first and second pregnancy. With both, she had to learn how to navigate restrictions and the guilt that came with knowing she had physical limitations that impacted her team. Sometimes it feels like coworkers, especially those who don’t have children or don’t want children, have a hard time understanding or are less enthusiastic about accepting the fact that, as a pregnant person, you will be less able to contribute to certain tasks. It’s hard to feel like your personal decisions are impacting everyone on your team at work.

We also talk about getting ready to go from one child to two, and what she is nervous and concerned about. Postpartum depression was part of her journey with her first child, and that is something she is worried will come back with the second. With her first, she was dismissed by the first doctor she saw, but was able to advocate for herself to see another doctor who really listened to what she was saying and was able to help her - something which she says she is so thankful for and tells that doctor all the time! Advocating can be hard, especially when you’re already in a fragile mental or emotional state!

Finally, we talk about trying to find that elusive work/life balance and Charley shares what has been helpful for her. However, she does admit that being the senior-most person on her team has her struggling sometimes with maintaining that balance!

This week, my guest is Loren Berry, a woman who wears many hats within the zoo and aquarium field! A former zookeeper fo...
04/16/2026

This week, my guest is Loren Berry, a woman who wears many hats within the zoo and aquarium field! A former zookeeper for 17 years, Loren now serves as the Chapter Development Manager for the American Association of Zookeepers (AAZK). Additionally, through the Katie Adamson Conservation Fund (KACF), a conservation organization founded by a former coworker at the Denver Zoo, she serves as an Educator and the Event Coordinator for the organization’s main fundraising gala, Katie’s Night. Listen here! 👉🏼 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mothering-wildlife/id1694414470?i=1000761791741

Loren was still a hoofstock keeper when she became a mom, and we reminisce about her pregnancies, maternity leaves, first visitors at the hospital after giving birth (hers were zookeeper friends!), and her postpartum periods.

We then talk about her transition out of animal care into her current roles. She loves that the roles she has now have allowed her to stay connected to the zoo field, but admits it was hard to leave and came with many emotions!

Finally, we talk about conservation traveling for extended periods of time and how Loren and her family prep for her to be gone and communicate while she is away.

This week I talk to Briana Schmidt, a Lead Aquarist at the Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium. Listen here...
04/02/2026

This week I talk to Briana Schmidt, a Lead Aquarist at the Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium. Listen here 👉🏼 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mothering-wildlife/id1694414470?i=1000758785921

Briana offers the “wet perspective” of being a working mom in the zoo and aquarium field. My guests are often of the “terrestrial” sort and today Briana and I dive in to what it is like to be an aquarist and a mom.

Briana gives us the low down on what it’s like to work as a pregnant aquarist and how hard it was for her to not be in the water at work while she was pregnant. We even discuss, at length, maternity clothes and the struggles of finding what to wear when there is a uniform policy! Why don’t maternity pants have pockets or belt loops! Side note, Briana came up with a great solution to this challenge.

Briana also discusses her postpartum life and how hard it is to have a newborn and feeling like you’re not sure what to do; feeling hypervigilant but super tired and how most of us look back on that time and don’t even recognize ourselves in that version of us.

Finally, we talk about the realities of our schedules in this field and how she tries to think of her time with her son as quality over quantity to help her get through those times when she is feeling sad about how much she works and how little times she feels like she has with her family.

🙌 Anyone else feel this way lately?
02/28/2026

🙌 Anyone else feel this way lately?

My guest this week is Kayla Freeman, the Large Mammal Supervisor at Blank Park Zoo. Liste here 👉🏼 https://podcasts.apple...
02/19/2026

My guest this week is Kayla Freeman, the Large Mammal Supervisor at Blank Park Zoo. Liste here 👉🏼 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mothering-wildlife/id1694414470?i=1000750460254

She cares for a variety of large hoofstock, including rhino, giraffe, camel, and okapi. As a working supervisor, she spends a good portion of her week out in the field, working with the animals. However, she is able to dedicate one day to doing office work. Like so many others in a working supervisory role, Kayla is busy! She shares that efficiency and time management are so critical!

Kayla is a mom to three, but when Kayla started working at Blank Park Zoo she was 20 weeks pregnant with her first child. Kayla and I talk very candidly about the postpartum period. She shares how different each of her postpartum periods were and she opens up about her struggles during her third postpartum and how it made her realize that she needed to take care of herself and her mental health.

Now that her children are getting a little older, Kayla is working towards being involved in the larger AZA community. She feels that her capacity to focus on professional involvement has changed, especially since she has been able to set boundaries around what she is involved in by asking, “What commitments are involved?” This is such a great question to set expectations up front when starting to involve yourself in larger professional projects!

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