After twists in the road, career changes and a few jumps across the country, her dream became a reality at the Kyabram Fauna Park as a life sciences co-ordinator.
The fauna park, like many wildlife sanctuaries and zoos across the world, celebrated International Zookeeper Day on Saturday, October 4.
But for Ms Duncan it was only as important a day as any other — especially when at one point at her life looked a lot different.
Before she became a zookeeper, she was sat behind a desk at an admin job.
“Life took me in a different direction,” she said.
“Then through my early 20s … I kind of had a light-bulb moment and remembered what my dream used to be.”
She put her head down, worked to get a Bachelor of Zoology at university and soon found herself at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary at the Gold Coast.
In 2019, when an opportunity arose to move closer to her family in Victoria, she jumped at the chance, beginning her career with the Kyabram Fauna Park.
“I was blown away by the huge potential I saw at the park,” Ms Duncan said.
“So, I made the move and have been loving it ever since.”
Ms Duncan’s speciality is birds, working with the colourful personalities found at the aviaries; and while she isn’t one to pick favourites, there’s a pair of cheeky cassowaries that have stolen her heart.
“We’ve got our two southern cassowaries, Adelaide and Gorge … they are extremely curious — if you come see them, and they hear you coming, they will go over to the fence to say hello,” she said.
“Gorge also reminds me of Marlin from Madagascar, the scaredy-cat giraffe.”
She said her favourite part of the job was the bond and trust built with the animals over time, especially being able to train them with positive reinforcement training and environmental enrichment.
“The most rewarding thing with the animals is when we have a training win or breakthrough,” Ms Duncan said.
“We had one recently where we paired the sound of a ringing bell to a high-value food item … now they can be anywhere in their habitat, and they will come racing to the sound of the bell.”
However, Ms Duncan said it was everything about the job, from scooping up the poop to watching the next seven-year-old perk their head up and say they want to be a zookeeper, that kept her coming back.
“We’re trying to inspire passion for the environment, passion for the animals — and when you can reach kids like that you kind of hope it has the effect it did on seven-year-old me,” she said.
This International Zookeeper Day found Ms Duncan in her element, tending to her beloved animals.
But thinking back to her seven-year-old self, she had only one piece of advice for the little girl walking through Werribee.
“Zookeeping — it’s not just a job to us, it’s literally our life’s calling to better the lives of animals in our care,” she said.
“Don’t get sidetracked by an admin role.”
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