Ever heard of volunteer travel, volunteer vacations or voluntourism? It is as simple as undertaking voluntary job ranging from low-skill work cleaning to professional aid to war torn countries to assisting a nation swept by natural disasters. Last year, I registered to volunteer at Zoo Negara Malaysia for a program organized by Yayasan Salam.

Here is how you can volunteer yourself at Zoo Negara: Zoo Negara – Be a Volunteer.

Volunteer at Zoo Negara Malaysia

I had to be there by 7.30pm. Latecomers were not allowed to volunteer at Zoo Negara for there would be a briefing by Zoo Negara officer and group division before the voluntary work began. Bun and I were tasked to Bird House. While we were unhappy for we didn’t get to volunteer at Zoo Negara by cleaning the lions’ cages, we were more than happy that we were able to assist the zookeepers at Bird House.

As Bun was the only male in the group, he got the more interesting task of feeding the birds from cage to cage. I was reduced to sweeping the floor at the bird house before joining the rest cleaning up burung unta and burung kasawari’s cage. Goodness grace, these two bird species are not the friendliest of all. They are angry birds, for real. If you were afraid of the birds and you were showing it obvious, the birds would come near to you.

As we were discharged for break, we were happy circling the zoo seeing the animals. While Zoo Negara has the least wow-impact for animal lovers, I really enjoyed our volunteer session. Then, after the break, I had to shred the breads to feed the birds. Breads must be edible even by humans. All of the breads were fresh ones from Gardenia & other bread brands.

After that, our group went to the lake to feed the birds. Hip hip hurrah!

All in all, I was in deed very happy to be able to volunteer at Zoo Negara. You should consider it too – Volunteer at Zoo Negara.