Guest Experience Opportunities

Guest experience volunteers play a crucial role in fulfilling our mission. They ensure that all guests have complete access to all habitats and enjoy a positive, informative experience during each visit.

 

 

MOB SQUAD

The Australian Outback Adventure is home to a mob of kangaroos and their close cousins, red-necked wallabies. Visitors can get face-to-face with the marsupials in this immersive habitat, traveling along a winding path while the animals are free to bound and graze wherever they please. Volunteers called the “Mob Squad” interact with visitors along the pathway inside the habitat. Volunteers are critical to this experience and the habitat cannot open without a team of volunteers.

  • 2-hour online and self-paced training module required
  • Flexible, year-round shifts ranging from 2.5 – 3 hours each

GALLERY GUIDE

Located in the Detroit Zoo’s oldest building, the Wildlife Interpretive Gallery (WIG) houses the Butterfly Garden, Free-Flight Aviary, a special projection system known as Science On a Sphere, a Partula nodosa snail exhibit and the DZS’s permanent fine art collection. Volunteers act as Gallery Guides in the WIG and spend their time talking about butterflies and interacting with guests.

  • 2-hour online and self-paced training module required
  • Flexible, year-round shifts ranging from 2.5 – 3 hours each

GREETER

Greeters provide a friendly invitation to guests to enter buildings such as the Edward Mardigian Sr. River Otter Habitat, the National Amphibian Conservation Center (NACC) and Holden Reptile Conservation Center (HRCC) to help ensure guest safety and a positive visitor experience.

  • 1-hour online and self-paced training module required
  • Flexible, year-round shifts ranging from 2.5 – 3 hours

ARCTIC RING OF LIFE GUEST ASSISTANT

The most unique feature of the Arctic Ring of Life (ARL) is the spectacular 70-foot-long Frederick and Barbara Erb Polar Passage, a clear tunnel that winds through a vast underwater marine environment. This 12-foot-wide, 8-foot-tall tunnel takes visitors underneath diving and swimming polar bears. ARL guest assistants help with crowd control in the Polar Passage while enjoying quality time with its inhabitants.

  • 3-hour in-person training (offered periodically throughout the year)
  • Flexible, year-round shifts ranging from 2.5 – 3 hours each

ZOO AMBASSADOR

In partnership with our guest relations team, Zoo ambassadors are the welcoming presence to guests as they enter and act as roaming information centers. Ambassadors help guests orient themselves with the map, find locations or habitats and answer questions to enhance the visitor experience.

  • 4-hour in-person training/shadow tour with current Zoo Ambassador
  • Flexible, seasonal (April-October) shifts ranging from 2.5 – 3 hours each

DOCENT

Our most intensive training prepares volunteers to be informal educators and interpreters at animal habitats throughout the Zoo. In addition, they provide tours and assist with various educational programs. Interested volunteers may apply after one year of service.

  • Training Fall 2024

PENGUIN PEOPLE

The Polk Penguin Conservation Center is the largest and most extraordinary center for penguins in the world. The facility features a 326,000-gallon, 25-foot-deep aquatic area where visitors can watch as more than 75 penguins of five species explore their habitat and deep-dive. Two acrylic underwater tunnels provide breathtaking views of the birds as they swim above and around – and even below. Volunteers called “Penguin People” assist Guest Relations staff while enjoying quality time with the inhabitants.

  • 2-hour online and self-paced training module required
  • 1-hour online live Q&A session with curator of birds required
  • Flexible, year-round shifts ranging from 2.5 – 3 hours each