Kim Sun Ok, Keeper of Beasts of Prey
Every
visitor to the Central Zoo is very curious to know about Kim Sun Ok,
head of a workteam that looks after the beasts of prey. They are eager
to know how Sun Ok, a female, has been working there for 45 years, and
that, with those beasts of prey.
“When I started my job at this workteam, I was worried and fearful,” her story of the past days began with these words.
Tigers and lions growled ferociously or feigned ignorance, as if they made light of their new girl keeper.
She
attributed her failure to her lack of knowledge of the animals, and
tried hard to study the physiological features, behaviours and
characters of the animals, while learning from the experienced keepers.
From
then on the keeper and the animals began to keep in with each other,
but Sun Ok directed greater efforts to understanding the “feelings and
moods” of her charges.
The answer was sincerity.
It was her principle in keeping the animals of prey to value and take good care of them as treasures of the country.
During
those days she spent countless, sleepless nights, nursing sick animals.
It was the happiest day for her when the animals brought forth their
cubs and their numbers increased. She brought up a cub, feeding it on
goat’s milk, and sometimes felt too tired to keep herself steady. Each
time she was encouraged by the pride in her job, which was to give
pleasure to the people.
With such strong devotion to and pride in her job she tended over 130 cubs of beasts of prey and became an excellent keeper.
She
is honoured with the title of Merited Keeper, and wrote some papers on
the study of physiological features of the beasts of prey. She also
introduced several inventions and new technical designs into the
breeding and multiplying of the animals.
Now she is an old woman with grandchildren, yet she finds her life devoted to the people’s pleasure worth living.