When working as volunteer Zoo Keeper, I remember being outstounded by the fact that a zoo inspection required so much paperwork. I watched the zoo owner look for what must have been 50+ documents to be able to produce the ones the inspecotr needed for the inspector needed for that year.
I thought to myself 'there must be a better way to do this' and so Knight Owl was hatched. A way to update all these elements required at inspection to easily collate at the push of a button. Then me and my Animal Husbandry advisor came up with so many more ideas to make zoo management so much easier.
Any zoo keeper will tell you that the animals are the heart of the business and the customers are more of a nessercary evil, I've set out to put the residents at the centre of the whole system, not the customers like a traditional CRM. Still in alpha phase, Knight Owl has yet to take flight in the wild, but already it's a big hit with animals and keepers alike!
Web Develop Wolf Ltd
Ongoing
Angular, CSS3, Photoshop, Azure Dev Ops, .NET 7
Working as a voluteer zoo keeper and trainee falconer started me on my journey to leanring about the day-to-day running of a zoo, but there was so much more to learn about that happenms behind the scenes. Working closely with a the zoo director at Gentleshaw Wildlife Centre helped overcome this.
At the time of the inital idea I was working on my own and attempting to make it happen as someone who was new to working as a contractor and more used to full-time employment. So being able to prove my worth as a developer was definitely a challenge at the time.
Most zoo keepers and zoos are not very technologically minded, so the key to showing them how valuble this solution is was to see it in action and to add more value than just a regular CRM, but more about that in the Wild Walk app!
"It's great to be able to spend more time with the animals doing what we do best which Knight Owl does it's best to help us. It's easy to use and our Keepers love it! We're only a small sanctuary but the virtual tour mobile application turns a thirty minute visit into a half a day activity."
-- Jenny Morgan, Director, Gentleshaw Wildlife Centre