“If you don’t study hard, you will become a zookeeper.” That was what Rutraajni Gurusamy Kaunder’s teachers used to warn her.

“In those days, people thought zookeepers cleaned faeces all day,” Rutraajni laughed.

So imagine the awkwardness when her teachers found out that Rutraajni’s father was a zookeeper.

Nonetheless, they insisted: “You can do better than being a zookeeper.”

They didn’t know the half of it.

The 25-year-old comes from a family of zookeepers spanning two generations. Her grandfather G Permalo C Gomsamy joined the Singapore Zoo the year it opened, in 1973, while her father Gurusamy Permalo joined Night Safari in 1994, when it opened.

In 2022, Rutraajni followed in her father’s and grandfather’s footsteps as a third-generation zookeeper. She works at River Wonders, caring for more than 200 animals on rotation.

For Rutraajni, zookeeping has always been a labour of love, and she is heartened that many guests see it that way too.

“Once, a small girl came up to me and said, ‘I want to be like you when I grow up’,” Rutraajni told CNA Women. 

A STORY AS OLD AS THE SINGAPORE ZOO

The Singapore Zoo opened in 1973. Rutraajni’s grandfather Permalo was there, working with the primates – chimpanzees, orangutans and gibbons.

The family li...