Life’s a Zoo!

Jamie Carson doesn’t work your typical eight hour day. This native of Moncton, New Brunswick, rises at six o’clock in the morning to do chores on his farm in Riverglade, New Brunswick. He then heads to work at Magnetic Hill Zoo for eight hours where he supervises the care of its bird and primate collection. “This is a great and extremely interesting position. I not only oversee the daily care of these animals, I do daily educational shows for the public and am quite heavily involved with a number of breeding projects including barn owls, lemurs and marmosets,” he says. In the evenings, he takes care of the many different animals in his breeding facility at home. Finally, he devotes his spare time to looking after his family and judging animal shows across Canada and the United States.

After high school, Jamie took a year off and worked for a wholesale aquarium and pet supplies store. He then went on to graduate from NSAC in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Science. Jamie chose NSAC because he wanted a specialized education and small class sizes. He believes that his education at NSAC prepared him for what he has been faced with in his career. “NSAC prepared me for both my work at the Magnetic Hill Zoo and with my breeding facility at home,” he says.

Caption: Jamie and his daughter Olivia

Although the “science” of animal work that Jamie studied at NSAC was based on the production of domestic livestock, most of it was easily applied to work with exotic animals. “Understanding animal nutrition, breeding and health issues was very useful to me since the basic biology and requirements of domestics is actually quite similar to exotics,” he says. Jamie was also active in student life at NSAC as the vice president of the student union and a bartender and manager at “The Barn”, NSAC’s pub. His favorite part of attending NSAC was being able to study Animal Science alongside fellow students who shared his interests.

In addition to broilers and pigs, Jamie raises a variety of very non-traditional livestock on his farm. This livestock includes exotic birds such as swans and parrots as well as pet-stock which consists of mostly purebred rabbits and cats. “The majority of our birds are sold to zoos and private collections while most of our pet-stock goes to ‘Pets Unlimited’ exclusively,” he says. Recently, Jamie added a breeding pair of registered Devon Rex cats and three pairs of Sun Conure parrots to his collection. He expects kittens from the Devon Rex cats this year and two pairs of his Sun Conure parrots are currently on fertile eggs.

Jamie has always been interested in animals of all kinds. His family raised cage birds so he was exposed to them at a very young age. “I brought fantail pigeons for ‘show and tell’ in grade one,” he says. His parents often drove him to visit shows and breeders in the Maritimes and Ontario until he was old enough to drive.

Jamie shows his exotic birds quite extensively throughout New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, and parts of the United States. He has been raising and showing exhibition type birds and small animals for more than 20 years. He judges a number of poultry shows across North America annually. “Since getting my American Poultry License in 1998, I’ve been fortunate to be invited to judge in more than a dozen states and provinces from California to Prince Edward Island,” he says. Jamie is also licensed by the American Bantam Association and is the only Maritimer to be fully licensed. The American Bantam Association promotes breeding and exhibiting purebred Bantam chickens - miniature versions of large fowl breeds. Recently, Jamie was chosen as the International Waterfowl Breeders Association’s “first pick” to judge the largest waterfowl show in North American history in Indianapolis in November 2006. The show had over 2000 entries. “I have gained the recognition of becoming New Brunswick’s first and only American Poultry Association Grand Master Exhibitor and Canada’s first and only International Waterfowl Breeders Association Master Breeder,” he says.

Now that Jamie has a young family, he doesn’t travel as much as he used to. “At one time I was traveling a great deal and judging ten to 12 shows a year, but now I only accept five to six assignments annually.” Jamie and his wife Danielle have two daughters. Olivia is four-years-old and Ava was just born on December 7, 2006.

May 19th, 2007 will mark the 22nd consecutive year that Jamie has either judged or exhibited birds at the Prince Edward Island Spring Show in Charlottetown. In September, Jamie will be attending the International Symposium on Breeding Birds in Captivity in Toronto. This is a five-day conference that is expected to draw hundreds of aviculturists and ornithologists from around the world. Ornithologists study the biology of birds while aviculturists study the care of birds in captivity. Jamie is already booked to judge shows for the next two years including one show in Alaska in August of 2008.