I have always had the childhood fantasy of being an animal keeper. To be a feeder of wildlife, a friend of beasts sounded like a dream job… until a party pooper  would burst my bubble with horror stories of menial tasks and dirty manual labour. “All you’ll be doing is clean animal poop,” they say. “You won’t actually get a chance to interact with the animals.”

Is working at a wildlife rescue centre all dirt and no play? I was about to find out during my weekend volunteering at the Jogjakarta Wildlife Rescue Centre, a  Fuze Ecoteer Responsible Travel programme.