McAlpine founded his own publishing house in London in the 1960s, and was variously an art dealer, art collector, zookeeper (in Broome, Western Australia), horticulturist, aviculturist, agriculturist, gardener and passionate traveller.
Whitt was appointed zookeeper by Malcolm P. Hebert (1926–2006), Alexandria's last elected streets and parks commissioner prior to the establishment in 1977 of the Mayor-council government, in which Hebert initially served as the director of public works under Mayor Carroll E. Lanier.
Thomas Dörflein (13 October 1963 – 22 September 2008) was a German zookeeper at the Berlin Zoological Garden for 26 years.