Zoo InternQuest is a career exploration program for high school students. For more information see the Zoo InternQuest Journals. For more photos see the Zoo InternQuest Photo Journal.

Driving down the road to the back gate of the Wild Animal Park, we looked down below, admiring the beautiful view of the nearly 1,000 green acres of animal exhibits and gardens. After parking, we met up with Frank Escobedo, a lead gardener, and Bonnie Duff, a senior gardener, who were prepared to give us the royal tour of the grounds. Mr. Escobedo has worked at the Park since 1970, two years before it even opened to the public. Because of his passion, lifelong interest in plants, and a lot of stuff he taught himself and learned in college, he taught at community colleges and put together botanical gardens before planting himself at the Wild Animal Park. Ms. Duff attended UCSD and got her bachelor’s degree in biology. She worked for the Wild Animal Park’s Mum Festival for four years, taking care of the elaborate chrysanthemums before she branched out and became a senior gardener.

Frank Escobedo is currently responsible for getting all of the horticulture work done. He delegates the necessary work to his employees. Bonnie Duff is assigned to the Wild Animal Park’s front entrance. Together there around 30 horticulturists who work at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park. The core functions of the Horticulture Department are to provide environments for the animals, guests, and botanical gardens, whether they are for habitat or decoration. Horticulturists must do all the needed work for shows, collections, and exhibits, such as planting, mowing, supplying, recording, and irrigation work. Supplies are often needed for animal exhibits, which include food and habitat. Certain animals need certain materials: birds need perch material, cats like palm fronds to play with. This requires horticulture and animal keeper interaction. And a tree can never be cut down at the Zoo or Wild Animal Park without a bunch of keepers calling dibs on the limbs and stumps for their animals’ enclosures.

Throughout our lovely walkabout through the beautiful gardens, Frank Escobedo intertwined advice about how to have a happy life, even if you don’t want to hang out with plants for a living. ” You should work on what you like best and have fun!” exclaimed Mr. Escobedo. ” Don’t let go of your dreams and be the best you can be.” He also emphasized the tremendous amount of job opportunities available in this area whether the position is an arborist, botanist, agronomist, or biologist. Find what you love and you will love what you do!

-Melissa, Zoo InternQuest, Animal Careers Team

Watering Plants Saves Water?
The Wild Animal Park has three accredited botanical gardens: Nativescapes Garden, Baja & Old World Succulent Garden, and Conifer Forest. Because these three botanical gardens are recognized and accredited, the Horticulture Department is entrusted to propagate the species of plants in each of the gardens. It is their duty to conserve the plant diversity that otherwise might be endangered.

In addition to growing plants, horticulturists are responsible for managing and mapping the irrigation that accompanies such a vast area of land. It is estimated that the Wild Animal Park goes through 2 million gallons of water a day from various sources like nearby lakes, ponds, and reservoirs. However, the Wild Animal Park is not the only place tapping into these water sources. In the San Pasqual Valley, farmers also need water for their crops. In an effort to conserve water, the Wild Animal Park has built a reclamation plant. This plant processes used water, runoff from irrigation, and gray water from sanitary sources, and stores it in the reclamation pond; from there it is used for irrigation. In the past, the reclamation plant was able to process 40,000 gallons a day. Due to recent upgrades, it processes nearly 200,000. Although local farmers and the Wild Animal Park have drained much of the water in the Valley aquifers, by using reclaimed water for irrigation, the Park is reducing demand on the aquifer and saving fresh water for other uses.

In addition to being in charge of preserving endangered species of plants like the cycad, a prehistoric and endangered conifer, horticulturists are responsible for maintaining an enriching animal environment. Arborists collect deadfall from trees for use in the animals’ enclosures in order to enhance their habitat. This plant material is known as animal ” furniture.” In doing so, they are utilizing what might elsewhere be considered useless dead plants. Recycle, reduce, reuse!

-Keesha, Zoo InternQuest, Conservation Team

I Might Have a Green Thumb After All!
To be perfectly honest, I’ve never really had much of a green thumb. Actually, I would go so far as to say I had a shriveled, dead, and black thumb. I tried to grow raspberries recently and they all died. My grandmother, a skilled gardener, said that killing raspberries was quite a feat, because they won’t die, even if you want them to. I’ve harbored resentment against plants for a long time, never having accomplished my dream of a rain forest-like backyard. After our meeting with Ms. Duff and Mr. Escobedo, my anger has lessened considerably. I know now that it is possible to keep a single raspberry plant alive, since the 30 or so gardeners at the Wild Animal Park keep thousands of plants alive without batting an eye; I’m just not a very good gardener. I was deeply impressed by the enthusiasm with which these two people approach their jobs. Instead of focusing on the common complaints of how terrible life is and why can’t they be rich and famous, Ms. Duff and Mr. Escobedo provide a wonderful contrast. Mr. Escobedo pointed out that once you have a passion for something, all you need in order to be happy is a pair of good pruning sheers and some tough work gloves.

Besides keeping the Park looking nice, the Horticulture Department keeps visitors informed about the plight of many plants, including many endangered plants like the Torrey pine. Although plants may seem like background for the animals, they are complex organisms that contribute so much to our world. Some plants have medicinal properties, others provide food for humans and other animals, and all produce the oxygen we breathe. By keeping guests at the Park informed, Mr. Escobedo and Ms. Duff help foster conservation efforts, and can even turn the most cynical, anti-plant person (like me) into true botanical believers.

-Sarah, Zoo InternQuest, Real World Team

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