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.

The new-and-improved history show at the Wegeforth Bowl amphitheater at the San Diego Zoo, with animal trainer Monty Davis as our main show narrator, not only involves fun with the animals, it also gives the trainers a chance to send messages to the audience. Showing how much the trainers care about the animals, weaving information about the animals and their status in the wild into their talk, and giving spectators more exposure to the animals, creates a connection to the animals and conservation.
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Read the Zoo InternQuest journal that these photos accompany.

Throughout the Baja Garden there is a spectacular view of the East African enclosure. The Zoo and Wild Animal Park have more plant species than animal species.
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The weaning process is in its final stage at the Giant Panda Research Station. As of Saturday, February 17 at about 4:30 p.m., Su Lin and Bai Yun are each on their own. The gradual acclimation of Su Lin to time alone has proved to be a good strategy to manage this process. On the first full day of separation, Sunday, Su Lin barely noticed that she wasn’t given access to her mother. Bai Yun, for her part, did well all day, eating and resting comfortably.
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Since Su Lin is growing up and the time has come for her to be independent, there have been a few changes at the Giant Panda Research Station. Gao Gao and Mei Sheng (pictured) have been spending time in the back research yards, relaxing and doing what they like to do best: eating and sleeping. Mei Sheng has found a new tree in his yard, so up he goes to look over all the walls to watch Zoo guests looking up at him, hoping that he does not fall. It is so strange to see this big bear so high in the tree, but he loves to climb. Even though he is about 180 pounds, he still thinks he’s a 60-pound bear, but the branches can’t always hold him. During his first climb up the big tree, one of the branches snapped and you should have seen him scrambling for the closest branch and saving himself from a long fall to the ground. Whew, close one, Mei Sheng! He was about 40 feet up, so I was glad he caught himself. You would think he would be more cautious, but no, he just continues to climb higher and higher.
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Each year, in what has become an eagerly anticipated annual expedition, the San Diego Zoo’s Girls In Science (GIS) participants make their way all the way up Hospital Hill to the Pathology Department. Our first visit three years ago was a huge success, and our sessions there consistently rank at the top of the girls’ favorites list. (I am always secretly pleased that they enjoy Pathology so much, having worked in the department myself for a year on loan.)
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Gram is a lucky Indian rhino. His species is critically endangered, with an estimated 2,500 left in the wild, but Gram was born at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park and now lives at the San Diego Zoo. The main reasons for the dwindling numbers of Indian rhinos are loss of habitat due to human expansion into previously undeveloped areas, and poaching of rhinos for their body parts, mainly the horn. The horn of a rhino consists of a protein called keratin, and some traditional medicinal beliefs claim the horn is an aphrodisiac. Scientifically speaking, the same aphrodisiac effect could be achieved by biting your fingernails; our nails are also made of keratin.
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Last Friday, February 9, we instituted the third step in our weaning protocol with Su Lin. We combined elements of the first two steps by closing the door between dam and cub at 4:30 p.m. and leaving it closed for 18 hours. This means the bears were able to reunite at 10:30 a.m. each day.
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The cheetah girls are approaching 18 months of age (see Kelly’s previous blog, Cheetahs in the Trees). My, how they have grown! They are almost at adult height and weight now. While Pombe was the largest for most of their cubhood, Etana has taken the lead by a few pounds. They each weigh in at 95+ pounds (43+ kilograms), with Moyo coming in at 90 pounds (41 kilograms) and Makena still the runt, at 85 pounds (39 kilograms) of cuteness. They still need to gow a little more in height and length. They will lose their ” bellies” as they lengthen into the slim and trim adult cheetah profile.
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I watch daily as people come into the Giant Panda Research Station at the San Diego Zoo and become totally overtaken by the pandas’ beauty (Su Lin is pictured here). Not many people have seen these bamboo bears from a far-away land called China. They come, watch, and return many times in the day to see them. What makes them so fascinating? What makes you want to take 50 pictures of one animal? Because they don’t look like any other animal in this world; they hold you spellbound. I call it ” panda mesmerized.” Many visitors are totally and completely stunned by the pandas’ looks.
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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.

The winter 2007 session of Zoo InternQuest, a career exploration program for high school students, runs February 6th through March 22nd. Meet the interns in the Intern Profiles Section. They will be posting weekly journals and photos of their activities.

There are four intern teams: Conservation, Animal Careers, The Real World, and the Photo Team. Each team has a slightly different perspective to report on as they make their way through departments at the San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park, and the Conservation and Research for Endangered Species division of the Zoological Society of San Diego. Check in each week to find out how things are going for this group of aspiring veterinarians, field biologists, and future leaders.