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.

Are you up to a trip to your grocery store? Many people would agree that going to the grocery store is a burden, even a bore. However this is hardly true when the food selection goes from wriggly to bizarre, including mealworms, mice, rabbits, crickets and baby kangaroo formula in powder form. Guided by Dr. Mike Schlegel, the director of nutritional services at the San Diego Zoo, and Dr. Jennifer Parsons, associate animal nutritionist, we visited the forage warehouse, where all of the “raw materials” for the animal diets are stored. The forage warehouse includes these Fear Factor-qualifying foods—including stiff mealworms and cold rodents.

Stepping inside of the spacious refrigerators rapidly sent consecutive waves of goose bumps down my back; the chilling effect was quickly overridden by my amazement in the large crates and boxes of fruits and vegetables, and the numerous trays of mealworms. The large refrigerator and pantry rooms resemble a market, filled with delicious goods available for the animals to chow down on. Each animal species at the Zoo requires its own unique diet—not only in the specification of certain foods, but also in how the food is prepared and served. Although some of the foods eaten by the over 800 species at the Zoo and Wild Animal Park would not suit our palate, many others would be deemed acceptable.

From Tabasco sauce to papayas to Crystal Light, animals share an array of foods with us, as displayed in the forage warehouse. Unfortunately, animals not only share foods with us, but also diseases and health issues connected to food consumption. Joint disease, obesity, diabetes, respiratory disease, and low weight are a few of the problems Dr. Schlegel and Dr. Parsons are faced with. They analyze the source of the issue and tackle it by offering an altered diet, preparing the food or serving the food differently to ensure that the animals “eat their vegetables” or whatever it is that’s good for them.

For example, the blue-eared lories at the Zoo were having difficulty meeting their energy requirements from their diet. It turned out that the liquid glucose they were fed was hard for them to eat; after the dry nectar was switched with the liquid, the lories’ health greatly improved. Of course, some food-linked health problems are harder identify and find an easy fix for. Sometimes, these issues are not directly related to the food the animals are served. For example, Dr. Schlegel explained that some of the Zoo’s reptiles were insufficient in vitamin D, needed to absorb calcium. The source of the problem was surprisingly, the lack of sunlight in the reptiles’ habitats. Reptiles often lounge on large rocks, absorbing the sunlight. It was decided that special lighting in some enclosures would be installed to provide UVB and in others, special UV transparent glass was installed so the UV from the sun could get in to the reptiles, fulfilling their vitamin D requirements.

Much can be learned from this scientific approach for solving weight issues. Humans have a tendency to try to solve weight issues in a round-about and ineffective way: cutting carbs, skipping meals, following fad diets to shed pounds, or binge eating and eating fatty foods to gain weight. Dr. Schlegel made the concept of eating simple – energy in and energy out. No fad diets, just good science.

In Dr. Schlegel’s workday, he may find a simple fix for nutrition dilemmas, such as in the lories’ case. Or, in the case of the reptiles, the cure may be found with extra analytical thinking and problem solving, which dietitians can provide. By pinpointing the causes of our diet problems we too could be on our way to a healthier lifestyle.

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.

If you’ve been to the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park, you’ve had the chance to see nearly 900 acres of wondrous plant and animal exhibits. But did you know you’re only exploring half of the Park?! The other 900 acres is a vast, undeveloped preserve that is part of the Multiple Species Conservation Program for San Diego County, which seeks to maintain and enhance our region’s biodiversity.

Jean-Pierre Montagne, a senior research technician for the Applied Animal Ecology division of the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research, studies the inhabitants of what he calls “the other side of the fence” of the Park, in order to monitor species abundance and diversity. Mr. Montagne is part of a team that observes daily the creatures that have been safely caught in one of the 20 pitfall arrays that are widespread across the Park’s “other half.” Before the captured animal is released, it is identified by species, weighed, measured, gendered, examined for any unusual symptoms, and finally marked, if it has not already been numbered. Upon return to the lab, the information is compiled with data from thousands of other mammals and reptiles that Mr. Montagne and his team have recorded over the years. In the lab, the applied ecologists study the population size of each species, calculating the representation of that species in its ecosystem and checking to see if the species is in decline and/or threatened with extinction.

Due to its many varied habitats, San Diego County is literally a biodiversity hotspot, both in terms of non-threatened and endangered plant and animal species. To maintain the area’s incredible variation, each and every species must prosper. After all, each species, no matter whether made of heart and lungs or stem and leaves, depends on one another. Animals depend on other animals below them in the food chain for a meal. Plants depend on other plants for shade or nourishment. Animals depend on plants for shelter and food. Plants depend on animals to help spread and germinate their seeds. To endanger or lose a species is to injure the health of all the plants and animals, humans included, that rely on that species for one reason or another. As more and more home and business development occurs on lands once only developed by the indigenous plants and animals, species’ habitats are degraded or lost and their very survival becomes a greater challenge.

We, as humans, must increase our awareness of the nature around us and be willing to sacrifice our love of mass construction for the rights of the plants and animals to their native homes. If an endangered species resides on land that seems to be the ideal location for a new office, we must think twice about building there and instead perhaps give first priority to the threatened species. Biodiversity is essential to life, as it is necessary for the balance and maintenance of the world’s plant and animal species; without just one species, life on so many levels, including the lives of humans, suffers and must struggle to adjust.

Andrea, Real World Team

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.

Catering for any amount of people can be a pretty hard job. Imagine planning a menu for over 4,000 individuals! That’s exactly what Michael Schlegel, Ph.D. does as the director of nutritional services for the Zoological Society of San Diego. With a lot of help from his associate nutritionist, Jennifer Parsons, and the food prep staff at the Zoo and Park, Dr. Schlegel is in charge of formulating the diets for all of the animals at the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park. Since his job entails working with all of these species, Dr. Schlegel must persistently research new situations as they arise. “Something new is always going on,” he told us. “It’s crazy hard.” He has to deal with sloths that won’t eat, gazelles that need to gain weight, orphaned cheetah cubs, the list goes on and on. However, the research that is required is Dr. Schlegel’s favorite part of his job. He explained that he is a “math-person”, and that he loves to conduct research and study data in order to learn new things.

But math isn’t the only thing that goes into doing his job. Dr. Schlegel also needs to keep up on his physics and chemistry. While this may seem a bit unexpected, in actuality it is a very important part of his job. You see, food isn’t the only way animals receive the nutrition they need. Take Komodo dragons, for instance. If Komodo dragons don’t get enough vitamin D, they run the risk of developing metabolic bone disease, which weakens their bones. However, Dr. Schlegel can’t simply feed these reptiles vitamin D, as then it will not be transferred into their bloodstream. So if Komodo dragons don’t digest this vitamin, then how do they get it? The answer lies in sunlight. The UVB rays from the sun triggers a reaction that causes the release of vitamin D into the animal’s bloodstream. This is where the chemistry comes in. The physics occurs when Dr. Schlegel measures how intense the UVB rays are that are hitting the Komodo dragons, and if enough of the rays are coming through the glass of the enclosure.

This definitely seems like a stimulating career! The most exciting things that Dr. Schlegel has been able to do through his job include bottle-feeding cheetah cubs and being present at the weekly exams of giant panda cubs. Very few careers allow you to have these amazing and intellectually stimulating opportunities. It was a long road to get to this cool place at the San Diego Zoo. Dr. Schlegel received his bachelor’s degree in animal production (which basically means commercial farming), and then went on to get his master’s degree and Ph.D. at Michigan State University in beef cattle nutrition. He became the associate nutritionist at the Wild Animal Park in 2001, and then worked in nutrition at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, until 2005, when he came back to the San Diego Zoo as the director of nutritional services. Physics, chemistry, animal behavior, and a little bit of catering savvy all come together to make Dr. Schlegel’s job unusual, challenging, exciting and never the same thing twice.

Becky, Careers Team

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.

We met a few of the animals that live here in our region with Jean-Pierre Montagne, a senior research technician in the Applied Animal Ecology division at the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research. Mr. Montagne holds a bachelor’s degree from UCSD in Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution, and has plenty of experience behind him.

In addition to the 900 acres of land used by the Wild Animal Park for the exhibition and conservation of exotic species, there is another 900 acres of preserved land, saved for the native species of Southern California. One scientific thing that happens on this land is the monitoring of local biodiversity using pit-fall traps. The connected traps – also called an array – consist of three sections of short fence made out of a tarp like material. There are two buckets and a snake trap positioned along each arm of the array as well as another bucket located in the center. Any animal moving along the barriers will fall safely into the buckets or crawl into the snake traps. Inside the buckets and traps are wool and a couple different sized tubes for the animals to hide in. There are 20 of these arrays spread throughout the area. Data about the animals that are caught in these traps (such as species type, various measurements, gender, and location) are recorded before the animals are released.

Mr. Montagne becomes most excited when finding geckos, spade-foot toads, and other rare species in the traps. His favorite parts of his job are working with people who have a passion for conservation, and knowing that while it may be a slow process, they are making a significant difference in the conservation of the plants and animals. Mr. Montagne works as part of the Multiple Species Conservation Program, or the MSCP. The MSCP helps to preserve an arrangement of habitats, protect biodiversity, and improve the San Diego area’s quality of life. Instead of having one chunk of land here and there preserved for wildlife, the MSCP is a collection of lands owned or governed by several agencies that work together for species conservation.

Biodiversity is the diversity of life within a given ecosystem, biome, or even the entire earth. This includes the number of species of plants, animals, and microorganisms, the diversity of genes in these species, and the variety of ecosystems on the planet. Biodiversity and the preservation of species are important because each species plays an essential role in the ecosystem. The specific combination of species that appears in the wild allows the ecosystem to mutes the effect of an assortment of catastrophes such as fire, flood, or epidemic disease outbreak. People also benefit from this because a larger number of species can better help sustain ecosystems and the larger amount of plant species provides for a wider range of food for both herbivorous animals and people.

San Diego is actually a biodiversity hotspot because of the huge assortment of plants and animal species, many of which are endangered, that live here. Some of these species are very particular to specific habitats found in southern California, a couple of which are found primarily in San Diego. One of these is coastal sage scrub habitat, the most endangered ecosystem in the United States. Mr. Montagne is not the only one whose job aids the conservation of local ecosystems; you can help no matter what your occupation by planting native plants and letting wild animals enjoy their homes without fear of humans harassing them. Next time you are traveling through your neighborhood do not think only about the people that live close to you, but also the animals that reside nearby.  

 Danielle, Careers Team

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.

Dr. Mike Schlegel, director of Nutritional Services for the Zoological Society of San Diego, works with only one other dietician in order to compose the diets of all the over 4,000 animals at the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park! This includes mammals, reptiles, fish, amphibians, invertebrates and birds. Not surprisingly, all of these species require a specific diet and nutrition. One of these animals that Dr. Schlegel composes the diet for is the critically endangered California condor.

Twenty-seven years ago the largest bird in North America, the California condor, was nearly extinct. With only 23 birds remaining in the wild, the Park and Zoo helped these vulture-like birds through breeding efforts. Because of the Zoo and Park’s breeding efforts in cooperation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Los Angeles Zoo, the Peregrine Fund and other conservation groups, now over 350 birds live on this planet, many of them have been released into the wild. In order for the Zoo to help these creatures be healthy enough to reproduce and learn what is and is not food in the wild, the Zoo had to create a sufficient diet and feeding plan.

This is where a dietician, like Dr. Schlegel, comes in. The diet designed for endangered animals, like the condor, are crucial. Luckily, the Zoo and Park have diets that have proven to be successful. Condors usually eat carrion – such as dead deer, cattle, and sheep – but will also consume dead fish, dead rabbits, and dead rodents. At the Zoo, the birds are interchangeably fed trout, rabbit, rats, beef spleen, and ground meat. Because this carnivore is a scavenger, in the wild they will live days without food. In order to not overfeed, condors at the Park will have “fast” days.

Having the birds become familiar with the kind of food they would find in the wild is helpful when these birds are released throughout the southwestern United States and into Baja California, Mexico. However, Dr. Schlegel’s influence does not drop off once the birds are flying high. It turns out that the field staff nearby helps the birds out by providing carcasses for food. Dr. Schlegel sometimes provides calcium supplements for the birds out in the wild. He also provides a vast amount of know-how to keep all of the animals in the Zoo and Park healthy and happy.

Sarrah, Conservation Team

A recent trip to the Wild Animal Park brought us to a very different part of the Park than I had been before. The Park sits on 1,800 acres, but only 900 of those acres have been developed for the actual park portion. The other half is set aside for conservation. It’s a preserve for local Southern California wildlife and is part of the Multiple Species Conservation Program. The Multiple Species Conservation Program is part of local legislation that is committed to preserving San Diego County’s habitats and wildlife. The Wild Animal Park is obliged to protect, monitor, and maintain their 900 acres of natural preserve. The natural preserve provides a home for local animal species and is an important part of a system of protected habitats that allow for animals to move from habitat to habitat in a set of connected corridors. This land is only allowed for some off-site breeding and minimum public viewing. The Park’s mule ride is one way you can view this scenic and special piece of habitat.

The Wild Animal Park’s wildlife preserve is home to numerous species. San Diego is considered a “hot spot,” a place of high biodiversity, just like the Serengeti in Africa! Here in San Diego County, we have 144 mammal species, 492 bird species, and 82 reptile species. There are also a wide variety of habitats in our county like coastal sage scrub, chaparral, desert, grassland, forests, and mountains all within the ideal Mediterranean climate of Southern California. Despite this amount of biodiversity, this habitat is the most endangered in the continental United States and vanishing quickly. The ideal 78-degree weather that allows for high levels of biodiversity also attracts people and development. Human development is the largest threat to San Diego County’s natural habitats. Some species that live in coastal sage scrub habitat are endangered only because their habitat is endangered. The orange-throated whiptail lizard is one species that only thrives in coastal sage scrub. When development destroys this delicate habitat, these colorful lizards are wiped out because they are specialist species that eat only termites in trees. The natural habitats of San Diego have many unique attributes and researchers at the Park are working hard to protect it. There’s so much to 900 acres of Southern Californian land!

Curtis, Conservation Team