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

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