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 striped hyena in front of us raised the mane on his back and crouched low, nervously keeping an eye on our group as he approached the treat his trainer had placed on the ground. I watched closely, entranced with how his trainer, Katie Springer, meticulously handled his nervous reactions by positively reinforcing him for his braver ones. Ms. Springer carefully encouraged the animal to come over, but always let him have a safe, open route back, so that he did not feel cornered.

“Being an animal trainer requires two things,” Heidi Moomaw, another animal trainer at the Zoo, explained. “Patience and timing.” Trainers have to be extraordinarily patient, as working with some animals can take years. In fact, the trainers at the Zoo have been working with the striped hyena for six years. Ms. Springer then expanded on the timing aspect of this as we tried to persuade the next animal, a wolf, to howl for us. When the trainers first started training him to do this, they would reward her right as she began to get into the position to howl. However, this merely taught her to go into a howling position. For this reason, rewarding animals at just the right moment is essential to an animal trainer’s job.

Working with animals in this way enables Ms. Moomaw and Ms. Springer to have a special relationship with them. It is thrilling to think that through observing and responding to the animal’s behavior, they can cultivate a high level of trust with a wild animal.

Both Ms. Moomaw and Ms. Springer attended Moorpark College to achieve their goal of becoming an animal trainer. Moorpark is the only school in the United States with an animal training program. In fact, there is a zoo right there on the grounds, so students get hands-on experience.

While a lot of work goes into being an animal trainer, Ms. Springer and Ms. Moomaw also have a lot of fun. Their job allows them to interact with a variety of amazing animals every day. The most exciting thing Ms. Moomaw has done through her job is to be a part of the Cheetah Run Safari at the Wild Animal Park, a special experience for guests. “It was exhilarating,” she said. “You stand there and you have to catch a cheetah that’s running towards you at sixty miles per hour!” Instead of waking up to a cup of coffee and a computer desk, Ms. Moomaw and Ms. Springer are able to wake up to romping cheetah cubs, howling canines, and chattering parrots. What a way to spend the day!

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.

At the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research behavioral biology plays an important role in the conservation of endangered animals, like the cheetah for example. Habitat destruction, encroaching tourists, genetic uniformity, and poachers have significantly reduced cheetah populations, with only about 12,000 currently left on the planet. This is a dramatic decline, from the 100,000 alive about 100 years ago. The Institute has undertaken critical research for breeding captive cheetahs. One part of the behavioral biology division works in the laboratory, analyzing female cheetah hormone levels. You may ask, “How do scientists manage to calculate hormone levels of large, carnivorous animals?” The answer is poop! By examining hormones and metabolites from fecal matter, scientists can quantify and monitor the level of a specific hormone in the body of any given animal. One of the first steps in the procedure is sifting through feces. That’s where interns come in! In the lab we sifted through the poop samples from the endangered Somali wild ass (something these scientists do on a daily basis).

So how does this process help breed cheetahs? By monitoring female reproductive hormones, scientists can determine when the cheetah is ready for breeding. Unlike humans or other related mammals, the cheetah is rarely ready to breed. This is because cheetahs are induced ovulators as opposed to spontaneous ovulators like humans. So in order to figure out when a cheetah is ready to copulate, researchers must figure out how high (or low) their reproductive hormones are. If a researcher were to misdiagnose a female cheetah as ready, the result could be disastrous. This is because cheetahs are strictly solitary animals. Therefore, if a female cheetah is paired with a male when she is not ready, the two can be extremely aggressive towards one another and possibly injure each other. The San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research has generated extensive data on this incredible species resulting in numerous baby cheetahs!

Sarrah, Conservation 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.

Watching the elephants at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park was a fresh and stimulating experience, as we were obliged to look at the animal’s actions from a behavioral biologist’s point of view. Dr. Matt Anderson and Dr. Lance Miller accompanied us on our outing to observe the African elephant herd and assisted us in trying out our skills as behavioral biologists. Behavioral biology at the San Diego Zoo involves studying animals in captivity and using the information gleaned to better care for captive animals as well as better protect animals in the wild. Studying the animals can also be a way to learn if an individual animal’s behavior is changing, and to improve our ability to breed the animals.   

Behavioral biologists sometimes use a method called focal sampling. With this method, the observer focuses on one specific animal of interest. The behavior of this animal may stay consistent for a long duration of time or change from day to day, or even from minute to minute. In an elephant herd, changing the focal animal everyday for, say a week, gives biologists at the Park a chance to compare different individuals in the herd and note any variations in behavior between older and younger animals as well as animals with diverse levels of dominance.

While watching an animal, it is a behavioral biologist’s job to systematically note its activities, for example once every minute. This method allows the biologist to record what an animal is doing as well as where it is at a certain point in time. But documenting what the animal is doing is not the only thing a behavioral biologist does. Taking note of what an animal is not doing, especially behaviors that normally happen in the wild, is also part of the job. Dr. Miller commented that watching the animals is his favorite part of the job. It is not all pleasurable though. On some days, hot ones for example, when the animals are spending their time resting in the shade and hardly doing anything at all, watching them becomes boring very quickly.  Behavioral biologists not only watch what an animal is doing but also record the vocalizations they make, figure out what percent of the time an animal does certain activities (such as eating, walking, or socializing), compare the behavior of animals in the Zoo to the behavior of wild animals, and help to create an environment for the animals that will stimulate natural activities. They work with people who design the animal exhibits to create an enclosure that will reinforce the animals’ natural behaviors and tendencies.

Behavioral biologists are beginning to tap into new technologies in order to help them monitor the animals they are studying. One such method is GPS, or global positioning systems, which allows biologists to track an animal’s position and observe what other animals they are spending time with or avoiding, without a constant direct watch over them. This limits the amount of time that biologists need to be visually watching their study subjects. But sometimes complications arise. Soon after putting GPS collars on the elephants at the Park, resident biologists realized that the devices needed to be waterproof in order to withstand the frequent dips that the elephants enjoy taking in their swimming pool. The GPS collars used at the Park not only records the wearer’s location but are also fitted with special equipment to record any vocalizations made by the animal. Behavioral biologists are extremely curious about certain sounds that animals make because at least some of the tones or pitches are too low of a frequency for people to hear. One such sound is an elephant’s rumble. Without the proper technology, these subsonic messages would be totally lost on us.

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.

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