Zoo Miami’s Post

Transcript

So what originally brought me to Zoo Miami is my passion or, and while I was trying to figure out my passion was elephants at the time, 12 years ago, it seems like a lifetime ago, but it was that we have African and Asian elephants and specifically geriatric elephants now. And that was one of the things that haven't been studied very well. So I was really excited to come down. At the time we were participating in a in a study looking at their mobility and things like that. In high school, I had a teacher that used to be a zoologist. The zookeeper at Brookfield Zoo, and it was through her class and at the time it was actually a marine biology. So that was the class that really drove me into this field. That's that kind of touch point in my life is I had a zookeeper as a teacher who taught me about the things that are possible in that. So she really drove a a spark for me and marine conservation. And Steve Irwin was another driving force for that, of course, with like many kids at the time. But she really drove that kind of just everything that it meant to be a zookeeper to, to help animals. My biggest advice would be to really. Invest yourself hopefully into every aspect of what that means because it is a very big ask. You know, zookeepers, if you want to go spend the holiday with your family, we still have to have someone here that takes care of the animals on those days. So there's been many holidays that I have two kids at home and you know, me and me and their mom, we split around. So where, you know, sometimes I'm not there Christmas morning, but I'm there the afternoon, but it's. It's very selfless, so you have to be willing to give a lot of your own being and your own self to the betterment of the lives of the animals that were in charge of caring for because they didn't ask to be here. And for me, it's even more important that we provide them a better life because they didn't ask to be here, but they're here to represent their species and tell a story about why we should care about those animals. One of the things I'm doing right now is a project with Kalahari African Wild Dog Conservation Project and Triad Medical Training and we're collaborating to create these canine tactical medicine kits that are providing, we're providing them to Rangers in the field that are going to help them to save the canines that are working to save the animals. Other things that I'm involved with, I also am a member of the ACA Lion Safe, so I'm the vice coordinator for that. So we're working with different range projects that are in country in Africa, working to save lives because a lot of people. When you think of Africa, your first thing that you're going to think of is typically lions. And what people don't realize is that we have less than 25,000 lions out in the wild. Now with Carnivore Research Malawi, what we're actually doing is helping to identify hyenas. So it's breaking them into three different clans is how the researcher is set it up. And the first clan is one that is living in our local populated areas in Malawi. So that's the local 1. And then there's one that is a kind of living around the city and then there's the rural population. So it's looking at how we can. Investigate hyena behavior so that we mitigate human wildlife conflict, but also learn how to build cities and how we can inform practices so that we can actually save those hyenas and and coexist really with our wildlife. Probably work in the conservation program department because conservation is one of the biggest parts of why I do what I do. You know, my goal is that I don't actually have a job in that we've affected the change with people. To. Basically, not need to protect the wild areas because they are protected, to not have to do all these conservation programs because everyone in the world cares about them. We're not there yet, but if I've touched one person, then that's one person and I've kind of carried the football forward for that. So that's my goal and that's probably why I drive into conservation and working to help inspire the next generation. What I like best about my job is just the diversity and what I do. I never know what the day is going to bring me. I might start my day, you know, planning it one way and I'm going to go prep some diets. To make breakfast for everyone, all that fun stuff. But I come over and I notice a behavioral change in the dogs. And that means that now I have to do a whole different loan to my day. Because part of what I need to do is. To change their social dynamic and engage them in a different way just off of 1 interaction that I saw. So that might dictate the way that my entire day plays out. The painted dogs that are behind me here. And that's because they're, they're so incredible. Every dog has a role. And you might not be the best hunter, but your brother is. So your brother is going to lead our hunts and they're going to teach us how to hunt. And you're, you know, you're kind of in La La land over here just walking around looking at everything. But you know, that really makes you a great. Protector for the densite back home because you're paying attention to everything going on around you. Every member of the pack has a job and every. Every single one of them is reliant on each other in order to be successful. And I think that we can extrapolate that to the human context and how we should be as people serving each other. And my hope is that I don't have a job that because we've accomplished all the goals that we have for conservation, but we're not there. So my hope is that I'm here continuing to lead the way in animal care to provide them the best training, the best enrichment, the best husbandry. That we're really leading the way an animal care and serving our ambassadors of their species so that we can tell a story and serve as their conservation as they are working to make a better life for them out in the field.