Most of the sea lions at the Zoo were born at the Zoo or other zoos in the United States. Occasionally, animals come to the Zoo from marine mammal rescue organizations. There are two sea lions here who were rescued. Riley, who made a brief appearance at the beginning of our show, was rescued eight years ago. He was found as a very young animal, stranded without his mother anywhere near. The youngest sea lion at Wegeforth Bowl, he is still learning the ropes to be center stage in the sea lion show. The trainers first had to train him to enjoy eating again. For some reason, he did not like eating fish when he first came to them so they had to make eating an enjoyable experience for him. Their dedication to this one animal is an illustration of their commitment to serving the entire species. Riley is now a big eater and he is helping to teach Zoo guests about the sometimes difficult life of a sea lion.

The Wegeforth Bowl show reminded us all that we share the planet with some amazing animals. The signature phrase that ended the show basically tells it all, “Take only pictures and leave only footprints.”

-Marika, Zoo InternQuest Conservation Team

Training to be an Animal Trainer
Kristi Dovich is the animal training manager at Wegeforth Bowl. After the show, she and Mr. Davis gave us some insight into what rewarding jobs they have as animal trainers. Though the job requires a lot of time, hard work, and dedication, judging by the bond they have with the animals, it is all worth it. Each animal that lives at the Bowl (they all have nice enclosures out back) is either a performer in a show, an animal ambassador, or both. This means they must be comfortable around people and, ideally, respond to commands from any of the trainers.

Not everyone who works as an animal trainer was raised on a farm or came out of college at age 22 with a degree in zoology. Mr. Davis began making a living as a police officer. He worked as an officer for 15 years but always had a passion for animals. As a child, he watched The Tonight Show and was inspired by Joan Embery. At the age of 40 he decided being a police officer was not his life’s calling. He became a volunteer for the Zoological Society of San Diego’s Conservation and Research for Endangered Species (CRES) Behavior Division, where he patiently observed primates for many, many hours. He shared his observation data with the staff scientists. But something else happened during those hours of observation. He met some trainers at the Zoo who were charged with training an animal with diabetes to present his arm so they could draw blood and administer insulin. Because of his deep knowledge of animals and his willingness to volunteer his time and to ask questions and make friends with people at the Zoo, he was asked to spend a summer with the team at Wegeforth Bowl. He then went to Moorpark Community College’s Exotic Animal Training and Management program.

In order to land a job as an animal trainer or something similar you must first have a passion for working with animals; just loving animals and watching Animal Planet and Discovery Channel is not enough. According to Ms. Dovich, although it is not a requirement, it is strongly recommended that you have at least a bachelor’s degree in biology or a related field. In her own personal experience, she had an associate’s degree from Moorpark College’s Exotic Animal Training and Management program when she began working as an animal trainer at the San Diego Zoo. Later, she chose to pursue her bachelor’s degree in order to increase her skills and to move up to the level of manager.

-Justin, Zoo InternQuest Careers Team

Taking Home Some Training Tips, and Fishy Smelling Lips
Being kissed by a sea lion is a fishy experience to remember! Nelson is a sea lion that performs at the San Diego Zoo. He is one of the five that get the crowd worked up to the end of their seats with laughs and applause by demonstrating sea lion behaviors. Sitting behind the scenes but also up close with the mammals is an outstanding opportunity.

There are many different ways to train the animals but it always takes a long term commitment in order to gain the animals’ trust and shape their behaviors. Most animals at the Zoo are trained using operant conditioning, which includes the “bridge technique.” When an animal does the requested behavior or does not do an unwanted behavior (like barking) the trainer communicates to the animal that it is doing something right by using a sound – a click, a whistle, or a key word. As soon as possible after the sound the animal receives a reward, perhaps a tasty treat, access to a toy they like, or an affectionate pat.

- Chelsi, Zoo InternQuest Real World Team

Frank Escobedo, a senior horticulturist at the Wild Animal Park, tells of the dangers of having eucalyptus trees. They have weak trunks and bark, which can cause fractures on the tree and lead to falling branches.

The cycad is a prehistoric conifer that is related to the pine tree, hence the large cones in the center. Mr. Escobedo told us of his passion for growing these huge trees in his backyard.

On Monday, however, Su Lin finally felt the impact of her independence and searched for her mother frequently. This was an entirely predictable response to the last step of the weaning protocol. Both of our previous cubs showed some initial anxiety once their independence became a full-time occupation. Weaning is always so much tougher on the cubs than their mothers. Fortunately, Tuesday was a better day for Su Lin, as she spent much less time looking for her mother and was less intense during her searches. We expect that within a few days more her behavior will have regained its usual mellowness.

We are pleased that Bai Yun’s reaction to this change has remained mild. She was attentive to some of the calls she heard coming from Su Lin’s area Monday, listening from high in her climbing structure. She remained calm, though, and continued to feast on her bamboo and rest quietly throughout the day.

We are tapping into all of our resources to ensure that we are abreast of how Su Lin transitions during this time. In addition to overnight monitoring, our observer corps is keeping a closer eye on the girls for the next several days. Overnight on Monday, our data indicated that both mom and cub (I should say subadult!) had a pretty quiet evening, with only 15 minutes of restless wandering from Su Lin.

Our keepers are helping Su Lin through these next few days with added enrichment items and a little extra TLC. Visitors to the San Diego Zoo may see them hosting a training session at the back of her exhibit, tossing in a new toy or extra food, or just lining her up for a good scratch behind the ears. Our young pandas have always appreciated this extra attention at this time in their lives, and it helps to cement their relationship with the keeper staff. This will pay dividends down the road, when the bears are trained for husbandry procedures like examinations, blood draws, or ultrasounds. It can also come in handy should we need to train the bears to perform a task for our research.

We look forward to seeing Su Lin blossom into the sweet young lady we know she will be. Her life from here on out will be different, but we are confident that Bai Yun has done another stellar job at readying a panda to take on the mantle of a secure, happy, and healthy subadult. That’s quite a legacy!

Suzanne Hall is the senior research laboratory technician for the Giant Panda Conservation Unit of Applied Animal Ecology/CRES.

Gao Gao is not as adventurous as Mei Sheng and spends most of his time on the ground eating. Gao is a small male but he can really pack away the bamboo. I love to watch him eat: he gets right to it and munches for several hours. He seems to enjoy the solitude. Mei Sheng, on the other hand, is a people bear; he seems to like the attention.

Two very different males doing very different things. They will be out in the future and we can all watch Mei Sheng and Gao Gao once again.

Kay Ferguson is a panda narrator at the San Diego Zoo.

The team in pathology (now officially renamed the Wildlife Disease Laboratories/CRES) works together to figure out what causes disease and death in the animals in our collection. The GIS learn about three different aspects of the diagnosis process: necropsy, histology, and microscopic study of tissue samples.

The girls always expect necropsy to be gruesome and are prepared with their “this is gonna be gross…” faces when we walk in. But they always find body parts absolutely fascinating—especially diseased ones! The path techs explain which tissues are healthy and which are not, and why. Mechanisms of disease are fascinating, and interest wins over revulsion every time.

Once tissues are sampled, they’re put into formalin to fix for a few days. Formalin stops the rotting process, essentially, so that tissue can be examined microscopically. “Fixed” tissue has to be cut into tiny pieces, which are then embedded in paraffin and sliced into thin strips and put onto slides. This portion of the process is called histology, which translates into “the study of tissues.” A tissue is really just a group of cells that work together, so when the cells stop working together there’s a problem.

The prepared slides are delivered to the pathologists, who examine the tissues for signs of disease or damage. The diagnosis process is very like something you might watch on CSI; two of our alums decided they wanted to become crime scene investigators after their visit to pathology.

After a couple of visits to the Zoo, the GIS will spend an afternoon in the classroom processing all of the information that they have collected. Little do they know, the activity supporting this particular visit will be a virtual mouse necropsy that they’ll do online.

I LOVE being a teacher!

Cindy Spiva-Evans is an educator at the San Diego Zoo.

Girls In Science is a program for Roosevelt Middle School girls which creates science-based experiences with professional women at the San Diego Zoo. The program is funded through the generosity of the Wells Fargo Foundation.

Read about previous Girls In Science activities.

When we visited Gram during our Zoo InternQuest tour of the Zoo grounds, we got a thrill being face to face with him and rewarding him for coming to see us by giving him yams and apples. Feeding a rhino may be a cool experience, but how does this help people understand the conservation status of an animal? When returning home from the adventure of feeding a rhinoceros, it sank in that we had been up close and personal to a 5,000-pound giant. The next day, still in awe, we each had similar experiences at school. When casually asked by our friends what we did yesterday at that Zoo internship, we replied with, “I fed a rhino named Gram!,” grinning at their jealous expressions. They replied, “You fed a what? I want to feed one!”

Most high school kids don’t talk about rhinos and wildlife conservation and the impact of buying too much stuff and resource use during lunch break. Last week, we did, thanks to Gram, and our Zoo educator guide, Sunni Robertson, who gave us information we can use to get people to care.

- Sarah and Chelsi, Real World Team

Sunni Robertson gave us a fantastic and in-depth tour of the World-Famous San Diego Zoo and answered our questions about how to land a job as a Zoo educator/guide. Being knowledgeable about the Zoo and the animals is a requirement for Zoo educators, of course. Ms. Robertson has a bachelor’s degree in biology which gave her the basis for knowing a lot about animals in general. It also helps to be able to interact with people and animals. Ms. Robertson worked in a veterinary office for awhile and then attended Moorpark College, participating in their exotic animal training and management program. After graduating from Moorpark, Ms. Robertson started working at the San Diego Zoo.

Her daily routine is never the same, but usually includes tours for visitors of all ages, spending time with the animals she is trained to work with, and keeping up on the happenings around the Zoo. She is also a leader for the Zoo’s teen participation program called Zoo Corps. She gets to mentor the Zoo Corps members, and most of them want to work with animals when they grow up, so she can give them advice about college and volunteering opportunities.

People come to the Zoo to have fun and feel connected to the animals. Zoo educators like Ms. Robertson have the challenge of communicating the right mix of information and inspiration to leave them feeling like there is hope for habitats, animals, and people.

- Justin and Melissa, Careers Team

From peacocks to Indian rhinos, the San Diego Zoo houses a spectacular assortment of animals sure to impress people of all ages. In addition to the animals, the Zoo maintains a collection of rare, exotic, and endangered plants. But, as we learned this week, the purpose of the Zoo is not merely to amaze visitors but also to give people a reason to care about our precious animal and plant neighbors.

When you come to the Zoo and see the animals and plants from other parts of the world, it is a chance to feel like you have gone to a far away place. It is also a chance to help conserve wild places, far and near. The Zoological Society of San Diego supports conservation programs to help animals and habitats around the world. Conservation and Research for Endangered Species (CRES), the research division of the Zoological Society of San Diego, is involved in focused efforts in the lab and in the field to prevent animal extinction.

If our guide, Ms. Robertson, had not told us about them, we would not have known about the CRES staff working to prevent extinction of the Panamanian golden frog, whose major threat is an infectious disease caused by a fungus. Several Central American frog species have already become extinct in the past few decades because of this fungus! And the efforts to avert extinction of California condors have been ongoing for over 20 years, longer than we interns have been alive! Most of the condors in the wild are ones that were hatched in captive breeding programs and released into protected habitat throughout the southwest United States and Baja California, Mexico. Conservation biologists from CRES and other facilities recently released 28 condors into the wild. This is not the kind of thing that you see on the TV news, so finding out this information from our guide was exciting - and then we were motivated to read more about it on the San Diego Zoo’s Web site!

The education department at the San Diego Zoo communicates to people of all ages about the needs of animals, the importance of conservation, and ways in which all of us can help the Zoo achieve its goals. The audiences include special VIP tours, overnight camps for kids, and catered business parties. Some animals are trained to travel to schools, nursing homes, and other places off the Zoo grounds to help spread the message. The most important facet of all of these programs is keeping it fun. Employees are constantly thinking of new and creative ways to bring connect people with animals. In doing so, visitors are able to build a relationship with the animals and therefore, more people become interested in helping in any way that they can.

Zoo visitors can do their part by recycling, being well informed consumers, and good neighbors to the cool animals that we share the planet with. But you can also have fun at the Zoo and leave with interesting facts – like the fact that rhino horn is made from the same protein as our fingernails - that will make you appreciate animals even more!

- Keesha and Marika, Conservation Team

Thus far, neither bear has sought out the other within the first 30 minutes after doors have been opened. On some days, Su Lin has been a bit anxious about being separated from her mother in the morning, but most days she is relaxed about the change. She has continued to nurse each day. The length of time she spends nursing varies between 15 and 25 minutes and depends upon the willingness of Bai Yun to sit still for the session. Momma is always responsible for terminating the nursing bouts: it seems Su Lin would go on nursing forever if Bai Yun would let her!

We are encouraged that Bai Yun is taking this process very much in stride. Recordings of overnight behavior have shown us that she is resting or feeding on bamboo all night and doesn’t check the gate between her and the cub. She spends nearly all of her morning feeding on bamboo and must be pleased to have no competition for the choice pieces her keepers select for her. On days when she wanders into Su Lin’s space first, she often pillages the bamboo stash she finds in that area, if Su Lin has left any behind. Bai Yun is an eating machine, and we hope that once she is no longer nursing the cub she will be able to add some weight to her 205-pound (93-kilogram) frame.

Su Lin has also shown us some signs that she is developing routines that are independent of her mother. The last two mornings, she has been up and waiting when her keepers come to greet her at about 6:30 a.m., a change from the past. She is starting to rely more heavily on her handlers for filling her belly and for social contact. This is a good sign and confirms for us that she is adapting to the changes in her life. Experience has taught us that the keepers will be instrumental in the next part of Su Lin’s life, as she will solicit them frequently for contact and affection. It is our hope that in a few months her big brother, Mei Sheng, may be able to help her too, by providing companionship and some rough-and-tumble play. We’ll let you know when we begin to test those waters.

We have a few more days before these two bears will say the final farewells. This process, which began nearly a month ago, could not have gone more smoothly for the staff or the bears. We are pleased to see Su Lin move into the next phase of her life and are satisfied that we have managed to aid in her transition in such a way that both bears have adapted with a high degree of comfort. Although we’d like to think our experience is the deciding factor in Su Lin’s success with the weaning process, the truth is that when we try to mimic the wild situation as much as is possible for bears in managed care, their natural instincts and preferences will be the driving force in allowing them to succeed.

Suzanne Hall is the senior research laboratory technician for the Giant Panda Conservation Unit of Applied Animal Ecology/CRES.

They still spend their time running and playing throughout three large pens at the Wild Animal Park. We have done alot of husbandry behavior training with them, anything that will help them, the vets, and us keepers take care of them: being calm in a crate, sit, stay, paw presentation, etc. We think of it as job skills for their future. They will always have routine health exams and cratings, no matter where they live.

One of the main behaviors we focused on was crating, loading onto our truck, and eventually driving around, first just short distances and then slowly increasing the length. There was a lot of new stimulus for them each to get used to, from being alone to the sounds and smells of our truck and the sight of lots of other vehicles. We are happy to report they are all doing well with this, although Pombe and Etana soon were at the head of the class!

Stay tuned for details of Pombe’s trip to the vet hospital just for fun and individual bios as they have matured!

Kelly Casavant is a keeper at the San Diego Zoo’s center for Conservation and Research for Endangered Species (CRES).

I am one of those who loves to just look, take pictures, and become so totally involved in their actions that I cannot get enough of them. At the exhibits, I always invite our guests to do the “panda loop” out the exit gate and back into the entrance gate; they can loop around all day long if they desire. Many do just that, taking more pictures and more time with each pass. It is so much fun to watch our guests become panda mesmerized, just like me.

In our country today there are 12 pandas, can you believe that? Only 12, so you could say they are rare to us and that makes them a “want to see” animal, a main attraction in our country, a must-see even if you have to travel several hundred miles to get a look at them.

People will always love this magnificent-looking bear. They just don’t look real, with their beautiful black-and-white coats glistening in the sunlight like velvet, eyes like black pearls shining out to look at you.
.
The other day I watched Mei Sheng sleeping on the Keebler tree with two legs hanging over the edge. Pandas can sleep in very awkward positions and I have found they would not sleep in that position unless it was comfortable to them, so we even become panda mesmerized by their sleeping positions. Many of you watch the Panda Cam; now this is truly a form of being panda mesmerized!

Kay Ferguson is a panda narrator at the San Diego Zoo.