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.

Intently studying giraffes uninterrupted as the clock ticks on is a singularly Zen experience. Giraffes are all shallow curves. Impossibly long necks support impossibly large heads as black tongues grasp tree trunks and large brown eyes with long lashes lazily stare into the distance.

Last week, behavior biologist Caroline Pitt of CRES gave us a taste of her job, which includes observing animals and systematically recording their behavior on a chart called an ethogram. Data on everything a group of animals does from ear twitching to running is recorded periodically, often for years. Eventually patterns emerge. These patterns can be studied and compared to other data to make generalizations about the behavior of the species. Armed with a simple ethogram, we observed the Wild Animal Park’s population of giraffes for twenty minutes. Collecting hard information as a group on these animals underscored how standardized these studies must be in order to obtain valid results.

Miss Pitt records more detailed information on a Sudanese species of antelope called the Nile lechwe. Before captive lechwes began to be studied, very little was known about their behavior because social circumstances in Sudan make observing the species in the wild difficult. In fact, even the approximate number of wild lechwes is unknown. Miss Pitt explained that in order to know how much of this animal’s habitat must be conserved for a sustainable population in the wild we must first understand their social and breeding systems. Factors like male territoriality and migration play a huge role in how much space animals need. Information obtained from studying captive animals can be applied to wild populations. Although animals can behave differently in captivity, San Diego’s mild climate and the Wild Animal Park’s uniquely large exhibits make many animals feel right at home.

Jane - Conservation Team

Pathology: The Study of the Dead to Help the Living

Even though we like to think it impossible, occasionally an animal does die at the zoo.

So what happens in the event of an animal death? Today, the interns headed over to the Wildlife Diseases Lab to find out. Dr. Patty Gaffney, a veterinary pathologist completing her residency at the San Diego Zoo, gave us a tour of the anatomical and clinical pathology labs and explained to us the responsibilities of a zoo pathologist.

The most important job of a pathologist at the San Diego Zoo is to avoid the spread of an infectious disease. When an animal, such as a wild duck, dies in the Zoo, pathologist do a necropsy, or exam, on that animal to determine the cause of death. As we watched a pathology technician complete a necropsy on the wild duck (eww!), Dr. Gaffney explained the process to us. If anything appears abnormal, tissue samples are sent to the lab for further research. In this way, diseases can be contained, keeping both wild and Zoo animals safe. With the threat of avian diseases such as bird flu and West Nile Virus, it is crucial to examine migratory birds in order to protect the Zoo’s collection of rare and endangered animals.

Clinical Lab Manager Laura Keener showed us a second side to pathology: the study of animal blood and serum that also can reveal various diseases. By studying blood samples taken from ill or hospitalized animals, pathologists are able to learn about what diseases may affect a species as well as how a species may respond to treatment. Dr. Keener’s lab has even discovered new parasites in some of the Zoo’s animals.

Dr. Keener has also been involved in several applications of pathology in the wild. When an iguana species of the Turks and Caicos Islands became endangered, many conservationists believed that the cause was human encroachment on the iguana environment by tourists and divers. However, some people felt that disease was the true cause of the iguana population decline. Pathologists, including Dr. Keener, traveled to the Caribbean islands to determine which factor was actually responsible for the iguana endangerment. By studying the iguanas from a pathological standpoint, the researchers found the iguanas to be healthy, thus proving humans guilty and helping the endangered species.

Veronica - Conservation Team

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