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.
A Window Into Africa
Hunched on the back of a safari truck, I explored the East African exhibit at the Wild Animal Park, embarking on a journey to the heart of an exotic continent. A grassy plain with palm trees spread out before me. Willowy giraffes meandered the sloped hills, bulky rhinoceroses marched in their pursuit of food, and sable antelopes teeming with vivacity galloped in wild herds. As I observed the giraffes, I noted many quirky behaviors that caught my attention. Pretending to be a professional zoologist, I meticulously adhered to a set of observation directions given to me by our guest researcher, Miss Caroline Pitt. Like the psychologists and behaviorists of the human world, I categorized the giraffes’ actions as licking, orienting, walking, standing, eating, etc. Standing on the deck with binoculars glued to my eyes, I gazed keenly at the eclectic group of animals that thrived before me.
It would have been a perfectly beatific scene if I had not just learned about the endangered African habitat. As a result of habitat destruction, poachers, and bush meat, African wildlife has been steadily diminishing, with the threat of extinction looming closely. Rhinos have been chased out of their homes while wildebeests have been left utterly without resources. However, luckily, there are ways to remedy this problem. Donations and participation in animal conservation groups help greatly with this problem. With additional money and manpower, African habitats can be preserved.
Haoyu - Real World Team
The Most “Death-Defying” Part of the Zoo
On October 4, 2007, we visited the place where Zoo animals go when they die—the Wildlife Diseases Lab. This part of the Zoological Society focuses on the analysis of animals that have died on the Zoo or Wild Animal Park grounds. The relevance of this career to the real world lies in the processes it uses on the animals to discover, diagnose, and contain the spread of diseases. We witnessed a necropsy performed on a duck, and the processes were extremely similar to those of a human autopsy, or at least as far as I can tell from all of the episodes of CSI that I have seen. In both a necropsy and an autopsy, the subject is initially dissected and examined in a broad sense (or the gross anatomy is checked out) in which apparent irregularities are noted. Then specific body parts of the subject are isolated and studied in more detail under a microscope to try to further determine what killed the subject.
According to Laura Keener, M.T., the field of clinical pathology entails the analysis of blood and other tissue samples in determining health or illness in animals that are still alive. The procedure by which the blood in clinical pathology studies is extracted and examined is almost identical to that of when our blood is tested at the doctor’s office.
However, Pathology and Wildlife Diseases can have a more pressing relevance to the average person’s life. Understanding wildlife diseases is important for the health of the animal collection at the Zoo. All living things, including humans, are carriers of all kinds of “germs” that can be mild to dangerous to other animals. Dr. Patty Gaffney said that this risk is relevant with diseases in non-human primates, as they easily cross over into human diseases. The Wildlife Diseases Lab of the Zoological Society of San Diego uses applied science to help the Zoo animals, and turns its research outward to help the greater population of wildlife and humans.
Claire - Real World Team
