The San Diego Zoo has taken this intention one step further. Not only are the exhibits of the African animals surrounded by native African plants, the Zoo has designed its exhibits to include groups of plants and animals that represent entire ecosystems in nature. As Mr. Dannenberger explained, “The most important things to the Zoo are conservation, education, and the guest experience.” From Tiger River’s Asian rain forest to the arctic groundcover plants surrounding Polar Bear Plunge, each of the more than 6,000 species are arranged to form a comprehensive experience for visitors to the Zoo. Not only is the San Diego Zoo world famous for its animals, it is also a world-class botanical garden.

The San Diego Zoo is an official rescue center for plants. In the same way that confiscated animals are sent to animal care centers such as the Zoo, smuggled plants impounded by U.S. customs are also sent to the Zoo for care. According to Mr. Dannenberger, orchids are the most commonly smuggled plants because of their high value. In San Diego, smuggled cacti from Mexico are also a significant problem. With both orchids and cacti, smuggling is a huge threat to the survival of the species. In some cases, the orchid species are extinct in the wild and the only individuals left are those that have been confiscated. Mr. Dannenberger told us about some ongoing Zoo research in micropropogation, a process of artificial reproduction in which offspring are cloned from tissue taken from a single plant. Micropropagation is a vital tool in plant conservation because it is a way to grow plants that are normally difficult to grow from seeds or cuttings.

In order to save a species, the species’ habitat must also be conserved. Conservation of plant species is just as important as taking care of the animal species, since plants are the primary producers in the majority of terrestrial ecosystems. In order to support the botanical conservation efforts of the Zoo, we got down and dirty. Stepping carefully over the fence along the Monkey Trails pathway, we planted 64 plants into the moist, dark soil. My favorite moment was when a young boy, walking past with his mother, saw us planting and said, “Hey, I want to do that!” It was a remarkable experience: working on the other side of the fence, watching visitors as they strolled past. People were interested in knowing what we were doing and many looked very impressed upon learning that we were high school students and so involved in the conservation work of the Zoo.

Ronit, The Real World Team

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A dog appeared, and you took off with him at your tail. The ape-like creatures opened boxes and out sprang another new creature, a stoat, similar to a mink. Around you, the stoats devoured your younger kiwi brethren, and the numbers of your kind began to plummet. The end? Scientist Dr. Tom Jensen of the San Diego Zoo’s Reproductive Physiology Department certainly doesn’t think so.

Dr. Jensen is from Denmark and gets pretty excited about kiwi poop. Focusing on the kiwis of New Zealand, he studies wild birds to improve breeding in captivity. Studying behavior and hormones found in scat, Dr. Jensen is able to grasp a better understanding on what constricts the reproductive success of kiwis and how to improve it.

Though personable and fun, pets can serve as a potent threat in the wrong situation. Of course your yellow lab showers you with tongues of love and your tabby cat purrs you to sleep at night. The affection and responsibility gained with pets is irreplaceable, but owners should be aware of a pet’s potential to harm wildlife. Whether they hunt native species or extinguish their resources by competition, pets can be a huge threat and have contributed to the endangerment of a number of species. Even dumping your fish bowl in a nearby pond can devastate the ecosystem. We, as people, must make well-informed decisions about our pets in order to prevent disruption and damage to natural habitats and species that have no chance to fly out of the reach of a snoopy dog or a feral cat.

Natalie, The Real World Team

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More than this, by planting healthy plants we made a small contribution to what Mr. Dannenberger described as an important “balance.” In places as near as the neighbor’s backyard to faraway, forested lands, plants are frequently uprooted to make room for new development. All too frequently, uprooted plants are not replaced. In this way, the world is loosing vast expanses of wild land comparable to the size of London, England each year. This reminds us that animals aren’t the only species that are threatened with extinction!

Continuing on our extensive tour of Monkey Trails, we came across a fig tree of monstrous proportions. We learned from Mr. Dannenberger that, during the construction of Monkey Trails, this tree was moved from its original location. Instead of cutting down such an important part of the Zoo’s history and heritage, teams of engineers developed a system of hydraulic movers to give this fig tree the ride of a lifetime, moving it more than 200 feet to its new resting place. With heartfelt conservation actions such as these, the Zoo has positively contributed to the balance of life, just as anyone can in his or her own garden.

Lauren, Conservation Team

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Dr. Jensen works at the Beckman Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Species (CRES), and abroad in New Zealand, to protect these unique birds. Dr. Jensen learns and perfects different research techniques with captive birds at the San Diego Zoo, then goes to New Zealand to observe the birds in the wild. When he returns to CRES he has new knowledge to better serve the captive population. A few of the techniques that he uses are DNA fingerprinting to differentiate individuals within a population and ultrasound technology to assess stages of ovulation.

Kiwi eggs are distinctive because judging by the size of the bird one would expect the egg to be the size of a chicken egg when in fact the egg is closer to the size of an emu egg. The large size of the egg allows for the kiwi chick to mature to a greater extent before hatching; once born, kiwi chicks require relatively little parental care. Unlike chickens or other birds, once the kiwi chick is out of the egg it looks almost exactly like a miniature adult kiwi.

In Dr. Jensen’s lab we mimicked his research on kiwi eggs using chicken eggs as a model. In the lab, we ground a small hole in the chicken eggs using a belt sander until the outside shell was removed and only membrane remained. We then carefully removed the membrane with forceps revealing the growing chick inside. Blood tests can then be performed in order to evaluate the health and gender of the chick. Especially with kiwis it is helpful to know the sex because in captivity there is a gender bias towards males. A group of five males and one female is not as effective demographically as three males and three females. Although we did not have time to perform this step, after Dr. Jensen opens eggs he seals a layer of Parafilm to the egg to act as the missing segment of membrane. (He assured us he would take care of these eggs after we left.) The Parafilm supports the egg while giving him a window to monitor the chick’s growth and hopefully the growth of the endangered kiwi population.

Amelia, Conservation Team

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Lindsay, a Zoo InternQuest intern, removes the membranes from the chicken egg. Dr. Jensen commonly removes these membranes to draw blood or test the embryo. He can do this without harming the future chick at all!

The next day, at the Zoo, Andy Dannenberger, one of the Zoo’s horticulturists, let the interns plant vegetables along the paths of Monkey Trails.

This enormous 220-ton fig tree was moved from the front of the Zoo to its new home, 214 feet away, at Monkey Trails. It took a whole month to move the tree, but it was well worth the wait!

As our reward for our work planting in the Monkey Trails, we visited the gorilla exhibit. One of the Zoo’s silverback gorillas, Don Paul, raises his arm for a tasty treat. His keepers have trained him to use several hand movements so that he can communicate what he needs.

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These days, kiwis in the wild are declining at dramatic rates. Currently, only about five percent of all conceived chicks survive to adulthood. Since kiwis are native only to the islands of New Zealand, you may be wondering, “What can outsiders do to help”? Dr. Jensen and his expert team have honed in on several key areas in hopes of enhancing kiwi conservation efforts. Handling the birds as little as possible is crucial, so instead of drawing blood, fecal steroids are analyzed to assess reproductive status. Dr. Jensen monitors captive females at the San Diego Zoo on a routine basis using a portable ultrasound device. Repeated measurements not only track ovarian follicle growth but also help to monitor ovulation cycles. If researchers can collect sperm from male kiwis, then this valuable ultrasound data will help determine the best time to inseminate females.

Part of the kiwi project includes collecting fecal samples. DNA can be extracted from these samples, lending support to Dr. Jensen’s proud assertion that “Poop is good!” DNA from fecal samples can also be used to identify individuals within a population, genetic diversity, and even kiwi paternity! Surprisingly, DNA studies have shown that kiwis are not always monogamous breeders.

Whether you’re Danish or a New Zealander, kiwi survival is a serious matter. Efforts to save this unique species will only be successful when chick survival rates increase to 20 percent or more. As Dr. Jensen’s efforts have demonstrated, conservation is a universal necessity that needs global cooperation.

Lindsay, Careers Team

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Mr. Dannenberger has been a horticulturist for nearly 17 years, but has only worked for the San Diego Zoo for about two years. He was initially part of the “Limbs Crew” but is now part of the “A to Z” team. As he hiked us along exotic dirt paths, Mr. Dannenberger explained that he originally wanted a job with the government, but his wife encouraged him instead to make use of his educational training in agriculture. So here he is, working hard to beautify and care for the immaculate grounds of the World-Famous San Diego Zoo. Typical workday hours for a horticulturist at the Zoo are 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The first hours are spent in the animal enclosures before the Zoo opens, then it’s on to the public garden areas.

Mr. Dannenberger attended high school and college at the same time, splitting his hours between Oceanside High School and Mira Costa College. He then spent two years at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, completing a bachelor’s degree in agricultural business. Mr. Dannenberger rounded out his schooling with the completion of six specialty certificates, making him an ideal candidate for a great job at the Zoo!

Dana, Careers Team

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An orange face smiled up at me. And when I say orange, I mean an orange - the fruit! This was no human hospital; this was the San Diego Zoo’s veterinary hospital and the orange was for our surgical suture practice. In every other sense, however, this room looked like a human hospital operating room, complete with vital sign monitors, surgical lights, anesthesia machines, and even an observation gallery above.

As we carefully stitched closed the orange’s skin with surgical knots that Dr. Pat Morris, senior veterinarian, had expertly taught us, I imagined what it must be like to lie on this table. Human or animal, there is a certain amount of fear that goes along with “going to the doctor.” Yet, if I were a kinkajou or okapi, I would feel confident in the hands of the San Diego Zoo’s veterinary staff.

The breadth of knowledge in this hospital is overwhelming. Whereas a human hospital deals with only one species of animal, humans of course, the Zoo’s veterinary hospital has the capability of caring for the more than 800 species housed at the Zoo. Caring for and treating an elephant and a tomato frog requires VERY different treatments. As a person interested in a biochemistry career, I found the concepts of biochemistry used in veterinary applications a very exciting prospect! My mom works in the medical field, so I appreciate how difficult it is to learn the anatomy and physiology of a single species (humans), much less more than 800 different species!

For example, the hematology lab at the San Diego Zoo must have the appropriate equipment to analyze the blood types of the hundreds of different species. However, one of the biggest challenges is that all machines are created for humans and then adapted for animals. During our whirlwind tour of the veterinary facilities, a stop in the Clinical Pathology Lab brought to light just exactly what that means to the veterinary world. The lab has a new chemistry analyzer that technicians use to provide information from blood samples to veterinarians and registered vet techs who tend to the patients at the hospital. If this were a human hospital, the lab could have put the machine to work right away—there is certainly a high demand for the information it provides. However, Eric Becht, the senior lab technician, has had to spend the past several months calibrating the machine for use with blood samples from animals ranging from reticulated pythons to reticulated giraffes.

But in some cases, the body processes and associated treatments are parallel between animals and humans. When Bai Yun, the giant panda, became a mother, the veterinarians used a sonogram to get the first images of the new baby. Although she couldn’t see the sonogram pictures and shout with joy, her keepers and the community did it for her. As complex and different as the world of veterinary medicine can be from human medicine, one thing is certainly common: babies bring out the smile in everyone.

Ronit, The Real World Team

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Whether it’s generating a pedigree of baboons for field biologists or cloning a banteng to support their Species Survival Plan, the applications of genetic research varies tremendously. At CRES, one unifying factor of the Genetics Division is the Frozen Zoo. Collected from the San Diego Zoo, the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park, and various other locations, cell samples of hundreds of species stored in liquid-nitrogen cooled canisters serve as a bank of mostly undiscovered knowledge. Dr. Ryder’s delicate care and reverence for the Frozen Zoo reflects the valuable and potential impacts this resource has on the field of nonhuman genetics.

The goal of genetics at CRES is not just to learn what base pair follows the next in the DNA chain of an organism. Instead, by sequencing several organisms, correlations can be made and a greater understanding of the definition of a species can be used to help preserve it. Locating genes that code for a particular genetic disorder in humans can sometimes be transferred to related species. For example, due to the close evolutionary relationship between humans and bonobos, scientists like Dr. Ryder may be able to determine whether or not a particular bonobo in the collection has the same genetic disorder. This information can lead to a treatment for the individual bonobo and its important exclusion from breeding programs to prevent the spread of genetic disorders in future generations.

Geneticists like Dr. Ryder reveal huge findings from microscopic information that extends out to enhance many other fields of study. This ripple effect even rolls back to humans: by sequencing the DNA of other species, varying in relation to our own genetic makeup, we have the opportunity to discover more about ourselves and our evolutionary role on planet Earth. I expect discoveries made by geneticists around the world, especially at CRES, to take the world for a plunge into a pool of answers and, of course, many more questions to come.

Natalie, The Real World Team

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Maggie Reinbold shows the interns the extensive collection of tissue samples at CRES which they use for tests and observations in the lab.

Ms. Reinbold continues to show the interns the new laboratory equipment and space available to the scientists working at CRES in comparison to the older, less adequate facilities.

Dr. Pat Morris introduces himself to the interns in the veterinary library where all of the Zoo vets do their deliberation and research. The library overlooks the operating room.

Dr. Morris demonstrates the differences between the traditional style of taking X rays compared to the new, more efficient digital process. By using a digitizing pad to take the X rays, the image appears on a computer screen where it can be zoomed in to find even the tiniest fracture!

Since there were no surgeries to watch at the moment, Dr. Morris showed the interns how to suture an animal using an orange instead.

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