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.

Why do so many people visit the San Diego Zoo each year? Most guests visit for entertainment and to see exotic animals up close. Little do they know that it is also the Zoo’s job to “edu-tain” its guests, or to entertain through experiential education. A tiger roaring from six feet away or a baby panda climbing a tree provide spectacular inspiration for visitors. The Zoo also wants to help people become motivated to support conservation projects through their actions and support of the Zoo.

Every year the Zoo identifies ten of its most important and high profile projects and informs the public about them. (There are over 100 projects and programs supported by the Zoological Society of San Diego each year.) Along with monitoring elephant populations in Thailand and studying wild giant pandas with radio telemetry, there is a Species Survival Plan (SSP) that works as a dating service for animals, such as koalas, in zoos. The San Diego Zoo plays an important part in the reproduction of these animals, as they can be extremely picky! For example, koalas only eat certain kinds of eucalyptus leaves and change their preferred type frequently. As if that wasn’t enough work for the Zoo employees charged with managing groves of eucalyptus trees just for these fuzzy creatures, koalas only eat the new growth on each branch. When mating season comes around, the SSP manager uses the family tree of all of the koalas available and chooses three potential bachelors per female (because she often rejects the first and second male she comes across.) The SSP manager makes sure that these matches are from new or under-represented genetic lines to ensure the most genetically diverse koala population possible.

Even though breeding and caring for koalas is no walk in the park, maintaining a healthy population in zoos is important because of the pressure they face in their native homeland of Australia. Wild koalas are threatened by factors such as drought, deforestation, and predation by dingoes. Thanks to the Species Survival Plan, guests can be “edu-tained” by watching the koalas, reading the signs nearby, or asking an animal keeper about these choosy marsupials.

Lauren and Amelia- Conservation Team

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