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Zoo InternQuest is a seven-week career exploration program for San Diego County high school juniors and seniors. Students have the unique opportunity to meet professionals working for the San Diego Zoo, Safari Park, and Institute for Conservation Research, learn about their jobs, and then blog about their experience online. Follow their adventures here on the Zoo’s website!
Where do we fit into the tree of life? What is our niche on Earth? Are we the organisms who lead to the mass destruction of the environment and its inhabitants, or are we the organisms that move the Earth forward? In the twenty-first century, we are succeeding at both. We have expanded so much on technology, medicine, science, and art, but is our progress negatively affecting other species? Unfortunately, the answer to this question is yes. Other organisms are becoming endangered or extinct due to human actions and inactions. The worst part about this situation is that these extinctions and endangerments are completely avoidable if only we would start paying attention and taking action to protect other species. After all, aren’t we the ones who endangered them in the first place?
This week for InternQuest, we visited Maggie Reinbold at the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research located near the Safari Park. Mrs. Reinbold is the founder and Director of Conservation Education at the Institute. Mrs. Reinbold started the Department of Conservation Education to educate younger generations of the importance of our environment and how it is our job to protect it. Mrs. Reinbold’s department works with students from middle school all the way up to college. The department’s hope is that by educating newer generations, they will ensure a brighter and more sustainable future. Mrs. Reinbold works with students who come to the institute, so she is able to provide students a more extensive talk on ecology, biology, genetics and sustainable practices. In the conservation of education lab, employees work with students both through lectures and through actual lab experiments. The interns this week were lucky enough to be able to participate in one of these informative experiments.
Specifically, this experiment focused on the Institute’s work with the critically endangered California condor. The Institute and San Diego Zoo Global played a huge part in bringing these beautiful birds back from the brink of extinction. The California condor, the largest bird in North America, had only a population of 22 worldwide in 1982. Thanks to the San Diego Zoo, and partnering conservation organizations, more than 450 are alive today! They took steps in rescuing and captive breeding, which then led to releasing them back into the wild. However, being that both male and female condors look virtually identical, researchers had to turn to the lab for answers. This was done by examining the chromosomal makeup of each individual bird, and we were given the opportunity to replicate this process. We were each given a tube of condor DNA and we got to test whether our sample is from a male condor or female condor. Mine was from a girl!
In addition to the extensive breeding programs in place, the Institute is working tirelessly to ensure their survival in the wild. Through research and observation, scientists discovered the main reasons the condor’s decline included habitat change, poaching, microtrash, and lead poisoning. Unfortunately, 80% of the first generation of California condors released back into the wild have died due to ingestion of microtrash. Additionally, when hunters use lead shot it can lead to lead poisoning in condors. Being that condors are scavengers, when they consume game animals shot with lead bullets, it often results in death.
What can we do about these issues? By picking up our trash and the trash of others, we can decrease the risk of death to wild condors and their offspring. There are many regulations that prevent hunters from using lead bullets and educational programs that teach why lead bullets are bad for the environment. The goal of everyone should be to leave this world a better place. By picking up a piece of trash or observing regulations, we can save a life; or even save a species.
Bailey McCormick, Conservation Team
Week Two, Winter Session 2016
Where do we fit into the tree of life? What is our niche on Earth? Are we the organisms who lead to the mass destruction of the environment and its inhabitants, or are we the organisms that move the Earth forward? In the twenty-first century, we are succeeding at both. We have expanded so much on technology, medicine, science, and art, but is our progress negatively affecting other species? Unfortunately, the answer to this question is yes. Other organisms are becoming endangered or extinct due to human actions and inactions. The worst part about this situation is that these extinctions and endangerments are completely avoidable if only we would start paying attention and taking action to protect other species. After all, aren’t we the ones who endangered them in the first place?
This week for InternQuest, we visited Maggie Reinbold at the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research located near the Safari Park. Mrs. Reinbold is the founder and Director of Conservation Education at the Institute. Mrs. Reinbold started the Department of Conservation Education to educate younger generations of the importance of our environment and how it is our job to protect it. Mrs. Reinbold’s department works with students from middle school all the way up to college. The department’s hope is that by educating newer generations, they will ensure a brighter and more sustainable future. Mrs. Reinbold works with students who come to the institute, so she is able to provide students a more extensive talk on ecology, biology, genetics and sustainable practices. In the conservation of education lab, employees work with students both through lectures and through actual lab experiments. The interns this week were lucky enough to be able to participate in one of these informative experiments.
Specifically, this experiment focused on the Institute’s work with the critically endangered California condor. The Institute and San Diego Zoo Global played a huge part in bringing these beautiful birds back from the brink of extinction. The California condor, the largest bird in North America, had only a population of 22 worldwide in 1982. Thanks to the San Diego Zoo, and partnering conservation organizations, more than 450 are alive today! They took steps in rescuing and captive breeding, which then led to releasing them back into the wild. However, being that both male and female condors look virtually identical, researchers had to turn to the lab for answers. This was done by examining the chromosomal makeup of each individual bird, and we were given the opportunity to replicate this process. We were each given a tube of condor DNA and we got to test whether our sample is from a male condor or female condor. Mine was from a girl!
In addition to the extensive breeding programs in place, the Institute is working tirelessly to ensure their survival in the wild. Through research and observation, scientists discovered the main reasons the condor’s decline included habitat change, poaching, microtrash, and lead poisoning. Unfortunately, 80% of the first generation of California condors released back into the wild have died due to ingestion of microtrash. Additionally, when hunters use lead shot it can lead to lead poisoning in condors. Being that condors are scavengers, when they consume game animals shot with lead bullets, it often results in death.
What can we do about these issues? By picking up our trash and the trash of others, we can decrease the risk of death to wild condors and their offspring. There are many regulations that prevent hunters from using lead bullets and educational programs that teach why lead bullets are bad for the environment. The goal of everyone should be to leave this world a better place. By picking up a piece of trash or observing regulations, we can save a life; or even save a species.
Bailey McCormick, Conservation Team
Week Two, Winter Session 2016
