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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!
This week for InternQuest, the interns were given the opportunity to talk with the Director of Behavioral Ecology, Dr. Matt Anderson, and a Behavioral Researcher, Ms. Jennifer Tobey. Behavioral Science is the study of animals and how their environment affects their behavior and their hormones. The bulk of behavioral research usually focuses to aid husbandry, increase breeding success, or bolster conservation efforts. Dr. Anderson and Ms. Tobey shared with the interns their current conservation projects, some of their past projects, and how they got where they are today.
With his charming accent and interest in elephants, Dr. Anderson described to us his current project. Dr. Anderson has always fostered an enthusiasm for animals and only discovered his passion for behavioral sciences while completing his undergraduate studies. He received his Ph.D. at Oxford University and has done his post-doctorates at Cambridge University and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Dr. Anderson has spent the last 10 years working with elephants at the San Diego Zoo, Safari Park and around the world. His current project involves researching the rumble calls of elephants and sending his findings to colleagues in the field, so they can use his work to better both human and elephant lives. There have been many situations, Dr. Anderson shares with the interns, in which elephants will trample crop fields, whether on purpose or on accident. This can be devastating to the farmers because, often times, this is their whole livelihood. Dr. Anderson’s research allows for scientists in the field to attract elephants to different areas so to avoid these farms. Being able to control the location of the elephants allows for field scientists to protect inhabited lands, prevent over population, and to promote breading within the elephant population. Mr. Anderson’s work involves finding and replicating a sound that would attract the herd. During estrus, the female elephants make a call known as a “rumble” that is meant to attract male elephants when it is time to reproduce. All rumbles sound practically the same to our ears, but can have different meanings depending on the lower frequencies that we cannot hear. Dr. Anderson studies these vocalizations by virtually recording the different rumbles and imaging them on his computer. By doing so, he can see what we can’t hear. Field biologists can then use these recording to attract elephants to different areas instead of scaring them.
After Dr. Anderson, interns met with Ms. Tobey who shared with us her job and her current research projects. Similar to Mr. Anderson, she, too, didn’t discover behavioral science until she was working on her undergraduate degree at Franklin and Marshall University in Pennsylvania. A normal day of work for Ms. Anderson includes office work, observing koalas, setting up projects, and working with researchers in the field. Ms. Tobey has worked for the Department of Behavioral Ecology for 18 years and has worked with koalas for the past 13 years. Ms. Tobey’s job focuses mostly on animal welfare and enrichment. She has to make sure the animals, both at the Safari Park and the Zoo, aren’t under constant stress or experiencing frequent stressful events. If an animal is stressed, they can become ill, which can lead to low rates of reproduction. If the animal is affected by sound, she takes action on her findings by making sure the habitats are sound proof or by making sure there aren’t any bands or performances near these animals. Another precaution that can be taken is to plant tall thick plants around enclosures to absorb the noise of park guests, buses, or anything else that makes noise. In addition to managing the wellbeing of the Zoo’s koala, Ms. Tobey’s most specialized project works with koalas and how they attract mating partners. Male koalas develop a gland on their sternum that secretes a mixture of over 45 different chemicals and creates … let’s just say and interesting scent that surprisingly attracts females. Ms. Tobey collected samples from different koalas and found there were nine chemicals that were highly concentrated. These nine chemicals were then placed on trees during Ms. Tobey’s current research project. Field scientists then tracked the koalas to see which chemical attracted the most.
The work of both Dr. Anderson and Ms. Tobey affects the lives of the animals at the Zoo and animals around the world. They work mostly in the lab, but collaborate with field scientists to put their research into action. Their work is the core for any field operation, and I am very grateful they were able to spend some of their valuable time talking to us and teaching us the importance of lab research.
Bailey McCormick, Career Team
Week Three, Winter Session 2016
This week for InternQuest, the interns were given the opportunity to talk with the Director of Behavioral Ecology, Dr. Matt Anderson, and a Behavioral Researcher, Ms. Jennifer Tobey. Behavioral Science is the study of animals and how their environment affects their behavior and their hormones. The bulk of behavioral research usually focuses to aid husbandry, increase breeding success, or bolster conservation efforts. Dr. Anderson and Ms. Tobey shared with the interns their current conservation projects, some of their past projects, and how they got where they are today.
With his charming accent and interest in elephants, Dr. Anderson described to us his current project. Dr. Anderson has always fostered an enthusiasm for animals and only discovered his passion for behavioral sciences while completing his undergraduate studies. He received his Ph.D. at Oxford University and has done his post-doctorates at Cambridge University and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Dr. Anderson has spent the last 10 years working with elephants at the San Diego Zoo, Safari Park and around the world. His current project involves researching the rumble calls of elephants and sending his findings to colleagues in the field, so they can use his work to better both human and elephant lives. There have been many situations, Dr. Anderson shares with the interns, in which elephants will trample crop fields, whether on purpose or on accident. This can be devastating to the farmers because, often times, this is their whole livelihood. Dr. Anderson’s research allows for scientists in the field to attract elephants to different areas so to avoid these farms. Being able to control the location of the elephants allows for field scientists to protect inhabited lands, prevent over population, and to promote breading within the elephant population. Mr. Anderson’s work involves finding and replicating a sound that would attract the herd. During estrus, the female elephants make a call known as a “rumble” that is meant to attract male elephants when it is time to reproduce. All rumbles sound practically the same to our ears, but can have different meanings depending on the lower frequencies that we cannot hear. Dr. Anderson studies these vocalizations by virtually recording the different rumbles and imaging them on his computer. By doing so, he can see what we can’t hear. Field biologists can then use these recording to attract elephants to different areas instead of scaring them.
After Dr. Anderson, interns met with Ms. Tobey who shared with us her job and her current research projects. Similar to Mr. Anderson, she, too, didn’t discover behavioral science until she was working on her undergraduate degree at Franklin and Marshall University in Pennsylvania. A normal day of work for Ms. Anderson includes office work, observing koalas, setting up projects, and working with researchers in the field. Ms. Tobey has worked for the Department of Behavioral Ecology for 18 years and has worked with koalas for the past 13 years. Ms. Tobey’s job focuses mostly on animal welfare and enrichment. She has to make sure the animals, both at the Safari Park and the Zoo, aren’t under constant stress or experiencing frequent stressful events. If an animal is stressed, they can become ill, which can lead to low rates of reproduction. If the animal is affected by sound, she takes action on her findings by making sure the habitats are sound proof or by making sure there aren’t any bands or performances near these animals. Another precaution that can be taken is to plant tall thick plants around enclosures to absorb the noise of park guests, buses, or anything else that makes noise. In addition to managing the wellbeing of the Zoo’s koala, Ms. Tobey’s most specialized project works with koalas and how they attract mating partners. Male koalas develop a gland on their sternum that secretes a mixture of over 45 different chemicals and creates … let’s just say and interesting scent that surprisingly attracts females. Ms. Tobey collected samples from different koalas and found there were nine chemicals that were highly concentrated. These nine chemicals were then placed on trees during Ms. Tobey’s current research project. Field scientists then tracked the koalas to see which chemical attracted the most.
The work of both Dr. Anderson and Ms. Tobey affects the lives of the animals at the Zoo and animals around the world. They work mostly in the lab, but collaborate with field scientists to put their research into action. Their work is the core for any field operation, and I am very grateful they were able to spend some of their valuable time talking to us and teaching us the importance of lab research.
Bailey McCormick, Career Team
Week Three, Winter Session 2016
