Tilikum - Man He Looks Great!

I work at Utah's Hogle Zoo - an incredible zoo accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.  I love it.  Some days like today I wake up completely overwhelmed with how lucky I am.  I'm part of the Visual Arts and Visitor Experience Department.  There is an entire department in our zoo devoted to your experience as a guest.  Just think about that for a second.  As an Eco-Explorer, my job is to teach you about animals and inspire you to care about them.  My ultimate goal is to show you what you can do to help save these animals.  It doesn't matter where you are in the park:  I've got some info for you.  I'll tell you all about who's who and what we are doing to save them here at the zoo and with organizations in the wild.

Love Elephants & Rhinos?  Check out the International Elephant and Rhino Foundations.  Learn about poaching and how it is the number one threat to these magnificent animals. Make donations and be a conscious consumer so that these animals are never harmed by your purchases.  How about the cats of the Asian Highlands like the Amur Leopard and Tiger or the Snow Leopard?  We work with the Amur Leopard and Tiger Alliance and the Snow Leopard Trust to protect these endangered animals.  We have some of the best breeding programs for these species and are an active contributor to their Species Survival Plans.  What about Polar Bears?  Rizzo is a favorite here and we are trained by Polar Bears International to teach you about the plight of vanishing polar ice and the simple things you can do to help save the ice and the polar bears that call it home.  We make donations to the Marine Mammal Care Center  and the Marine Mammal Center in California - the two organizations that rescued and rehabilitated our California Sea Lions Rocky & Maverick after being injured in the wild.  We also work with the Niassa Lion Project - a great group promoting coexistence in Africa with the kings of the Savannah.

But my love for my job doesn't end simply with what I do and what I get to teach.  It extends to the people I work with.  I love them.  My fellow Eco-Explorers amaze me with their enthusiasm for conservation and their love for people.  They are like a second family to me.  Sometimes I get to listen to them teach and am amazed with their teaching ability and can't wait to use some of their techniques the next time I get to teach you.  My boss is an incredible woman with a passion for interpretation and conservation who has been paving the way for climate change interpretation around the country.

I also get to work with the keepers at the zoo.  They gave my study group at veterinary school some amazing experiences when we came during spring break. One of them is trying to help me land an internship with a veterinarian at a marine mark and has taught us some basics in training our seals.  Another of them is also a veterinary technician who gave me a bunch of books before starting veterinary school.  I worked with another one as a lifeguard when we were younger and we still joke about using the others towels - even if it does confuse the rest of the keepers.  Another keeper has worked to help another Eco get internships at other facilities.  And yet another keeper has given me experiences with our animals that I will never forget. I didn't get to mention all of them here, but all of them truly have inspired me.  Their backgrounds are varied and impressive.  Their knowledge and care for conservation is vast and inspiring.  I'm a better person every day I get to work with them.

Sometimes I also get to work with the veterinarians and veterinary technicians at the zoo.  They are an incredible team that has been so encouraging in my pursuit of veterinary education and my pursuit of working in zoos and aquaria.  I light up every time I hear the hospital calling on the radio and every time I see them in the park.  They are the veterinarians I most want to be like.

I hope this give you a taste of what is like to work at a zoo.  It's all about the animals - that's what has brought us all here and why we all work tirelessly for their conservation, care, and protection.  But it is also about the people.  Zoos have some of the best people in the world - people that are qualified and capable of doing anything they want to but that choose to work here because they want to make a difference.

So go to the zoo.  There are people there ready to make your day.  There are people there to show you how to make a difference.  There are people there making a difference for this world like no where else. But you won't find people anywhere else that care more for animals and conservation than those who staff zoos and aquaria. So find your nearest accredited zoo or aquarium and go today.  I promise you'll love it.

ZEW stands for Zoo, Exotics, & Wildlife - it's one of the clubs I'm a part of here at vet school.  If you know me at all, you'll know it's basically everything I could ever want in a club and I absolutely love it.  I've had some incredible opportunities to work with knowledgeable veterinarians who are willing to take time to teach us some pretty cool stuff.

So what is an exotics club like at a veterinary school?  Let me tell you.

A couple weeks ago, I got to attend ZEW's deantlering wetlab.  A&M has a Wildlife Center that allows us to get a chance at learning the management and medicine of non-domestic species.  It's pretty neat.  There is a herd of white-tail deer does and a few males separated from them for population control.  Every year as the bucks finish growing their antlers and shedding their velvet, the ZEW students get to help with deanterling.  Male deer use their antlers to fight each other and normally in the wild they can run away if those fights get intense.  That's not so much an option here at the wildlife center, so we remove their antlers every year to keep them from hurting each other.

We started out bringing one of the bucks named Buck (creative I know) into the restraint center which has these amazing catwalks to give you access above the stalls.  Dr. Blue darted him to get him his anesthesia and soon the procedure was underway.

Buck Before the Deantlering

In Physiology, we had just been learning about the muscarinic acetocholine receptors of the parasympathetic nervous system (the rest and digest one as opposed to the fight or flight one).  As Buck went deeper into anesthesia, his heart rate was slowing down (which is typical) so to keep his heart rate up where it needs to be we gave him some atropine - a muscarinic receptor blocker.  It was so cool to actually see the importance of what we had just learned a week before in class.  The parasympathetic system then couldn't further depress the heart rate and we were able to keep him stable and get the job done.  It was awesome.

And After.  He's still sleeping on the floor in this pic.

But the coolness doesn't end there.  I'm also a part of the Exotic Cat Team.  How cool does that sound? Taylor and I signed up to help take care of the two servals at the wildlife center.  SERVALS.  It's awesome. Their names are Morpheus and Camilla.

An African Serval Cat Who's Pretty Chill Like Morpheus

Morph tends to be pretty chill.  He mews a lot and likes to spray his enclosure basically all the time but he's definitely my favorite.  Camilla likes to remind us that Servals are not domestic kitties.  All the time. She likes to remind Morpheus of that too, but he just seems to ignore her.

Another Serval with a More Camilla-like Demeanor

Every morning and evening during the weeks we are on, Taylor and I meet up at the Wildlife Center to get them their food and to do some brief cleaning.  There are a series of doors we open and close to shift them around the enclosure so we can make sure they get their food separately (Cami will steal Morphs food if she gets the chance) and to make sure the whole enclosure is cleaned and that we are never in there with them. It totally reminds me of the back area of Asian Highlands at Utah's Hogle Zoo and gives me a little glimpse into how awesome being a cat keeper must be.

Yesterday was another of ZEW's awesome wetlabs.  After tending to Morpheus and Camilla at 7 a.m., I went straight over to school where I participated in some of the coolest labs and lectures.

From 8-10, I learned all about avian reproductive anatomy and how to perform a spay from Dr. Steve Fronefield from ABC - Animal & Bird Clinic.  Did you know that the Kiwi has the largest egg to body size ratio?  Well it does!  Check out this crazy image to give you a clue just what I mean.

Looks Uncomfortable to Me

Isn't that crazy?  They don't eat a few days before laying because they just can't!

After learning all about the anatomy, we got to go into the anatomy lab to practice our new surgery skills on some chickens after performing a brief necropsy.  It was really cool.  The yolk starts out on the ovary with the oocyte and then when the follicle ruptures, it travels down the uterine tube slowing forming the shell as it goes along (mostly around the shell gland right before the cloaca).

Crazy, Huh?

Then from 10-noon, I got to sit in on an awesome lecture on fish anesthesia.  I definitely had a leg up because of working at the Aquarium of the Pacific and in Dr. Johnson's Lab at BYU.

Mandarin Goby

Alison Wilkes, one of the PhD students at TAMU taught us all about it.  She also talked about a bunch of cool procedures that she is doing for her research.  She studies the role of iodine on thyroid tissue in fish by using high resolution PET/CT scans on fish injected with radioactive iodine to obtain 3D images of fish anatomy and iodine uptake.  It's pretty cool stuff.  Here's one of the pictures she took.



After a yummy lunch, I then got to attend a lecture on wildlife medicine and rehabilitation from Dr. Melissa Hill and John Karger from Last Chance Forever - a raptor rehabilitation facility located in San Antonio.  We learned all about donating our time and passion towards helping wildlife.  Whether it be a Barn Owl...


...or a Bobcat..


...or a Bald Eagle, they had something to teach us about that species' medical needs and rehabilitation.  It was incredible.


It really impressed upon me that no matter where I end up as a veterinarian that I will always have the opportunity and privilege to help with conservation efforts if I am willing to donate my time and resources to helping wildlife.  It also made falconry seem crazy awesome.

Then from 3-5 I was learning about sea turtles and their anatomy and conservation needs from the good doctors at the Texas Sea Life Center.  Do you know why the Green Sea Turtle is called the Green Sea Turtle?


It's actually because their fat is green.  The adults have a herbivorous diet that gives their adipose tissue a green color.  After learning all about chelonian anatomy, we got to go into the anatomy lab again to do necropsies on four young green sea turtles.  It was so cool.  Because of their shell, they don't need lots of muscles around their body wall.  So once you get inside it's basically really huge pecs and some glutes.  And that's about it for muscles.  Their lungs sit at the back of their carapaces and, like land turtles and tortoises, they breathe by moving.  As they do so, their muscles move around to expand the areas for the lung to fill.  It was really cool to see.

After that, we got to have a meet and greet with all the cool doctors (there were other classes going on besides the ones I took) and to do some networking.  Then it was back to taking care of Morph and Cami.

ZEW is awesome.  Vet school is one big adventure.  I love me some zoo medicine and I can't wait to play a bigger part in it!

I know I've been spectacularly awful at keeping this thing up to date.  Life happens sometimes.  And I also discovered it's significantly harder to write when I'm not being assigned to do it.  But I've been thinking about this post for a little bit and so I decided it's time to write it.


I love water.  I always have.  When I was born the doctors told my parents that those were football shoulders.  Yeah I tried that, but it was not for me.  Shoulders this big give you wings and that's exactly how I used them.  I tried all sorts of sports and I was decently good at some of them.  But what I really loved was swimming lessons.  When I found out that you could swim competitively, I was in heaven.  From that moment on it was hard to get me out of the pool.  And though I'm not on a team right now and only swim sporadically, it's hard to get the pool out of me.

The United State Olympic Swimming Trials were last week.  And they were on NBC.  Not NBC Sports.  NBC.  My favorite sport has been on regular TV a lot the last couple years.  We're getting more limelight than just at the Olympics.  I loved it.  People I had met were swimming in that meet and people I hadn't were too.  But no matter who they were, I was proud of them.  I cheered and screamed and laughed and cried and fist-pumped with all of them.  This is the pinnacle of our sport - the best swimmers in the world vying to make the best Olympic Team in the world.  It's incredible.


I'll be cheering my heart out come this July.  But while I am looking forward to the Olympics and I'm trying to get back into the sport via triathlons or masters swimming, my love of water goes even deeper.

My parents took me to SeaWorld when I was five.  Since then it has been one of my favorite places to go in this world.  I've been there just by myself taking in everything I could.

When I was twelve or so, my family went on a cruise in the Caribbean.  I swam with sting-rays and snorkeled with some of the most brightly colored fish I had ever seen.  My ability to hold my breath and swim underwater for long periods of time took me far beyond the boats making the captain and my parents nervous.  But there was so much to see and feel and experience.  It was beautiful under there.


My favorite Christmas present was a 45 gallon marine aquarium. I fell in love with it.  I got this big Marine Aquaria book and I must have read it like a hundred times.  I worked and loved that aquarium.  And it was pretty dang good.  As soon as I have the means to do it, I am resurrecting that tank.

When I got back from my mission, I was hired at BYU's Evolutionary Ecology Laboratory taking care of hundreds of freshwater fish.  I was given the opportunity to travel to Panama and Costa Rica and play in the beautiful streams of tropical rainforests bringing hundreds of small Poeciliids back to our lab.  I've worked on research projects and even have one of my own.


I took a Scuba Diving Class and reveled in the freedom from the surface it brought me.

I've volunteered at The Living Planet Aquarium and landed the most wonderful internship ever at Aquarium of the Pacific.  There my love of veterinary medicine met my love of the watery world we live in.

You may be thinking, who really cares?  What's so cool about water or the things that live in it anyway?  I'll tell you.


Water has a way of moving things.  Its power to carve canyons and tumble down cliffs is breathtaking.  But it is full of lessons as well.  When water moves it is full of life.  Raging rivers and roaring seas are some of the most abundant ecosystems on earth.  Life came from those waters.  But water also pools.  It fills and stagnates.  Oxygen depletes and life struggles to survive.

Our lives aren't much different.  At times we are tossed about in the rapids, fearing that one wrong move might send us overboard and land us in treacherous water we know we can't handle.  Other times our lives get comfortable.  We stagnate.  We stop growing.  Life chokes and almost dies.

I think that life is a delicate balance.  We need the cool tumbling waters full of life and choice and growth.  We seek those waters.  When we are in the rapids of our lives we pray we'll find the gentle flowing streams and scream thanksgiving when we reach them.  When we land in the eddies we long for a way out and do our best to paddle and struggle to our freedom and breathe a sigh of relief when again life flows along its way.

I love water.  And I don't think I'll ever stop loving it.  Swimming is still the only workout I absolutely love.  Whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions, sharks, fish, and penguins are still my favorite animals.  Aquatic veterinary medicine is a growing and exciting field that I can't wait to get into.

Water is beautiful.  It's full of life and meaning. And I think that is exactly why the Savior taught that He and His Gospel are the living waters that bring us that life and meaning.  It's such a perfect symbol.  And as far as symbols go, I really love this one.

You know, being a Pre-Veterinary Student, I get asked a lot of veterinary questions.  I'm even treated like I'm a vet already by some of my friends.  In the last month, I've answered questions about two cats Oats and Hazel and a young dog named Milo.  And though I don't have anywhere near the knowledge I would need to make a real diagnosis, it's still kind of fun having people ask me for my opinion.

This past week has had several triumphs in the making of the future vet me.

On Monday in the Preceptorship with Dr. Roeder I successfully removed a retained deciduous canine from a dog.  That's right - me.  I did it.  Deciduous or baby teeth sometimes don't fall out like they should and cause problems with the adult teeth when they come in.  Dr. Roeder took out the first one and then showed me how to do it and I did it!  Maybe dentists really do love what they do...

Example of a Retained Deciduous Canine

I also took my quiz to be a husbandry intern at The Living Planet Aquarium and although I don't know my score, it was pretty easy and I'm sure I'll be starting as a Husbandry Intern in not too long.  I also found out that the aquarium is going to be acquiring River Otters and got to look at their new enclosure and that was pretty exciting.  But even better, I got to meet the Veterinarian who takes care of all the animals at LPA and I might get to do an externship with her next semester!  It's gonna be awesome!

Aaaaaw.  The River Otters are Cute Too!

I finished my internship at Aquarium of the Pacific several weeks ago, but then I went to Panama and then Harry Potter was just so good I had to write about it.  So now's the time to start getting you caught up.

Southern Sea Otter

Soooo Cute!

Southern Stingray

One of the reasons I enjoyed this internship so much was watching Dr. Adams develop new procedures.  Zoo and Aquarium animal medicine is constantly being developed.  Southern Stingrays breed like rabbits, so most aquariums only keep all male or all female populations.  AOP keeps only females.  One of them came pregnant though and delivered a young male.  This poor guy faced only two options - euthanasia or getting his claspers chopped off.  Neither seems too appealing. 


So Dr. Adams wanted to develop a new procedure.  Up to this point, a vasectomy had never been performed on a shark or a ray, so Lance was on his own as to figuring it out.  He discovered that if he goes in through the back (going through the abdomen didn't work since the testes are at the back of the body cavity) he could cauterize the vas deferens.  So now there is a new procedure!

Arctic Fox Kits

And I got an email from Dr. Adams yesterday and you'll be pleased to know that Penguin 7 is now the heaviest of all the penguins, he has no visible respiratory problem and is slowly being weaned off his medication.  His bloodwork is still poor, so he will not be taken off his medicine completely until his bloodwork is normal.  But the little guy made it!  Birds with aspergillosis almost never make it!

Magellanic Penguin

Pacific Creole Fish

The Creole Fish Again!

Ballonfish

Happy

Mad

Striped Sea Bass & Some Really Happy Guy

Blue-Green Chromis

Sculpin

Blacksmith Chromis

Harpo

Harpo & Milo Going At It

Parker Loves People Too

Shiner Surfperch

Nurse Shark

Juvenile Zebra Shark

Adult Zebra Shark

Reticulate Whipray

Epaulette Shark

Bat Ray

Swell Shark

Bonnethead Shark

Whitetip Reef Shark

Blacktip Reef Shark

Sandbar Shark

Sand Tiger Shark - Scary Right?!

Freshwater Sawfish