Zoo Logic

As the executive director of the Community Conservation Fund for Africa or CCFA, Taryn Gillson works to help build community development through funding generated by ecotourism. Their goal is to assist communities participating in and benefiting from conservation. CCFA is the foundation of the ecotourism leading experts at Mantis following their merger with hotel management giant, Accor. Even more interesting is Taryn's status as a cyber tracker evaluator, the first female in the world to earn such status from the conservation software organization. Cyber tracker's original goal was to preserve and celebrate the dying science and skill of animal tracking for use in research and conservation.

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Marine biologist Dr. Holley Muraco returns to Zoo Logic to discuss her recent work rehabilitating orphaned beavers. This iconic and unique species was integral to the early history and commerce of western Europeans in North America and narrowly managed to avoid extinction. Holley also discusses her work monitoring the health of coastal Mississippi, largely via its resident dolphin population, through her new role with MS State University. Holley also discusses her experiences with and the passing of the beloved orca known as Lolita.

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It's part 2 of our conversation with Dolphin Quest co-founder, Dr. Jay Sweeney beginning with efforts to increase awareness and basic research of at-risk small cetaceans around the globe. Jay discusses some of the other research DQ has supported over its history including some pioneering work studying the off-shore bottlenose dolphins of Bermuda and their amazing adaptations to their deep sea habitat compared to their more familiar in-shore, smaller, coastal cousins. Jay also describes the bold initiative launched 20 years ago called "project newborn" whose purpose was to safely collect neonatal physiological data on fragile baby dolphins to improve their survivability. Jay concludes with some helpful advice for new veterinarians entering the field.

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Founded nearly a quarter of a century ago, Mantis is a boutique hotel group with a focus on conservation and sustainable eco-tourism. Mantis founder, Adrian Gardiner, born in Zambia, took his childhood interest in wildlife and began a life-long journey towards restoring and rewinding thousands of acres of degraded farmland in South Africa. Among the many boutique hotels Mantis has developed around the world since, Adrian and the Mantis team were instrumental in the early plans to restore and re-wild Akagera National park in Rwanda. Mantis' foundation, Community Conservation Fund Africa (CCFA) is "a grant-giving and fundraising instrument to support company efforts in addressing social and environmental imbalances, and the growing conservation crisis, not only in Africa, but in the world."

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Most zoological professionals would rather spend each day focusing on providing great welfare for their animals than keeping tabs on restrictive bills moving through Congress or the state legislature. Unfortunately, today's environment necessitates that everyone proactively engage in the legislative and lobbying process in order to prevent anti-zoo groups and their false narratives from convincing lawmakers to enact unnecessary laws that curtail the important work of zoos and aquariums. Zoological Association of America (ZAA) government affairs consultant, attorney Tom Albert discusses recent laws and bills that should concern us all.

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Our ability to rescue, treat, and hopefully, return stranded marine mammals to sea has greatly improved over the past few decades with advancements in husbandry, medicine, and veterinary care. However, our ability to also behaviorally treat animals, especially juveniles during critical learning periods, to better prepare them physically and mentally for the wild has understandably lagged behind over concerns about animals becoming habituated to human activities and objects. Recently, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center led a pilot study, to explore the benefits of providing rescue animals access to environmental enrichment devices with support provided by KONG company founder, Joe Markham and his team, to determine if such use would increase desirable behaviors while reducing the development of unwanted behaviors such as looking for rescue staff. Several of the coauthors of the resulting paper, Environmental Enrichment Devices Are Safe and Effective at Reducing Undesirable Behaviors in California Sea Lions and Northern Elephant Seals during Rehabilitation, published in the journal Animals discuss the project, including Dr. Hendrik Nollens, Dr. Alissa Deming, lead author Kirsten Donald, and AnimalConcepts' Sabrina Brando.

KORE Zoo & Enrichment

As the son of one of the first female marine biologists in the world and certainly at Southern California's Scripp's Institute of Oceanography, Dr. Jay Sweeney grew up surrounded by aquatic life, surfing, and scientific discovery. Long before he co-founded Dolphin Quest and helped launch the public animal interactive experience with Dr. Rae Stone we know today, Jay worked with SeaWorld and the US Navy's marine mammal program as a young veterinarian devising diagnostic tools, particularly in the area of cytology, to study, monitor, and maintain animal health. But it was at Marineland of the Pacific where Jay recalls a welcoming philosophy that brought biologists, veterinarians, and behaviorists together in the early days of marine mammal display and care to share ideas and best practices-- a philosophy he and his colleagues continue to this day at their exotic locations in Hawaii and Bermuda. Jay speaks fondly of the important animal health role that trainers and keepers play in caring for exotic animals. In his spare time, Jay has developed his interest and skills in art through woodworking sculptures of small cetaceans, which he donates to various conservation organizations to support students.

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Going on an African safari is a dream for many but what should travelers know about their destination before booking with a tour operator? We spoke to the team from Rickshaw Travels Rwanda about the growth of sustainable ecotourism in the small mountainous country as well as other popular East African locations. While there are many similarities among range countries, each differs not only by the number and type of species and ecosystems, but also in their respective travel infrastructure, capacity, and cost of accommodations.

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Dr. Susan G. Friedman, professor emeritus from the Department of Psychology at Utah State University is well known among the zoological community for her expertise in behavior change and learning. She consults for a variety of animal organizations and facilities, is a frequent speaker at professional meetings, and her written work has been translated into well over a dozen languages. According to her website, BehaviorWorks.org, the behavior of individuals is always the study of one. She discusses the importance of providing choice to animals and how we can infer what animals are thinking or feeling by their observable behavior and the context in which it occurs.

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Many people, perhaps most including some scientists, think Monarch Butterflies are in trouble. It turns out, according to Monarch expert and researcher, Andy Davis, PhD from the UGA Odum School of Ecology that Monarch populations over the past decade are stable and may even be climbing. So what began as a Zoo Logic conversation about threats to Monarchs quickly turned into a discussion about the importance of science communications and the difficulty of correcting the public narrative when it is factually wrong. The implications of strongly held, false narratives among the public, media or policymakers are significant and include expensive, misguided and even harmful public policies, what types of research questions are funded or not, and whether data running contrary to the prevailing opinion even gets published in peer-reviewed journals. The parallels to the strongly held narratives about zoos and aquariums and certain charismatic species in human care are unmistakable.

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