Zoo Logic

Longtime trainer and conservationist Julie Scardina reflects on her time filming Mountain Gorillas with Jack Hanna in Rwanda a mere decade after the 1994 genocide. Julie has since trekked to view these great apes many times across their range in nearby Uganda. Since her retirement as ambassador for SeaWorld & Busch Gardens where she helped manage their Conservation Fund, Julie leads Mission Wildlife, raising awareness and funds to support important conservation projects in Africa and elsewhere.

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In a zoological podcast first, the hosts of 4 animal training and welfare related shows, including Zoo Logic, join together to discuss how their respective programs came about, future goals, as well as, content similarities and differences. Guests include Ryan Cartlidge of The Animal Training Academy podcast, Shane Corbett of the recently launched Animal Behavior Conversations podcast from the Animal Behavior Management Alliance (ABMA), and Ari Bailey and Chris Jenkins from The Natural Encounters, Inc., Training and Education Center (TEC) Talk podcast.

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On a recent extended visit to a zoo, one topic that arose among some of the keeper staff concerned the individual animal well-being pros and cons of hand-rearing predator species versus managing them as parent-raised animals. Historically, many zoos have preferred to let young predatory species, especially elusive felines, be reared entirely by the parent, with minimal contact with human caregivers. As part of long term conservation goals that included the possibility of reintroducing zoo born animals to their original ranges, this husbandry management practice made sense in order to avoid habituation to human beings and activities during critical learning periods. However, even in wealthier nations with ample resources and oversight, the reintroduction, or merely the preservation of existing predator populations like wolves, in the wild has been plagued with setbacks, modest results, and public resistance.

As society sorts out global land-use policies and struggles to find better ways to reduce human-animal conflicts, should our zoological animal management strategies be adapted, at least for the foreseeable future, to reflect this reality? In our noble quest to achieve a conservation dream of future species reintroductions, are we sacrificing individual animal welfare today by not doing everything we can to prepare these newborns for a more likely lifetime in managed human care? Our guest, long time zoo curator Suzi Rapp believes the answer to questions like these requires us to gather more scientific data in order balance the conservation needs of the species with the welfare needs of the individual.

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After more than seven years of planning, construction, collection planning, staffing and transports, an international team has opened the massive all-new indoor SeaWorld Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. General Curator, Rob Yordi, has been a major part of the process from the earliest days of specialized teams drawing up next generation exhibit designs to launching operations a few weeks ago. Rob discusses the 8 realm facility that features several "dynamic," multi-species habitats, and how this facility relied on and enhanced decades of SeaWorld animal care, exhibitry, research, and life support expertise to bring species never before seen in that part of the world.

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War, genocide, human population growth, food insecurity, poaching, limited range, climate change and land use policies are just some of the reasons why mountain gorillas have been on the brink of extinction for decades. A reality made more stark given the subspecies was only "discovered" by the West as recently as 1902. Today, the Mountain Gorilla, made part of the public consciousness by the embedded research and advocacy efforts of the late Dr. Dian Fossey, and later by modern zoos and zoo media personalities like Jack Hanna, has rebounded somewhat in the beautiful central African country of Rwanda. While these conservation gains are far from guaranteed, concentrated research, public education, greater security, and well-managed ecotourism efforts have preserved mountain gorillas for now. Join Zoo Logic from the field for a real time glimpse at what trekking to see this charismatic species entails for them and for humans in a small country still coping with the legacy of genocide.

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Kigali Genocide Memorial

Recently, a group of scientists and animal facilities announced a cooperative program called the Marine Mammal Research Network to match researchers and students with institutions interested in conducting investigations for the conservation and welfare benefit of wild populations and those living in human care. Dr Jason Bruck returns to discuss the group's formation and goals, as well as, how interested students, facilities, and/or researchers can get involved.

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Recently, labor journalist Asher Elbein published a story in Undark Magazine describing a legal settlement in favor of a primate researcher claiming sexual assault and retaliation against an accredited zoo director and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. What is the remedy when an organization created to assist facility and individual members, and at the same time hold them accountable to higher standards of animal care and professional conduct, fails to act or worse, treats some within its ranks better than others?

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Known for its snarky videos and scathing websites directed at exposing animal rights groups, Berman and Co may have new leadership, but its purpose remains: speaking truth to power and revealing the hypocrisy of those bent on eliminating zoos, aquariums and animals in human care. The organization's new executive director, Jack Hubbard, discusses their new website EnvironmentandWelfare.com, which includes easy to access "activist" profiles, issue briefs, and videos to assist consumers and animal attractions push back on the false narratives promoted by well-funded activist groups.

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A few chapters in to A Future in Flames, by returning guest Dr. Danielle Clode, one realizes that Australia has a unique relationship with wildfire unlike any other large land mass. On the one hand, wildfire has helped shaped the continent and the plant and animal life we know today. At the same time, this isolated continent's natural and anthropogenic-driven evolution, especially over the last 100,000 years has affected the nature of wildfire itself. As other regions around the globe experience climate and habitat changes in the coming century that favor larger, more destructive events, what lessons can wildfire prone countries learn from the Australian example to preserve life, ecosystems, and property?

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Three leaders behind some of today's top animal record-keeping software management systems discuss their joint effort to establish data portability as the new standard for zoos, aquariums and related organizations. On the surface, David Kleven, Mark Simmons and Tony Niemann are competitors in the electronic animal record-keeping arena. Behind the scenes, however, these three recognize the greater purpose for their collaboration when it comes to seamlessly sharing critical animal data profiles to foster better individual and species level understanding and care.

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Animal Data Sharing