Zoo Logic

Animal trainer Stephanie Mantilla has a new book How to Clicker Train Your Cat, which draws upon her many years working with exotic animals including cheetahs, hoofed animals, primates, and even elephant shrews! While COVID and raising a toddler may have put her client work on hold temporarily, Stephanie continues to encourage cat owners to refrain from labeling their pets as stubborn in favor of recognizing and appreciating the behavioral and natural history differences between cats and dogs. While dogs tend to be more social, most cat species are solitary which has a dramatic impact on their behavior and interest in play and learning.

That Sounds Wild: Cheetah purr

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ZOOmility

Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo director, Jonathan Miot describes the 50-year-old program designed to train the next generation of zookeeping professionals. While college level zookeeping programs have grown in number over the past few decades, few academic institutions can lay claim to operating their own accredited zoo. What qualities and skill sets produce a successful zookeeper? How can professional degree programs contribute to a more diverse workforce across the zoo and aquarium industry? Why should unpaid internships be a thing of the past? And, as the longstanding chasm between keepers and zoo administrators seems to be widening, what advice does professor Miot have for his fellow zoo directors to reduce attrition and the loss of senior keeper level expertise and leadership.

That Sounds Wild: Lion

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Back by listener request, long time behaviorists and marine mammal experts, Ted Turner and Chuck Tompkins return to discuss the finer points of reinforcement schedules, tips for those hoping to change the training culture at their facility, and the politics and prospects for the recently stranded orca calf in New Zealand.

LRS Episode

That Sounds Wild: tiger play. Conservation Ambassadors

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ZOOmility

Despite being an ancient species, we still have much to learn about sea turtles, in part, because they spend most of their long lives at sea. We usually only hear about them or get a glimpse when the females come onshore a few weeks each spring and early summer to lay eggs or when groups of turtles are trapped in northern waters at the onset of winter in a cold stunning event. Dr. Joe Pfaller, research director for the Caretta Research Project discusses his field research with loggerheads at the Wassaw National Wildlife Refuge off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, the sea turtle conservation role of volunteers and students, and ongoing threats to sea turtle survival.

That Sounds Wild: Clouded Leopard.

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Spring and summer represent the peak season when newly weaned seals and sea lion pups strand along the California coastline. Celebrating its 50th year, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center has rescued, rehabilitated, and returned approximately 10,000 animals since its humble start by a concerned lifeguard prior to the creation of the landmark conservation legislation known as the Marine Mammal Protection Act. While many marine mammal populations have recovered in recent decades, threats to their survival from starvation, pollution, climate change, entanglement, and disease have only increased in number and severity. In addition to treating animals, the center focuses on public education and original research to help alleviate these emerging threats.

That Sounds Wild: Stellar Sea Lion

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As Director of Communications for one of the largest zoos and aquariums in the western US, Kristy Morcom relies on her animal care and training experiences like barrel racing horses, being a mother to young kids, and her nurturing personality to share wild animal and conservation stories through print, radio, television and increasingly, social media. Given the scrutiny and criticism zoos often face today by a small but vocal minority, Kristy advocates for building relationships with the community and local media by getting information out through multiple platforms quickly and completely when the news is good and not so good.

That Sounds Wild: Grizzly Bear. Bearizona

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Amy Van Dyken-Rouen holds the record for being the first American woman to win 4 gold medals in the same Olympic Games. As a child suffering from severe asthma, Amy took up swimming to improve her lung capacity and breathing, which enabled her to become part of a team and do the the kind of things kids like to do. By high school, Amy narrowly missed out on qualifying for the 1992 games. She spent her college years training and qualifying for the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games, winning a total of 6 gold medals in free-style and butterfly. She is one of few athletes in history to have won only gold medals! We caught up with Amy while covering the US Olympic swim trials for the Tokyo Games in Omaha to see which athletes stand out to her, as well as, to understand the commitment required to be the best in the world.

That Sounds Wild: Bottlenose Dolphin

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Kong Zoo

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Built along America's Space Coast, the Brevard zoo has an entrepreneurial history with a focus on local conservation. Located so close to the world's busiest space center, which is also home to some of the few remaining acres of near pristine Florida habitat and biodiversity, Brevard zoo is planning on building the only aquarium along the I-95 corridor. Zoo director, Keith Winsten, hopes to tap into the region's advanced technology expertise to help with next generation solar power and battery storage--important considerations for a future aquatic facility subject to hurricanes and dependent on stable energy supplies to run life support systems.

That Sounds Wild: Addax

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As we age, our DNA begins to show signs of degradation. Physiological mechanisms to protect and preserve DNA from the effects of internal or external factors such as environmental pollutants grow less effective. By studying age-related changes to DNA at specific sites conserved within and across species, scientists have developed epigenetic clocks which are strongly correlated with chronological age in humans and several mammalian species. Validated epigenetic clocks from known age animals, such as those living at zoos and aquariums, allow scientists to more accurately determine the age distribution of wild populations from blood or skin samples collected in the field during health assessments or stranding events. Dr. Todd Robeck describes recent collaborative work across several species of odontocetes or toothed whales that promises to give researchers and government agencies a powerful wildlife conservation tool.

Paper: "Multi-species and multi-tissue methylation clocks for age estimation in toothed whales and dolphins"

That Sounds Wild: Gila Woodpecker

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KONG Zoo

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The past year has not been kind to manatees along the Florida coastline. While years of public educational programs and law enforcement seem to have stemmed the tide of animals killed by boat propeller strikes, a new and greater threat has emerged resulting in record manatee deaths. As a result of poor coastal water quality and clarity, the sea grasses that these gentle, slow moving herbivores rely on for survival are vanishing. Nowhere is the situation more dire than the complex and fragile estuary ecosystem known as the Indian River Lagoon along Florida's Atlantic coast. Dr. Duane De Freese, Executive Director of the Indian River lagoon Council and IRL National Estuary Program, describes decades of human caused damage to the IRL which in turn threatens countless species of plants and animals.

That Sounds Wild: Western Diamondback

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