Zoo Med

As a veterinarian, I’ve done work in several zoos and wildlife centers. Zoos are important institutions for education, research, and conservation. Thus, they focus both on the bigger ecological picture and on the individual animals in their collections. I’m most fascinated with the latter efforts; in the service of the greater ideas of public education, animal research, and conservation of entire species, zoos go to great lengths to preserve the health of, say, one monkey. 

As a wildlife ecologist, I find these endeavors interesting on their extreme end of the conservation spectrum; ecologists most often think in terms of population, ecological network, and habitat scales rather than at the level of the individual. Yet there’s also great value in taking sometimes heroic measures to cultivate the health and happiness of an animal. This recognizes the importance of these creatures for their own sakes, but also as the select representatives for their entire species.