Zoo Logic

A few weeks ago, Colossal Laboratories and Biosciences grabbed the world's attention when it announced the de-extinction of the Dire Wolf which last roamed the earth more than 12 thousand years ago, with the successful birth of three animals. Matt James, a long time zoo professional now serving as the company's Chief Animal Officer, discusses the science and technology behind the momentous announcement and the methodology's potenti...

According to its founder, Rebecca Rosenberg who was born with low vision, the name ReBokeh is derived from a photography term "Bokeh," a technique in which all light sources are out of focus and blurred. Re-Bokeh then represents her organization's efforts to re-clarifying of what is out of focus. When this eventual bioengineer was 17 and looking forward to college, she looked at the technology options for the vast majority of visua...

We begin season 8 of Zoo Logic with a frank conversation with Dr. Jason Bruck and Billy Hurley about the proper role of accreditation organizations, as well as, their limitations.  When an accredited institution stumbles or allegations of poor animal well-being are made, what is the responsibility of accrediting bodies to investigate, act, and inform its members and the public as to its findings and remedies? Where is the dividing ...

First time author Christine Mott has a forthcoming children's book entitled, Free Bird: Flaco the Owl's Dreams Take Flight by Lantern Publishing. The story for kids ages 4 to 8 is based on upon actual events surrounding the Eurasian Eagle Owl that escaped from the Central Park Zoo. The story enthralled people from around the globe as Flaco was recorded across Central Park for over a year before his untimely death. As an attorney Ch...

While most North American zoological parks are still weeks away from the start of their summer high season, a few desert southwest facilities are already deep into their peak season. Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium and Safari Park president Kristy Hayden returns to discuss the latest additions to their collection including a baby giraffe and an all new tiger habitat. As important as these megafauna are, Kristy insists it is important ...

Kristi Gravrock is a long time animal trainer having worked with dogs, horses, orcas, cats, dolphins and more. Her passion for training goes back to her early childhood pets before her first horse. Today, when she isn't competing in dressage, she uses her decades of experience with zoological species to train service dogs and mini horses.  While there are many similarities to training dolphins for swim programs and dogs or minis fo...

It's our second installment talking with the management team at New England Aquarium following our recent three-day onsite visit with the pinniped and penguin department. With so much institutional and operant conditioning change affecting not only the animals' overall management through greater training and enrichment, but the employees' work experiences and responsibilities, how are the aquarium's leaders helping their teams adju...

We are on location at the New England Aquarium talking with long time animal trainer and curator of pinnipeds and penguins, Kristen McMahon. Under her guidance, this unique department has successfully blended animal care providers from different taxa into one productive training team which has improved the social well-being of all the animals. Kristen discusses the aquarium's focus not only on improving animal welfare and training ...

Since he was a young boy, KONG company founder, Joe Markham has been fascinated with animals of every kind. He credits his German Shepherd, Fritz with providing him long ago the inspiration for the famous beehive shaped pet toy. His latest venture petKORE.com is a labor of love to produce training and enrichment devices suitable for underserved zoo, aquarium, equine and farm species. Joining in the conversation about the challenges...

The new U.S. administration has put forth a slew of federal employee firings, funding freezes and cancellations, and agency reprioritizations since assuming office barely 1 month ago. One of the most notable moves has been the dismantling of USAID and a funding pause or in some instances, the elimination of the agency's projects to feed, educate, and/ or medically treat vulnerable communities around the globe. However, it's not jus...

The zoological community lost an important colleague recently with the passing of Jeff Andrews. First a long-time orca trainer and curator for SeaWorld, Jeff eventually took his talents to the terrestrial side to manage elephants.  Not satisfied with the status quo of elephant management at that time, which was largely based on establishing a dominance hierarchy through punishment with the trainer as the leader, Jeff adapted the sk...

With a new administration and one party control of both houses in Congress,  the impact on animal-related legislation, facility oversight, and code enforcement is likely to change from the previous administration. Tom Albert, government affairs consultant for the Zoological Association of America discusses the differing historical perspectives of the two major political parties on the role of zoos as well as steps professionals can...

The animal and behavior training world lost a true revolutionary recently with the passing of Karen Pryor. Prolific writer, scientist, trainer, lecturer, and business woman with an entertainer's spirit, she changed the exotic and domestic animal training world forever with her ever popular book, Don't Shoot the Dog. She followed up her writing successes with the launch of Clicker Training and legions of trainers, students and fans,...

Julia Wilder, Executive Director of ZDR3 (Zoological Disaster Response, Rescue, and Recovery) returns to discuss the unfolding fires in Los Angeles. While her team is not presently deployed on scene, they are coordinating help through local MOU members as was one of the original goals of the now 200 facility member strong group across nearly 40 states. Julia describes how the risks and response to wild land fires are different in n...

Director of Research for the Dolphin Research Center, Dr. Kelly Jaakkola returns to discuss her upcoming free webinar summarizing recent dolphin cognition studies hosted by the Dolphin Communication Project and her just published invited rebuttal to a paper in the journal Science about marmosets supposed use of individual names. Few species have been shown to use names much like we humans do as labels to identify specific individua...

On the heels of 2023's Secrets of the Octopus, award-winning and best-selling author, Sy Montgomery returns to discuss her latest title, What the Chicken Knows from Atria Books. As with all of her books about animals and Nature, Sy does her research.  In this case much of her source material came from decades of raising, observing, and learning from chickens... and those that love and study them. As a prolific and successful write...

Jenna Palmisano is a doctoral student at the University of Central Florida tracking a parasitic tongue worm infecting nearly 2 dozen native species of snake, including the pygmy rattlesnake, and other ectotherms in central and southern Florida. While much is not known about this parasite, often referred to as a lung worm when it is actually a type of crustacean, it is believed to have been introduced by the many diverse invasive sp...