My Vertebrate Biology students venture to Cleveland again, this time to take a behind the scenes tour at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo from Alan Sironen, the Curator of Carnivores and Large Animals (maybe the best job title ever). Alan showed us the stables, containing zebras (above) and two species of gazelle, including the endangered slender horned gazelle (pictured below).
He told us about animal care and the conservation efforts going on at the zoo. Several students in the class are interested in careers in zoo science, and one has already done a summer internship at the Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield Missouri. They got some great advice about starting careers in the field.
We got to see the zoo’s longtime resident Nile Hippo in his “retirement pond”. He was brought to the zoo in 1955 and is now only rarely put on public display. The brother of one of my students is the architect who helped design the renovation of this facility, including this new pond.
He (the hippo) likes to show off.
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