Hello everyone! I've been a fan of this site for a while but only just now decided to join for kind of a specific reason (I'll get more into that in a bit).
I've always been a huge animal lover and interested in conservation mostly because of zoos, which I think are really fascinating places to think about, aside from just being enjoyable to visit. Last year I graduated from college in Massachusetts with degrees in biology and anthropology. Obviously the biology connects to the wildlife interest, but the anthropology studies actually do too. What I got really excited about and spent most of my time thinking about was animal-human interaction and relationships: learning about how the ways humans think about/interact with animals have changed over time, what kind of relationships people can build with non-human animals, and how the experiences of the animals contribute to those relationships.
Zoos clearly are a really interesting place to consider these questions, and I got a fellowship from my college to fund a yearlong project exploring these themes at zoos around the world, which was really exciting. The fellowship is supposed to fund an international independent project (can't return to the US for a year until it's done) that's mostly experiential. I don't have to do any formal research or write a formal paper, so I'm basically just visiting zoos, talking to people who work at them when I can ,mostly people who work in conservation/education, recording my experiences and seeing what kind of things I can learn about the ways that zoos try to serve both animals and people and how it's still changing to this day.
I had hoped to shadow staff/volunteer at some of the zoos I'm visiting, but since I can't spend too long at any given zoo, I'm mostly focusing on the visitor perspective. I've just started my project in Australia, and seen a lot of great zoos so far (Taronga, Melbourne, Australia, etc.) and I head to Singapore next week, and then my plans get more flexible. This is where I hope to use you all and your knowledge/passion. If any of you work at zoos outside the US or know people who do, I'd love to talk with you. If there are "must-visit" zoos I should see, please let me know (I can leave a list of the ones already on my list below.
I'd be happy to talk more about this project if any of you have any questions and I look forward to being a member!
I've always been a huge animal lover and interested in conservation mostly because of zoos, which I think are really fascinating places to think about, aside from just being enjoyable to visit. Last year I graduated from college in Massachusetts with degrees in biology and anthropology. Obviously the biology connects to the wildlife interest, but the anthropology studies actually do too. What I got really excited about and spent most of my time thinking about was animal-human interaction and relationships: learning about how the ways humans think about/interact with animals have changed over time, what kind of relationships people can build with non-human animals, and how the experiences of the animals contribute to those relationships.
Zoos clearly are a really interesting place to consider these questions, and I got a fellowship from my college to fund a yearlong project exploring these themes at zoos around the world, which was really exciting. The fellowship is supposed to fund an international independent project (can't return to the US for a year until it's done) that's mostly experiential. I don't have to do any formal research or write a formal paper, so I'm basically just visiting zoos, talking to people who work at them when I can ,mostly people who work in conservation/education, recording my experiences and seeing what kind of things I can learn about the ways that zoos try to serve both animals and people and how it's still changing to this day.
I had hoped to shadow staff/volunteer at some of the zoos I'm visiting, but since I can't spend too long at any given zoo, I'm mostly focusing on the visitor perspective. I've just started my project in Australia, and seen a lot of great zoos so far (Taronga, Melbourne, Australia, etc.) and I head to Singapore next week, and then my plans get more flexible. This is where I hope to use you all and your knowledge/passion. If any of you work at zoos outside the US or know people who do, I'd love to talk with you. If there are "must-visit" zoos I should see, please let me know (I can leave a list of the ones already on my list below.
I'd be happy to talk more about this project if any of you have any questions and I look forward to being a member!
