September 13, 2024 • 28 mins
When most of us are asleep, there is a dedicated team at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park taking care of the wildlife. In this episode, hosts Rick and Marco speak with Oliver Zirbel, supervisor of the Overnight Wildlife Care Team. What does a shift look like for someone who works overnight at the Safari Park? Tune in to find out more about this emerging program and what our team has learned about the nocturnal behavior of wildlife.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hi, I'm Rick Schwartz. Whenas the s world, I'm Marco went.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to Amazing Wildlife, where we explore unique stories of
wildlife from around the world and uncover fascinating animal facts.
This podcast is a production of iHeartRadio's Ruby Studio and
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, and international nonprofit conservation organization
which overseas the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Rick, I am really excited about today's topic. I mean,
not only is it something we have not talked about
before on this podcast, but it also is relatively new
part of how San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance operates.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Oh, I'm excited too. I remember hearing about this special
team of wildlife care specialists coming together, but because of
their unique hours of work, well, I have yet to
talk to anyone on the team about what's going on.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
All I know, unique hours of work.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Indeed, my friend, the overnight Wildlife Care team is busy
working while most of us are. You know, talk to
Willy in bed dreaming of flocks of beautiful birds.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Oh, Marco, not everyone dreams of birds like you do.
But yes, this team of dedicated wildlife care specialists are
usually clocking in when most of us are having dinner,
and as the sun sets on our day, they're just
getting started.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
With theirs, right, I mean, can you imagine what the
Safari Park must be like at night? Hundreds of acres
of wildlife all around you, with hundreds of acres of
native wildlife.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Too, how I know? I mean, a lot of wildlife
is not nocturnal, but there are plenty of species at
the Safari Park that are active at certain times of night,
even if only for a little while or here and there.
And then you have the native species in the neighboring
open spaces like you mentioned. I mean, I'm thinking's like
bats and owls, coyotes, bobcats.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah right.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I mean I wonder if the overnight wildlife care team
ever had to work around the local nocturnal wildlife, you.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Know, in addition to taking care of our resident wildlife. Hmmm,
I'm guessing that they would.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
But really, there's only one way for us to find
out what it's like to work at the Safari Park
at night.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Absolutely right, And now I think it's time for us
to head to the San Diego Zoo Safari Parks.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
All right, let's go.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
I am oli reserble, he hamm are my pronouns, and.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
I am the supervisor of the overnight Wildlife Care Team.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
That's a super interesting title, right, Ali. I mean, first
of all, we're here at the Safari Park. Thank you
for spending the time with us, which really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
You.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
It's it's like one fifth in the afternoon, but technically
this is not working hours for you. It is there's
a new shift, a new branch of wildlife care specialists
now at the Safari Park.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
The guests may not be aware.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
I wrote it down, but he described what is that
area that we have now offered for specialists.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
Absolutely, So we have an overnight wildlife care team that
operates between six pm and six am, and they take
care of those dark hours where people don't think of
the Safari Park with animals still around. And so our
team comes in at six and kind of touches base
with what the daytime teams need and then their shift
is created from there, so they don't really know today
(03:01):
what they're doing until after the daytime teams leave.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Wow, it's a good point, right, I mean you think,
like you know, guests are leaving at the end of
the afternoon, let's say it's like five o'clock. And I'm
sure for some of you listening right now, you think like, oh,
the park is done, but other things happen right when
the gates closed, and do what.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
All he was saying too, as far as the team
member doesn't know necessarily what they're getting into, because we
think of wildlfecare specialists, right, We've got the rhinos care specialists.
We've got those that take care of a certain area.
So there's maybe three or four different species to take.
Speaker 5 (03:28):
Care of it.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Back when I was a wildlfecare specialist, I was based
in one area, so I knew my animals, right, you know. Yeah,
but the overnight team is responsible for what is needed
that night. Yeah, it's not necessarily like you're assigned to
this area.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
It's the same area every night. Yeah, we touch a
little bit of all of those areas.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
We might be asked to check on some birds or
a new hoofstock that was put in, or a baby
or an animal that's getting ready for a shipment, and
they just want to make sure that you know, they're
sleeping well and all prepared for that, and so a
little bit of everything.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Yeah, it's super unique to because I remember when the
positions are being off some of the wildlife care teams
around the Safari Park and a friend of mine from
the bird department was asking me about and what I
found is super interesting. It's not just one specific field
of expertise, like, for instance, during the daytime. I'm sure
a lot of you're aware of, you folks, but you know,
we have our mammal teams, we have our bird teams
or reptile teams. But for this kind of shift, you
(04:18):
need experiences from all those different nuances of wildlife. Right,
So I was kind of thinking, like the renaissance wildlife
care specialist, right, because.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
You're doing so much, can you what's your day start?
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Like?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
What is that like for you when you come in?
Speaker 5 (04:30):
So when the team comes in, we'll check the report
that the daytime teams fill out, and that's to help
with that communication because they're gone before we come in
and we are leaving as they come in.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
So that report fills out those requests.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
There's different areas, and that covers all the areas in
the park that we have any animal in any area,
and so they might request, hey can you check on
Like I said, hey can you check on this new baby,
or can you check on this animal that maybe having
a baby, or can you check on this new male
that we put in for breeding and we want to
make sure that he's getting settled in okay, And so
they'll fill that request and it says, you know, the
(05:01):
request is for overnight, this is the species in the area,
and this is what we're having you look at and
look for, because they've got to remember that we don't
know those animals.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Like you said the same way, are we looking for
abnormal behavior?
Speaker 5 (05:12):
Abnormal behavior to me is going to be different to
somebody who sees them every day all day. So clarifying,
being very clear for both sides what they're looking for,
and then my team will come in and do whatever
that request is and there's a section for them to
provide that feedback. You know, we checked on the baby
is doing well, We saw some nursing, or we didn't
see any nursing, but the baby was tucked and what
we call bright alert and responsive.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
So bright a responsive.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
So what you put bar so people know what that is,
that that baby is doing well, what we would expect
for those things, or that new male is kind of
surveying the new area, that he's in, he's patrolling and
kind of looking for females. He's looking to do those
things we expect him to be doing. And so we'll
provide that feedback to them, and then the next day
they'll come in and they might follow up and say, hey,
we'd like you to do this different tonight. It might
(05:56):
be a long term you know, for we're waiting for
a pregnancy, it might be something that we're doing those
checks for weeks, and so that request will continue, so
they don't really know, like I said, till they don't know, right, Yeah,
that's wild.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I want to clarify too for our audience. I know
from being with the organization for a while, we do
sometimes have people overnight in the hospital, becau there's an
animal that needs twenty four our care. We sometimes will
have overnights for neonates or new babies whose moms aren't
taking care of them.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Incubation, incubation for birds.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah, so it's not completely brand new to have staff
being overnight, and of course we have security and everybody
else over night all the time as well, but to
have a dedicated team was new for our organization. Can
you speak to what brought that about? You know, we
actually want this dedicated team here overnight.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
It actually kind of started right around the same time
as the tuney and I was part of that team
with Wildlife.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Care that has.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Can you describe it, yeah to you as.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
A is a giraffe that was born out in on
our field habitats about a couple of days old. Her
knees were bending backwards, which for a giraffe is not
a good thing. She was still very little, but is
going to become more of a problem when she gets older,
and so it was decided that she needed to be
hand reared to come to the hospital and have some
more intensive care through our harder veterinary medical hospital. We
(07:13):
actually worked with an outside organization called the Hangar Clinic
that came in and made me braces for her, and
I think my favorite thing about them is they made
them draft. I remember I kind of wanted him to
do like zebra something different, yeah, feather like condor feather something.
But they were really really cute and they served her
well and she's happy and healthy and back out in
(07:34):
our field habitat.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
But those hours were long, overnight hours.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Giraffes baby drafts bend those knees to lay down and
get back up, and she didn't have that. She was
on you know, these figurative stilts, and so we had
to assist with that. And that's kind of where the
team started. It was right around that time, so it
was just a couple of years ago. And then while
we were here doing that, it was like, oh, there's
all these other things that could be happening. Why you
guys are all these other things, whether it was checking
(08:00):
things or like you said, there's other people here, are rangers,
our security team is here, and they might go, hey,
we see this thing that we didn't know was happening.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Who do we call?
Speaker 5 (08:09):
Right, So they might call somebody before, Well now they
don't have to do that. They just come ask us
because we're here. Or there's something going on at the
hospital with an alarm, like is this a concerning alarm?
Speaker 4 (08:18):
And we can go over there and check it.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
So it started as a very specific idea and it's
kind of just grown the tumbleweed idea, but in a
good way.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
We don't really know.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
Even when we were creating that team and people are like,
what are you going to do? And I was like,
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Figure it out there's so much I mean, even to
the point you mentioned with our security teams, who are
amazing men and women, like go out there and you
check out all these nuances, but being behaviorless, right, yeah,
having someone physically there with wildlife experience, but when.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
We see behavior face to face and be able to
read that.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Appropriately, that that's a big deal because some of these animals,
I mean, I was just talking about Chinese alligator on
the news and it being more of a nocturnal species,
so of course during nighttime, so you come and check
them out. But now having these teams, you can all
this nuanced behavior from so many different species that yeah,
maybe we have a camera here or there, but not
to the extent of physically being there and the smells
of sites that you can pick up.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
The sounds, the communications between them.
Speaker 5 (09:12):
And when I first got trained for what previously was
our late wildlife care specialist shift, it was a little
later than the standard daytime shift, but people were like, oh,
the animals act different, And I was like, I was
just here like two hours ago in the same vehicle.
You pull in and that Kate Buffalo heard is like,
what are you doing here? This is our time? Why
what are these hours, and so same thing at night,
(09:32):
Like we would see animals in places that daytime teams
don't see them, and we're like, oh, you're Kate buffalo
herd hangs out over here, and they're like, no, they
don't during the because they don't see them there during
the day. And so this created an opportunity for us
to utilize a program called zoom Monitor, and we work
with our wildlife welfare manager and looking at those outside
hours where you know, a wildlife care specialist is here
(09:54):
for eight hours a day, but those animals are here
twenty four hours a day and so there's still two
thirds of that day that maybe we were had an
opportunity to gain more information, and so we utilize that
program to tell those teams like, hey, this is what
your animals are doing at night, and that sometimes helps
when they're bringing in new animals. We introduced recently southern
white rhinos into one of.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Our field habitats, but we did a lot of monitoring
beforehand of.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Where those space use studies for those animals, and now
we're continuing to do them. Did the intro of those
rhinos change where the animals were using those spaces and
is that because the rhinos are there, is that because
it's a seasonal change, And so that's a lot of
data and information that we can share with our welfare
team for them to take back to those teams.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I love that you're bringing this up because I think
the initial thought is, oh, a nighttime crew taking care
of nocturn animals. Probably, Oh no, that's not it. They're
taking care of this, that and the other. But what
you just brought up really shows the level of trying
to understand best practices. Yes, and not only does the
observations you're talking about and the zoom monitor thing, and
how is the space used at nighttime by what species
(10:56):
and what's influencing when new animals come in. But I'm
thinking right away to one of our previous interviews I
think it was last season, where we talk a lot
about how the care we take of certain species here.
We can then take that and translocate that information to
the conservation site in the wild, and vice versa. We
can take that information they're learning there and apply it
to our care here. Having a better understanding of what
(11:18):
these animals are doing at nighttime can really influence it
in how we approach conservation in the wild as well,
and I love that this is a big part of
what we're doing it.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Oh yes, And sometimes it's the overnight team that's like, hey,
we've seen this behavior change and we'd like to start
monitoring it, and so we approach the daytime team and
sometimes the daytime team comes to us and goes, we
want to know what this species, this individual animal is doing.
Can you guys start monitoring? And so I like that
it's organic. It's on both sides. It's not a here's
(11:46):
a checklist, you have to do these things, but it's
really organic. And then we do time block so we're
not just checking at nine pm. We check throughout the
night and a day to day. There is a little
checklist in the office of making sure we're covering different
times through the night over the course of a week,
and do those nighttime events play any part in what
we're doing and when we have the later hours and
(12:08):
things like that.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
So all that's captured in those and.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
Then we work with the welfare manager and go, hey,
this is the data that we're getting back that you're using.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Is that creating more questions that you need us to
look at something.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
It's always exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
That's always so useful information too.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
But also I wanted you to also try to describe
the Safari Park at night, right, Like I remember in
the past doing like overnights monitoring condoregs like two, three,
four in the morning, watching these eggs or they turn
and you know, just watching their health and conditions. But
I just remember the beautiful night sky, the cool weather,
Like can you describe it to us, Like what's it
like for.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
You, Like come in into the park in the dark.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Especially right now the cool weather, oh man, I mean
it gets a little warmer and sandy. Yeah, it's up
over one hundred sometimes right in the day. And we're
like in the mid eighties, mid seventies at night, which
is my jam.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
But it's a whole different atmosphere.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
Like I said, people think about like the public hours,
but the sounds, the smells. We can hear toads making
all kinds of noise. You can see even things like
tarantulas coming across the road, and bats and mule deer bats, Yes,
bats are out you know at those dusk and dawn hours.
And it's an incredible it's it's hard to wrap. It's
an incredible experience. The sounds that the animals make with
(13:25):
each other. The full moon nights are beautiful.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
You can see people joke around.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
Then. I'm getting nocturnal vision because I'll be training somebody
and we're watching an animal and I'm like, oh, and
there's this of stock behind us, and they're like, how.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
Did you see that? And I'm like, well, you just.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Get used to it.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
You see it a little bit more. But you know,
those those full moon nights are incredible. The view across
the valley. The sounds will get elephants making noise and
you can hear two thirds of the way across the park.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
That's the thing too, right, Yeah, when the sun sets,
and something about the still night air and the moisture
in the air as well that calm. Yes, and this
sound really does travel. And I remember, like to your point,
hearing some of the wildlife living at the Safari but
also the native species that take opportunity too and like
exploring skunks and great horn ality and whatnot too, and
reminded you. I wanted to point out for a guests
(14:12):
that you know, the Safari Park in the San Diego
Zoo were also like these sanctuaries for a lot of species.
I mean I was talking to you about we had
helped out a younger burrowing out chick who had lost
his parents unfortunately, but the Safari Park we would offer
a home for this animal and help out with their
conservation status and rereleasing and back out in the areas
here in San Diego County, and there's a variety of
different species. We've offered sanctuaries to spider monkeys in the past.
(14:35):
And I also wanted to point out because another species,
the mountain lion that we have here at the Safari Park,
that because of their more nocturnal behavioral tendencies, you know,
just naturally they're more of a nocturnal species. You all,
being the experience specialist that you are, you can actually
now interact with these animals. So maybe in the past
we would do it during regular zoo hours, but here
we have this amazing opportunity to engage with wildlife during
(14:58):
their their sort of natural rhythm make activities.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Right. So I think that's a really unique experience, right.
Speaker 5 (15:03):
Yeah, And that's I mentioned earlier that we don't really
know what we're getting into, and that's the only consistency
for us. It is these three mountain lion cubs and so.
But when I say consistency, it's not consistent day to day.
Sometimes we may do one or two feeds. Sometimes we
may do something at seven or eight at night. Sometimes
we may not do stuff till ten. And part of
that is all built in to mimic that natural environment
as best that we can. But they're an incredible trio
(15:26):
to be able to work with.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Yeah, and it reminded you for a guest. Now there
is a special tour. You go on our website Sdzsafari
Park dot org and look up the tour experiences and
we have one available where you can go out there
and not at three in the morning.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Look, you're doing right. You get an opportunity. Yeah, cruise
through that habitat. Maybe you'll see those middlines. So be
able to check out the website.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
The Safari Park offers a lot for people that I
think most people don't even realize.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
Yeah, and we're getting into the season where it's going
to be tied to a Roaring Store event, so on
weekends that'll be the sneak peak of stuff we're hoping
to add to that.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
If you're not aware, friends are listening to roring snore.
It's just really cool camping experience you can do at.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
The Safari Park.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
I've done it once before, and you guys can totally
tease me about this, but I really didn't think about
why it's called the roran snore until I did it
once with my husband and my niece, right, and I
remember waking up at two in the morning to like.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
The first second it was good.
Speaker 6 (16:24):
It was just if you For those who aren't aware,
you know a rooring snore.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Camp area is right next to Lyon Camp, our habitat
for African Line, So no joke. You hear these amazing
sounds at nighttime. So yeah, if you haven't done it.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Well, and I'll say this too, even if it wasn't
near Lyon Camp, you're hearing it's like you could feel it.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
But yeah, like I talked earlier, those sounds do, especially
at night. You're hearing him and you're right next to
the habitat too. Maybe it pete a little bit because
it was very very loud, but especially if you didn't
put that connection before that, Yeah, exactly, but that's exactly it.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
That's what we hear at night, that's what we get to.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
You know, we'll be in the middle of working with
mountain lions and then we hear that or we hear
the elephant trumpeting.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
I don't know if you have a noise for that.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
I dont q sound please, But those kinds of things,
I mean, that's the stuff that we get to see
and experience at nine.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
It's really cool opportunity.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
That's awesome. You know.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
I love that you're in this position. By the way,
I've known you for a lot of years here at
the park. Can you describe a little bit of your
progression here at to so Far Park, in the areas
that you've worked at.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
I started with the company in twenty seventeen and I
was in one of those large field habitats and I
had a marine mammal background. So when I came the
world right you were working at for fourteen years, and
so when I came into what was a dry.
Speaker 7 (17:43):
Dry environment, it was very different than what I was
used to yea literally literally, but we did have a
pond and I literally told my boss, if a sea
lion shows up in your pond, I'm your guy.
Speaker 5 (17:54):
I had a lot of stuff to learn, and so
again getting to know those individual species but also the
individual animals within those species. At the time, that run
that I was on was responsible for seven different areas
over four hundred animals, and so it was a big
change from what I think I had, like thirty sea lions.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
And then I worked with rescue stuff before.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
But so I was out in the big field habitats
for a while and then moved very very briefly to
our area where we move animals in and out, but
very briefly. And then I actually went down to our
animal care center where they worked with a lot of neonates,
and that was the chance that I got to work
with Satuni and we bottle raised Arthur, the rhino that's
now out at the field habitats. So getting a chance
(18:35):
to work with a variety of species, you know, as
big as draft and rhinos, and my heart was captured
by a little red flank dyker that I didn't even
know what the species was before I started here, and
so getting a chance to work with all of them
and learn the different nuances between what you're doing for
a seven foot tall giraffe is not what you're doing
for seven inch tall little We always called her a
(18:57):
little baked potato, and I fell in love with it.
That's where I wanted to be, and I thought I'd
stay there forever. And then this opportunity opened up and
it was a little bit of everything. And I enjoy
being kind of that jack of all trades. I like
to be the person that people come ask for help
for things.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
That really was this chance. And in my.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
Previous job, I also worked in security, and so it
was a little bit of this combo between working with
very closely with our security team that's here at night,
and then working with animals. And so I took the opportunity.
I was offered the opportunity, and I jumped at the
chance and absolutely fell in love.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
So now that you've been doing it for a bit,
and you just said you fell in love, what is
it like for you with this history, with this background,
of the wide write of things you've done with your career,
just your knowledge you bring to the table, and now
you get to be a part of this spearhead. Really
you have this apartment to do this kind of work.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
What for you personally? What's that like?
Speaker 4 (19:49):
I love it.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
I love the trust that my leadership had in creating this,
because it wasn't moving into a role of you know,
this person left this position and now we're going to
fill it. It was we all do I don't know
what this looks like. We don't know what we're hoping
this turns into. And kind of just like training, like
you ask those questions and based off what you get
back is how things more fun. So the conversations we
(20:11):
had two years ago of where we thought this was
going didn't necessarily involve the animals that we're talking about today,
and so looking at those opportunities and looking at that
lens for twenty four hours a day for the Wildlife
far is a huge honor. There's not a lot of
people and there's only I think two other facilities that
have true overnight twenty four hour care and that was
something that was really important for us to be able
(20:33):
to provide, and we're doing it.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
I have a feeling that's going to change.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Yeah, there's any more facilities going online that.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
There's so much that happens that you were growing right, Yeah, revolving,
And I wanted to talk about your background because I
always want little kids to know, especially if you're listening
right now, like we're listening to all these paths.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Rick had a different path. I had a different path.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
But we're all three of us were loving life here
at the Safari Park, the San Diego Zoo and different experiences,
different skill sets, and you know, I came in Admittedly,
I'm only going to say this once.
Speaker 6 (21:01):
You know you're way back in the day. I applied
for a job at Sea World because I was all
about behavior, like I'm going to train some of those
marine mammals. And then they told me I had to
do a swim test. No, sir, I didn't even think
about I gotta go on the water.
Speaker 7 (21:16):
No.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
But but the point of the story is, you know,
you're a kid and you think, oh, I love I
love jaguars as a cample.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
But maybe you start working with the jaguars and maybe
you think, you know what, I'm not really into cats.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
I kind of want to work with this. But the
point is you.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Can change your mind and you can grow and learn
all these different nuances.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
And let me look where you're right down, man, And
I think the path that even when you start in
the organization or you get that first job opportunity that
you know, when I was at SeaWorld and they were like,
what do you want to work with? I said anything,
but Sea lions, and I said, why not sea lions?
I said, they'll chase you out of the water. And
somebody said, you're thinking out some a dolphin, and that
is a good point. Now I don't, and the vacancy
they had with sea lions, and I never looked back.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
I loved it as I helped with other animals, but that.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
Was my passion. And then getting to do rehab and
stuff like that. Had I said no because that's what
I thought. And we do a lot of stuff with
interns and different committees here at the organization, and one
of my big passions is getting people the.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Foot in the door. There's so many opportunities.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
There's so many we have, Like we talked about specialists
that are in birds and specialists that are working with hoofstock,
but even within that there's even more opportunity of other
things around.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Well, i'd love the part of your story. So wonderful
is that listening to how you progress through You had
your passions, but you were open to opportunities and now
you're like, I'm in this awesome.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Position anybody else has, yes.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
So that's a great lesson right there. I really appreciate
you spending time with us telling us all about this.
Is there anything else about the whole experience of this
overnight wildlifcare specialist team that we haven't touched on that
you'd like to share with anybody.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
I think there was a little snippet earlier that I
wanted to mention. We talked about the native species. One
of the other animals we're working a lot with is
native bats.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
Oh really yeah.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
So native bats are local here an Escnito, but all
over everywhere.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
They're so important.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
And we have done our first re release of bats.
We've actually done three at this point back here on property.
So they were either skinny, just not right YEA mentioned
earlier write alert and responsive, and so if they're not right,
alert and responsive, there's something going on with that.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
And so we've worked with a rehabber.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
We relocate those bats to a rehabber and then we
bring them back and re release them. And we've done
our first re release of three bats here and I'm
very proud of.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
The That's all the work that's gone into it.
Speaker 5 (23:33):
It's coordinating with our wildlife health team here, with our
folks that work with bats here on property, working with
public health and then native you know, the local rehabbers
and I'm just I love it.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
And that's again Mark, I've talked about this so much
about how important is to pitt inshore our local wildlife too.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Then we talk to.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Kids all the time and they want to do something
to say bands like well, hey, go to your local
park and clean up out there, or go for a
hike and take a bag with you to pick up trashy.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
I mean, this is an opportunity.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
That you are now assisting, is local wildlife that's nocturnal,
which would be an opportunity missed otherwise.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
Yes, it's awesome to see them as those dusk hours
come out and there swooping down and getting bugs.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Yeah, have at it, eat the bug.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Like thirty different species of insane.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
In the past we talked about the two species and
Mexico for all the agaba plant.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
But again we talk about the word diversity or in
the beauty of all the diversity of wildlife daytime and nighttime.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Right, the hostculary at don dues all of it.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
All of it has a role to play, so and
it makes a big difference. Yes, it makes a huge
different Thank you, friend, this.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Is so yeah, Thank you always, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
I know I've said it before, but I can't get
over all the amazing things we get to learn talking
to all these incredible people who work with the San
Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
I am right there with you, Marco. I must admit
I did have an idea of what Ollie would be
sharing with us, but I definitely learned a lot more
than I thought I would, and I'm really glad that
we have this opportunity to share these conversations with our listeners.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Oh, I know, I mean, it's super fascinating stuff. I mean,
have you ever thought about doing overnight shifts at the
zoo or safari Park?
Speaker 5 (25:07):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Yeah, of course. Back when I was a wildlifecare specialist
at the Zoo, I often worked late shifts, not quite
the same as overnights like all of the and his team,
but sometimes I'd be at the zoo until ten o'clock
at night, and I have to admit the first few
times I did this, it was a little unnerving because
you can hear and smell all this wildlife around you,
but you can't really see them very well.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
But you know, once you get used to it, it's
actually pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
I one hundred percent degree. Friend.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I mean back in the day, I was doing overnights
just with condors and that was like six thirty in
the evening to six in the morning. And oh, I
gotta tell you, the stars, the full moon, coyotes in
the house, the Safari Park is something pretty magical at night.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
I should think so. And I'll say this, the fact
that the overnight team has been able to expand and
grow as the needs present themselves is such a great
way to learn more about our wildlife.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Oh I know.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
I mean the fact that it started with the overnights
for Seatuni the giraffe, and now they're checking in on
all sorts of wifelife, including doing things for the more
nocturnal mail lines we have here, and you know everything else.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
And you know how Allie was talking about the bats
and how if they find a wild one that's not
doing well, that they are able to place it with
a wildlife rehab facility. It reminds me of how our
daytime staff will do the same thing with birds and
mammals they might find in our local area.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Oh yeah, exactly, I mean, just another way we can
help our local wildlife. Actually, oh, you know, it does
kind of remind me, though.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I wanted to share something with our listeners, especially the
younger ones. Right now, our trained professional wildlife care specialists
know that it's best for the sick or maybe injured
wildlife to be cared for by a professional wildlife rehabilitation center, right,
That makes sense. So I just want to make sure
that everyone knows that if you see any sick or
injured animal, it's best to let an adult know and
(26:46):
have them contact your local wildlife rehabilitation center.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Excellent point, Marco. Especially important because some sick or injured
wildlife may not understand that you're trying to help them,
so they might fire to scratch if you're trying to
pick them up. And those who do work professionally with
wild life, if usually have the proper tools and methods
to carefully help and handle wild life of need.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Yeah, exactly, I mean it. Mainally, sometimes I want to
bite and scratch my dentists, you know, So I completely
understand that.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
But that's a very valid point, Rick, And you know, Rick,
it does remind me though. You know, our friend Ken
has been doing some work with Volpro in Africa, and
that's an organization that cares for sick and injured vultures,
and it also incubates eggs and when needed, assists in
hatching out eggs to support the populations of vultures.
Speaker 5 (27:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Again, a great group of people who know what they're
doing with specialized animals, and that's actually a really good
idea for an episode.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
I think.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Do you think that we could catch up with Kim
and have her tell our audience more about volpro.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
I mean, dude, she's pretty passionate about it. I bet
to be happy to do it all right.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Sounds good to me, and I'll bet our listeners would
love to hear from her as well. So everybody be
sure to subscribe if you haven't already, and tune into
our next episode, in which we learn more about taking
care of the birds that keep the world clean and
help prevent.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
A spread of disease. Now, Marco Wentz and I'm Rich Schwartz,
thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
For more information about the San Diego Zoo and San
Diego Zoo Safari Park, go to SDZWA dot org. Amazing
Wildlife is a production of iHeartRadio. Our supervising producers are
Nikkia Swinton and Dylan Fagan, and our sound designers are
Sierra Spreen and Matt Russell. For more shows from iHeartRadio,
check out the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you
(28:26):
listen to your favorite shows.
Hi, I'm Rick Schwartz. Whenas the s world, I'm Marco went.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to Amazing Wildlife, where we explore unique stories of
wildlife from around the world and uncover fascinating animal facts.
This podcast is a production of iHeartRadio's Ruby Studio and
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, and international nonprofit conservation organization
which overseas the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Rick, I am really excited about today's topic. I mean,
not only is it something we have not talked about
before on this podcast, but it also is relatively new
part of how San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance operates.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Oh, I'm excited too. I remember hearing about this special
team of wildlife care specialists coming together, but because of
their unique hours of work, well, I have yet to
talk to anyone on the team about what's going on.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
All I know, unique hours of work.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Indeed, my friend, the overnight Wildlife Care team is busy
working while most of us are. You know, talk to
Willy in bed dreaming of flocks of beautiful birds.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Oh, Marco, not everyone dreams of birds like you do.
But yes, this team of dedicated wildlife care specialists are
usually clocking in when most of us are having dinner,
and as the sun sets on our day, they're just
getting started.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
With theirs, right, I mean, can you imagine what the
Safari Park must be like at night? Hundreds of acres
of wildlife all around you, with hundreds of acres of
native wildlife.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Too, how I know? I mean, a lot of wildlife
is not nocturnal, but there are plenty of species at
the Safari Park that are active at certain times of night,
even if only for a little while or here and there.
And then you have the native species in the neighboring
open spaces like you mentioned. I mean, I'm thinking's like
bats and owls, coyotes, bobcats.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah right.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I mean I wonder if the overnight wildlife care team
ever had to work around the local nocturnal wildlife, you.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Know, in addition to taking care of our resident wildlife. Hmmm,
I'm guessing that they would.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
But really, there's only one way for us to find
out what it's like to work at the Safari Park
at night.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Absolutely right, And now I think it's time for us
to head to the San Diego Zoo Safari Parks.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
All right, let's go.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
I am oli reserble, he hamm are my pronouns, and.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
I am the supervisor of the overnight Wildlife Care Team.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
That's a super interesting title, right, Ali. I mean, first
of all, we're here at the Safari Park. Thank you
for spending the time with us, which really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
You.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
It's it's like one fifth in the afternoon, but technically
this is not working hours for you. It is there's
a new shift, a new branch of wildlife care specialists
now at the Safari Park.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
The guests may not be aware.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
I wrote it down, but he described what is that
area that we have now offered for specialists.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
Absolutely, So we have an overnight wildlife care team that
operates between six pm and six am, and they take
care of those dark hours where people don't think of
the Safari Park with animals still around. And so our
team comes in at six and kind of touches base
with what the daytime teams need and then their shift
is created from there, so they don't really know today
(03:01):
what they're doing until after the daytime teams leave.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Wow, it's a good point, right, I mean you think,
like you know, guests are leaving at the end of
the afternoon, let's say it's like five o'clock. And I'm
sure for some of you listening right now, you think like, oh,
the park is done, but other things happen right when
the gates closed, and do what.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
All he was saying too, as far as the team
member doesn't know necessarily what they're getting into, because we
think of wildlfecare specialists, right, We've got the rhinos care specialists.
We've got those that take care of a certain area.
So there's maybe three or four different species to take.
Speaker 5 (03:28):
Care of it.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Back when I was a wildlfecare specialist, I was based
in one area, so I knew my animals, right, you know. Yeah,
but the overnight team is responsible for what is needed
that night. Yeah, it's not necessarily like you're assigned to
this area.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
It's the same area every night. Yeah, we touch a
little bit of all of those areas.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
We might be asked to check on some birds or
a new hoofstock that was put in, or a baby
or an animal that's getting ready for a shipment, and
they just want to make sure that you know, they're
sleeping well and all prepared for that, and so a
little bit of everything.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Yeah, it's super unique to because I remember when the
positions are being off some of the wildlife care teams
around the Safari Park and a friend of mine from
the bird department was asking me about and what I
found is super interesting. It's not just one specific field
of expertise, like, for instance, during the daytime. I'm sure
a lot of you're aware of, you folks, but you know,
we have our mammal teams, we have our bird teams
or reptile teams. But for this kind of shift, you
(04:18):
need experiences from all those different nuances of wildlife. Right,
So I was kind of thinking, like the renaissance wildlife
care specialist, right, because.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
You're doing so much, can you what's your day start?
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Like?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
What is that like for you when you come in?
Speaker 5 (04:30):
So when the team comes in, we'll check the report
that the daytime teams fill out, and that's to help
with that communication because they're gone before we come in
and we are leaving as they come in.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
So that report fills out those requests.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
There's different areas, and that covers all the areas in
the park that we have any animal in any area,
and so they might request, hey can you check on
Like I said, hey can you check on this new baby,
or can you check on this animal that maybe having
a baby, or can you check on this new male
that we put in for breeding and we want to
make sure that he's getting settled in okay, And so
they'll fill that request and it says, you know, the
(05:01):
request is for overnight, this is the species in the area,
and this is what we're having you look at and
look for, because they've got to remember that we don't
know those animals.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Like you said the same way, are we looking for
abnormal behavior?
Speaker 5 (05:12):
Abnormal behavior to me is going to be different to
somebody who sees them every day all day. So clarifying,
being very clear for both sides what they're looking for,
and then my team will come in and do whatever
that request is and there's a section for them to
provide that feedback. You know, we checked on the baby
is doing well, We saw some nursing, or we didn't
see any nursing, but the baby was tucked and what
we call bright alert and responsive.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
So bright a responsive.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
So what you put bar so people know what that is,
that that baby is doing well, what we would expect
for those things, or that new male is kind of
surveying the new area, that he's in, he's patrolling and
kind of looking for females. He's looking to do those
things we expect him to be doing. And so we'll
provide that feedback to them, and then the next day
they'll come in and they might follow up and say, hey,
we'd like you to do this different tonight. It might
(05:56):
be a long term you know, for we're waiting for
a pregnancy, it might be something that we're doing those
checks for weeks, and so that request will continue, so
they don't really know, like I said, till they don't know, right, Yeah,
that's wild.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I want to clarify too for our audience. I know
from being with the organization for a while, we do
sometimes have people overnight in the hospital, becau there's an
animal that needs twenty four our care. We sometimes will
have overnights for neonates or new babies whose moms aren't
taking care of them.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Incubation, incubation for birds.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah, so it's not completely brand new to have staff
being overnight, and of course we have security and everybody
else over night all the time as well, but to
have a dedicated team was new for our organization. Can
you speak to what brought that about? You know, we
actually want this dedicated team here overnight.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
It actually kind of started right around the same time
as the tuney and I was part of that team
with Wildlife.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Care that has.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Can you describe it, yeah to you as.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
A is a giraffe that was born out in on
our field habitats about a couple of days old. Her
knees were bending backwards, which for a giraffe is not
a good thing. She was still very little, but is
going to become more of a problem when she gets older,
and so it was decided that she needed to be
hand reared to come to the hospital and have some
more intensive care through our harder veterinary medical hospital. We
(07:13):
actually worked with an outside organization called the Hangar Clinic
that came in and made me braces for her, and
I think my favorite thing about them is they made
them draft. I remember I kind of wanted him to
do like zebra something different, yeah, feather like condor feather something.
But they were really really cute and they served her
well and she's happy and healthy and back out in
(07:34):
our field habitat.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
But those hours were long, overnight hours.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Giraffes baby drafts bend those knees to lay down and
get back up, and she didn't have that. She was
on you know, these figurative stilts, and so we had
to assist with that. And that's kind of where the
team started. It was right around that time, so it
was just a couple of years ago. And then while
we were here doing that, it was like, oh, there's
all these other things that could be happening. Why you
guys are all these other things, whether it was checking
(08:00):
things or like you said, there's other people here, are rangers,
our security team is here, and they might go, hey,
we see this thing that we didn't know was happening.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Who do we call?
Speaker 5 (08:09):
Right, So they might call somebody before, Well now they
don't have to do that. They just come ask us
because we're here. Or there's something going on at the
hospital with an alarm, like is this a concerning alarm?
Speaker 4 (08:18):
And we can go over there and check it.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
So it started as a very specific idea and it's
kind of just grown the tumbleweed idea, but in a
good way.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
We don't really know.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
Even when we were creating that team and people are like,
what are you going to do? And I was like,
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Figure it out there's so much I mean, even to
the point you mentioned with our security teams, who are
amazing men and women, like go out there and you
check out all these nuances, but being behaviorless, right, yeah,
having someone physically there with wildlife experience, but when.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
We see behavior face to face and be able to
read that.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Appropriately, that that's a big deal because some of these animals,
I mean, I was just talking about Chinese alligator on
the news and it being more of a nocturnal species,
so of course during nighttime, so you come and check
them out. But now having these teams, you can all
this nuanced behavior from so many different species that yeah,
maybe we have a camera here or there, but not
to the extent of physically being there and the smells
of sites that you can pick up.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
The sounds, the communications between them.
Speaker 5 (09:12):
And when I first got trained for what previously was
our late wildlife care specialist shift, it was a little
later than the standard daytime shift, but people were like, oh,
the animals act different, And I was like, I was
just here like two hours ago in the same vehicle.
You pull in and that Kate Buffalo heard is like,
what are you doing here? This is our time? Why
what are these hours, and so same thing at night,
(09:32):
Like we would see animals in places that daytime teams
don't see them, and we're like, oh, you're Kate buffalo
herd hangs out over here, and they're like, no, they
don't during the because they don't see them there during
the day. And so this created an opportunity for us
to utilize a program called zoom Monitor, and we work
with our wildlife welfare manager and looking at those outside
hours where you know, a wildlife care specialist is here
(09:54):
for eight hours a day, but those animals are here
twenty four hours a day and so there's still two
thirds of that day that maybe we were had an
opportunity to gain more information, and so we utilize that
program to tell those teams like, hey, this is what
your animals are doing at night, and that sometimes helps
when they're bringing in new animals. We introduced recently southern
white rhinos into one of.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Our field habitats, but we did a lot of monitoring
beforehand of.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Where those space use studies for those animals, and now
we're continuing to do them. Did the intro of those
rhinos change where the animals were using those spaces and
is that because the rhinos are there, is that because
it's a seasonal change, And so that's a lot of
data and information that we can share with our welfare
team for them to take back to those teams.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I love that you're bringing this up because I think
the initial thought is, oh, a nighttime crew taking care
of nocturn animals. Probably, Oh no, that's not it. They're
taking care of this, that and the other. But what
you just brought up really shows the level of trying
to understand best practices. Yes, and not only does the
observations you're talking about and the zoom monitor thing, and
how is the space used at nighttime by what species
(10:56):
and what's influencing when new animals come in. But I'm
thinking right away to one of our previous interviews I
think it was last season, where we talk a lot
about how the care we take of certain species here.
We can then take that and translocate that information to
the conservation site in the wild, and vice versa. We
can take that information they're learning there and apply it
to our care here. Having a better understanding of what
(11:18):
these animals are doing at nighttime can really influence it
in how we approach conservation in the wild as well,
and I love that this is a big part of
what we're doing it.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Oh yes, And sometimes it's the overnight team that's like, hey,
we've seen this behavior change and we'd like to start
monitoring it, and so we approach the daytime team and
sometimes the daytime team comes to us and goes, we
want to know what this species, this individual animal is doing.
Can you guys start monitoring? And so I like that
it's organic. It's on both sides. It's not a here's
(11:46):
a checklist, you have to do these things, but it's
really organic. And then we do time block so we're
not just checking at nine pm. We check throughout the
night and a day to day. There is a little
checklist in the office of making sure we're covering different
times through the night over the course of a week,
and do those nighttime events play any part in what
we're doing and when we have the later hours and
(12:08):
things like that.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
So all that's captured in those and.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
Then we work with the welfare manager and go, hey,
this is the data that we're getting back that you're using.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Is that creating more questions that you need us to
look at something.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
It's always exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
That's always so useful information too.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
But also I wanted you to also try to describe
the Safari Park at night, right, Like I remember in
the past doing like overnights monitoring condoregs like two, three,
four in the morning, watching these eggs or they turn
and you know, just watching their health and conditions. But
I just remember the beautiful night sky, the cool weather,
Like can you describe it to us, Like what's it
like for.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
You, Like come in into the park in the dark.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Especially right now the cool weather, oh man, I mean
it gets a little warmer and sandy. Yeah, it's up
over one hundred sometimes right in the day. And we're
like in the mid eighties, mid seventies at night, which
is my jam.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
But it's a whole different atmosphere.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
Like I said, people think about like the public hours,
but the sounds, the smells. We can hear toads making
all kinds of noise. You can see even things like
tarantulas coming across the road, and bats and mule deer bats, Yes,
bats are out you know at those dusk and dawn hours.
And it's an incredible it's it's hard to wrap. It's
an incredible experience. The sounds that the animals make with
(13:25):
each other. The full moon nights are beautiful.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
You can see people joke around.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
Then. I'm getting nocturnal vision because I'll be training somebody
and we're watching an animal and I'm like, oh, and
there's this of stock behind us, and they're like, how.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
Did you see that? And I'm like, well, you just.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Get used to it.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
You see it a little bit more. But you know,
those those full moon nights are incredible. The view across
the valley. The sounds will get elephants making noise and
you can hear two thirds of the way across the park.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
That's the thing too, right, Yeah, when the sun sets,
and something about the still night air and the moisture
in the air as well that calm. Yes, and this
sound really does travel. And I remember, like to your point,
hearing some of the wildlife living at the Safari but
also the native species that take opportunity too and like
exploring skunks and great horn ality and whatnot too, and
reminded you. I wanted to point out for a guests
(14:12):
that you know, the Safari Park in the San Diego
Zoo were also like these sanctuaries for a lot of species.
I mean I was talking to you about we had
helped out a younger burrowing out chick who had lost
his parents unfortunately, but the Safari Park we would offer
a home for this animal and help out with their
conservation status and rereleasing and back out in the areas
here in San Diego County, and there's a variety of
different species. We've offered sanctuaries to spider monkeys in the past.
(14:35):
And I also wanted to point out because another species,
the mountain lion that we have here at the Safari Park,
that because of their more nocturnal behavioral tendencies, you know,
just naturally they're more of a nocturnal species. You all,
being the experience specialist that you are, you can actually
now interact with these animals. So maybe in the past
we would do it during regular zoo hours, but here
we have this amazing opportunity to engage with wildlife during
(14:58):
their their sort of natural rhythm make activities.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Right. So I think that's a really unique experience, right.
Speaker 5 (15:03):
Yeah, And that's I mentioned earlier that we don't really
know what we're getting into, and that's the only consistency
for us. It is these three mountain lion cubs and so.
But when I say consistency, it's not consistent day to day.
Sometimes we may do one or two feeds. Sometimes we
may do something at seven or eight at night. Sometimes
we may not do stuff till ten. And part of
that is all built in to mimic that natural environment
as best that we can. But they're an incredible trio
(15:26):
to be able to work with.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Yeah, and it reminded you for a guest. Now there
is a special tour. You go on our website Sdzsafari
Park dot org and look up the tour experiences and
we have one available where you can go out there
and not at three in the morning.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Look, you're doing right. You get an opportunity. Yeah, cruise
through that habitat. Maybe you'll see those middlines. So be
able to check out the website.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
The Safari Park offers a lot for people that I
think most people don't even realize.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
Yeah, and we're getting into the season where it's going
to be tied to a Roaring Store event, so on
weekends that'll be the sneak peak of stuff we're hoping
to add to that.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
If you're not aware, friends are listening to roring snore.
It's just really cool camping experience you can do at.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
The Safari Park.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
I've done it once before, and you guys can totally
tease me about this, but I really didn't think about
why it's called the roran snore until I did it
once with my husband and my niece, right, and I
remember waking up at two in the morning to like.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
The first second it was good.
Speaker 6 (16:24):
It was just if you For those who aren't aware,
you know a rooring snore.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Camp area is right next to Lyon Camp, our habitat
for African Line, So no joke. You hear these amazing
sounds at nighttime. So yeah, if you haven't done it.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Well, and I'll say this too, even if it wasn't
near Lyon Camp, you're hearing it's like you could feel it.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
But yeah, like I talked earlier, those sounds do, especially
at night. You're hearing him and you're right next to
the habitat too. Maybe it pete a little bit because
it was very very loud, but especially if you didn't
put that connection before that, Yeah, exactly, but that's exactly it.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
That's what we hear at night, that's what we get to.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
You know, we'll be in the middle of working with
mountain lions and then we hear that or we hear
the elephant trumpeting.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
I don't know if you have a noise for that.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
I dont q sound please, But those kinds of things,
I mean, that's the stuff that we get to see
and experience at nine.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
It's really cool opportunity.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
That's awesome. You know.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
I love that you're in this position. By the way,
I've known you for a lot of years here at
the park. Can you describe a little bit of your
progression here at to so Far Park, in the areas
that you've worked at.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
I started with the company in twenty seventeen and I
was in one of those large field habitats and I
had a marine mammal background. So when I came the
world right you were working at for fourteen years, and
so when I came into what was a dry.
Speaker 7 (17:43):
Dry environment, it was very different than what I was
used to yea literally literally, but we did have a
pond and I literally told my boss, if a sea
lion shows up in your pond, I'm your guy.
Speaker 5 (17:54):
I had a lot of stuff to learn, and so
again getting to know those individual species but also the
individual animals within those species. At the time, that run
that I was on was responsible for seven different areas
over four hundred animals, and so it was a big
change from what I think I had, like thirty sea lions.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
And then I worked with rescue stuff before.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
But so I was out in the big field habitats
for a while and then moved very very briefly to
our area where we move animals in and out, but
very briefly. And then I actually went down to our
animal care center where they worked with a lot of neonates,
and that was the chance that I got to work
with Satuni and we bottle raised Arthur, the rhino that's
now out at the field habitats. So getting a chance
(18:35):
to work with a variety of species, you know, as
big as draft and rhinos, and my heart was captured
by a little red flank dyker that I didn't even
know what the species was before I started here, and
so getting a chance to work with all of them
and learn the different nuances between what you're doing for
a seven foot tall giraffe is not what you're doing
for seven inch tall little We always called her a
(18:57):
little baked potato, and I fell in love with it.
That's where I wanted to be, and I thought I'd
stay there forever. And then this opportunity opened up and
it was a little bit of everything. And I enjoy
being kind of that jack of all trades. I like
to be the person that people come ask for help
for things.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
That really was this chance. And in my.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
Previous job, I also worked in security, and so it
was a little bit of this combo between working with
very closely with our security team that's here at night,
and then working with animals. And so I took the opportunity.
I was offered the opportunity, and I jumped at the
chance and absolutely fell in love.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
So now that you've been doing it for a bit,
and you just said you fell in love, what is
it like for you with this history, with this background,
of the wide write of things you've done with your career,
just your knowledge you bring to the table, and now
you get to be a part of this spearhead. Really
you have this apartment to do this kind of work.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
What for you personally? What's that like?
Speaker 4 (19:49):
I love it.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
I love the trust that my leadership had in creating this,
because it wasn't moving into a role of you know,
this person left this position and now we're going to
fill it. It was we all do I don't know
what this looks like. We don't know what we're hoping
this turns into. And kind of just like training, like
you ask those questions and based off what you get
back is how things more fun. So the conversations we
(20:11):
had two years ago of where we thought this was
going didn't necessarily involve the animals that we're talking about today,
and so looking at those opportunities and looking at that
lens for twenty four hours a day for the Wildlife
far is a huge honor. There's not a lot of
people and there's only I think two other facilities that
have true overnight twenty four hour care and that was
something that was really important for us to be able
(20:33):
to provide, and we're doing it.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
I have a feeling that's going to change.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Yeah, there's any more facilities going online that.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
There's so much that happens that you were growing right, Yeah, revolving,
And I wanted to talk about your background because I
always want little kids to know, especially if you're listening
right now, like we're listening to all these paths.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Rick had a different path. I had a different path.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
But we're all three of us were loving life here
at the Safari Park, the San Diego Zoo and different experiences,
different skill sets, and you know, I came in Admittedly,
I'm only going to say this once.
Speaker 6 (21:01):
You know you're way back in the day. I applied
for a job at Sea World because I was all
about behavior, like I'm going to train some of those
marine mammals. And then they told me I had to
do a swim test. No, sir, I didn't even think
about I gotta go on the water.
Speaker 7 (21:16):
No.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
But but the point of the story is, you know,
you're a kid and you think, oh, I love I
love jaguars as a cample.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
But maybe you start working with the jaguars and maybe
you think, you know what, I'm not really into cats.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
I kind of want to work with this. But the
point is you.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Can change your mind and you can grow and learn
all these different nuances.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
And let me look where you're right down, man, And
I think the path that even when you start in
the organization or you get that first job opportunity that
you know, when I was at SeaWorld and they were like,
what do you want to work with? I said anything,
but Sea lions, and I said, why not sea lions?
I said, they'll chase you out of the water. And
somebody said, you're thinking out some a dolphin, and that
is a good point. Now I don't, and the vacancy
they had with sea lions, and I never looked back.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
I loved it as I helped with other animals, but that.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
Was my passion. And then getting to do rehab and
stuff like that. Had I said no because that's what
I thought. And we do a lot of stuff with
interns and different committees here at the organization, and one
of my big passions is getting people the.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Foot in the door. There's so many opportunities.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
There's so many we have, Like we talked about specialists
that are in birds and specialists that are working with hoofstock,
but even within that there's even more opportunity of other
things around.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Well, i'd love the part of your story. So wonderful
is that listening to how you progress through You had
your passions, but you were open to opportunities and now
you're like, I'm in this awesome.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Position anybody else has, yes.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
So that's a great lesson right there. I really appreciate
you spending time with us telling us all about this.
Is there anything else about the whole experience of this
overnight wildlifcare specialist team that we haven't touched on that
you'd like to share with anybody.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
I think there was a little snippet earlier that I
wanted to mention. We talked about the native species. One
of the other animals we're working a lot with is
native bats.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
Oh really yeah.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
So native bats are local here an Escnito, but all
over everywhere.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
They're so important.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
And we have done our first re release of bats.
We've actually done three at this point back here on property.
So they were either skinny, just not right YEA mentioned
earlier write alert and responsive, and so if they're not right,
alert and responsive, there's something going on with that.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
And so we've worked with a rehabber.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
We relocate those bats to a rehabber and then we
bring them back and re release them. And we've done
our first re release of three bats here and I'm
very proud of.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
The That's all the work that's gone into it.
Speaker 5 (23:33):
It's coordinating with our wildlife health team here, with our
folks that work with bats here on property, working with
public health and then native you know, the local rehabbers
and I'm just I love it.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
And that's again Mark, I've talked about this so much
about how important is to pitt inshore our local wildlife too.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Then we talk to.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Kids all the time and they want to do something
to say bands like well, hey, go to your local
park and clean up out there, or go for a
hike and take a bag with you to pick up trashy.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
I mean, this is an opportunity.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
That you are now assisting, is local wildlife that's nocturnal,
which would be an opportunity missed otherwise.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
Yes, it's awesome to see them as those dusk hours
come out and there swooping down and getting bugs.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Yeah, have at it, eat the bug.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Like thirty different species of insane.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
In the past we talked about the two species and
Mexico for all the agaba plant.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
But again we talk about the word diversity or in
the beauty of all the diversity of wildlife daytime and nighttime.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Right, the hostculary at don dues all of it.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
All of it has a role to play, so and
it makes a big difference. Yes, it makes a huge
different Thank you, friend, this.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Is so yeah, Thank you always, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
I know I've said it before, but I can't get
over all the amazing things we get to learn talking
to all these incredible people who work with the San
Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
I am right there with you, Marco. I must admit
I did have an idea of what Ollie would be
sharing with us, but I definitely learned a lot more
than I thought I would, and I'm really glad that
we have this opportunity to share these conversations with our listeners.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Oh, I know, I mean, it's super fascinating stuff. I mean,
have you ever thought about doing overnight shifts at the
zoo or safari Park?
Speaker 5 (25:07):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Yeah, of course. Back when I was a wildlifecare specialist
at the Zoo, I often worked late shifts, not quite
the same as overnights like all of the and his team,
but sometimes I'd be at the zoo until ten o'clock
at night, and I have to admit the first few
times I did this, it was a little unnerving because
you can hear and smell all this wildlife around you,
but you can't really see them very well.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
But you know, once you get used to it, it's
actually pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
I one hundred percent degree. Friend.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I mean back in the day, I was doing overnights
just with condors and that was like six thirty in
the evening to six in the morning. And oh, I
gotta tell you, the stars, the full moon, coyotes in
the house, the Safari Park is something pretty magical at night.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
I should think so. And I'll say this, the fact
that the overnight team has been able to expand and
grow as the needs present themselves is such a great
way to learn more about our wildlife.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Oh I know.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
I mean the fact that it started with the overnights
for Seatuni the giraffe, and now they're checking in on
all sorts of wifelife, including doing things for the more
nocturnal mail lines we have here, and you know everything else.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
And you know how Allie was talking about the bats
and how if they find a wild one that's not
doing well, that they are able to place it with
a wildlife rehab facility. It reminds me of how our
daytime staff will do the same thing with birds and
mammals they might find in our local area.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Oh yeah, exactly, I mean, just another way we can
help our local wildlife. Actually, oh, you know, it does
kind of remind me, though.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I wanted to share something with our listeners, especially the
younger ones. Right now, our trained professional wildlife care specialists
know that it's best for the sick or maybe injured
wildlife to be cared for by a professional wildlife rehabilitation center, right,
That makes sense. So I just want to make sure
that everyone knows that if you see any sick or
injured animal, it's best to let an adult know and
(26:46):
have them contact your local wildlife rehabilitation center.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Excellent point, Marco. Especially important because some sick or injured
wildlife may not understand that you're trying to help them,
so they might fire to scratch if you're trying to
pick them up. And those who do work professionally with
wild life, if usually have the proper tools and methods
to carefully help and handle wild life of need.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Yeah, exactly, I mean it. Mainally, sometimes I want to
bite and scratch my dentists, you know, So I completely
understand that.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
But that's a very valid point, Rick, And you know, Rick,
it does remind me though. You know, our friend Ken
has been doing some work with Volpro in Africa, and
that's an organization that cares for sick and injured vultures,
and it also incubates eggs and when needed, assists in
hatching out eggs to support the populations of vultures.
Speaker 5 (27:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Again, a great group of people who know what they're
doing with specialized animals, and that's actually a really good
idea for an episode.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
I think.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Do you think that we could catch up with Kim
and have her tell our audience more about volpro.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
I mean, dude, she's pretty passionate about it. I bet
to be happy to do it all right.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Sounds good to me, and I'll bet our listeners would
love to hear from her as well. So everybody be
sure to subscribe if you haven't already, and tune into
our next episode, in which we learn more about taking
care of the birds that keep the world clean and
help prevent.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
A spread of disease. Now, Marco Wentz and I'm Rich Schwartz,
thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
For more information about the San Diego Zoo and San
Diego Zoo Safari Park, go to SDZWA dot org. Amazing
Wildlife is a production of iHeartRadio. Our supervising producers are
Nikkia Swinton and Dylan Fagan, and our sound designers are
Sierra Spreen and Matt Russell. For more shows from iHeartRadio,
check out the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you
(28:26):
listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Rick Schwartz
Marco Wendt
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