• Home
• Conservation
• Articles
• To Protect and Conserve

The Role of L.A. Zoo Veterinarians in Conservation

by Stacey Hagreen

The word veterinarian conjures images of kindly doctors administering care to animals, usually domestic dogs and cats. When most people think of a zoo veterinarian, they get a similar picture, albeit those dogs and cats are replaced by kangaroos or monkeys or other exotic animals. But the job of a zoo vet extends beyond providing hands-on care for the animals at any one zoo. For the dedicated members of the veterinary staff at the Gottlieb Animal Health and Conservation Center here at the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens, conservation is a key component of the job—and the desire to save entire species from extinction is part of what lures many vets into the zoological field.

Chief Veterinarian Dr. Curtis Eng and his staff not only care for the nearly 1,000 animals at our Zoo, they are also active participants in conservation programs beyond our gates, including the Peninsular Pronghorn Recovery Program and the ongoing mission to save the California condor from extinction.

Peninsular Pronghorn
Last year Eng and members of his staff, along with veterinary staff  from Palm Springs' Living Desert Zoo, traveled to Baja California Sur, Mexico, to provide health care for peninsular pronghorn fawns at the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve.

With fewer than 200 peninsular pronghorn remaining, all conservation efforts are vital to ensuring the continued survival of the species. The vets gave all the fawns physical check-ups, providing medical care as needed.

While the Zoo has been an active participant in the Recovery Program since 2000, staff from Disney’s Animal Kingdom had previously provided the majority of veterinary assistance. “For our veterinary staff to be able to have that opportunity to step up to the plate and provide veterinary support to this program was extremely exciting for us,” Eng says.

Information gathered from such field work is shared with other zoo veterinarians, something Eng feels is very important. “Being the only zoo in the country to have these animals, we feel that if we can get more players to participate in the program, we’ll add to the knowledge base that much faster, and the data will become that much more valuable. By sharing this information formally and informally we will elicit interest in this species and hopefully get other zoos to recognize the value of this unique animal. That’s what we hope for.”

California Condor
The Los Angeles Zoo has a long history with the California Condor Recovery Program. From a low of just 22, the population has climbed to 330 individuals—and the role of veterinary staff in the program continues to evolve.

In the past, the veterinarians’ involvement was limited to providing emergency medical treatment to condors that were brought in to the hospital. But in the last few years, they have begun accompanying keepers and biologists into the field to assist in evaluating wild chicks. In so doing, they are able to contribute to a database of information regarding landmarks of normal condor development.

Eng explains, “Now we’re sending veterinarians into the field to examine condor chicks at 30, 60, 90, and 120 days of age. We’re able to determine if they’re having any problems in terms of the size they should be, their weight, how big their pin feathers are, and so on. It’s a wonderful thing, because in the past we just didn’t have the staff to be able to do that.”

That initiative paid off last year in the successful treatment of a chick that was determined to be underdeveloped due to its ingestion of microtrash—bits of metal, plastic, glass, and other foreign objects which it was fed by its parents. (Parent birds sometimes mistake microtrash for bone fragments, which they would normally seek out as a calcium source for their chicks.) Microtrash had collected in the chick’s digestive tract, causing it to be unable to digest appropriate food and absorb the nutrients necessary for healthy growth.

The chick was transported to the Gottlieb Health Center, where the veterinary staff surgically removed the trash. After a brief recovery, the chick was returned to its nest. Such a success, built upon the foundation of the ever-growing veterinary conservation program for the condors, gratifies Eng. “In the past, we probably would not have known what was happening, because we didn’t have the capacity to assess the birds as frequently as we do now. I sincerely think if we hadn’t been able to do that, this animal may have died. It is a really cool thing to know that we’ve made a difference.”

Relationships with Animal Keepers
The relationship between veterinary and keeper staff is a key component of animal care. Trust is an important part of that relationship. Vets rely on the keepers to be their “eyes and ears” on a daily basis, and keepers expect that the best possible care will be provided for the animals entrusted to them. Eng believes that relationship is especially important out in the field, where vets often rely on keepers’ knowledge of a species’ natural behavior.

"With the condor program, for example, the keepers know how best to handle these birds and manage them so that we can more safely do an exam without endangering ourselves, the chick, or even the parents of the chick,” Eng explains. “That’s where their expertise comes into play.”

The veterinary staff also benefits from keepers’ observation of individual animals. At the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve, for example, Eng relied upon keeper feedback in monitoring fawn health. “They have the capacity to be more involved with the direct observation of the fawns on a day to day basis,” he says. “They could tell us, for example, how well a certain fawn is taking its water, or suckling its milk. Is it vigorous like it was the day before, or is it weak?” Keepers are often the first to observe signs of illness in an animal, which they report to the veterinary staff.

“That relationship is extremely important,” Eng says, “whether it’s on grounds taking care of our Zoo animals, or out in the field helping to manage endangered species.”

Information Sharing
Even with such a knowledgeable staff, there is much still to learn about the animals. And so a key component in the progress of veterinary conservation is the sharing of information. All five of the L.A. Zoo’s veterinarians are associate professors at Western University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. As such, they have the ability to share and receive information with the greater academic community.

Additionally, the staff takes advantage of medical databases, extensive library holdings, and veterinary journals and conferences. Keeping up with the latest developments in veterinary science is a challenge, but one Eng and his staff are able to meet. “I think we have an extremely skilled group of veterinarians here,” he says. “Additionally we have incredible community support that helps us diagnose and treat these animals when they come up with really rare stuff that we’ve never seen before. And technology has improved so well that we can now treat conditions that might have been present before but we didn’t have the capacity to diagnose.”

Whether they are participating in field conservation projects or administering to the needs of individual animals here at the Zoo, our veterinary staff is helping to redefine the role of the zoo vet-and thereby expanding what people envision when they hear the word veterinarian.

This article appeared in the Fall 2008 issue of Zoo View, the quarterly magazine of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association.