Albany Chehaw Parks Education and Animal Care Department and Georgia Southwestern State University (GSW) Biology Department are to begin a new partnership in conservation biology. For the first time during fall semester 2012, the University and the Zoo will collaborate in teaching a class in Zoo Animal Care and Maintenance.

It has always been a dream of mine to see Chehaw used to engage students as a learning institution, said Doug Porter, executive director for Chehaw. This new and exciting partnership will not only be beneficial to the Park and the University but to the greater community of Southwest Georgia.

The class will be a hands-on practice-oriented course in which more time will be spent working at the Zoo than sitting in the classroom. The goals of the course are to introduce students with a passion for animal husbandry and conservation to a career in zoo keeping. The course will cover the basics in zoo keeping, including, animal handling techniques, management, nutrition, breeding, behavior enrichment, exhibit design, zoo administration and public education of the major animal groups.

I am looking forward to getting this program off of the ground, shared Ian Brown, Ph.D., associate professor of biology at GSW. The chance to have our students working in this field as undergraduates will give them the experience that they will need when applying for future jobs in conservation.

The relationship between Chehaw Park and GSW has slowly gained momentum over the past eight years. As early as 2004, biology students began visiting the zoo to conduct behavioral observation laboratories on various animals such as the colobus monkey, flamingos, lemurs, meerkats and cheetahs. In recent years the zoo has used these student assignments as supporting material in grant applications. To date, three GSW biology majors have been hired as summer program instructors and another three have volunteered as zoo keeper assistants.

Zoo Animal Care and Maintenance students will spend their classroom time studying the theoretical aspects of the husbandry and welfare of non-domesticated animals in captivity and the logistics of zoological and conservation park operation. The overall focus in the classroom will be on the role that modern zoos must play in habitat and species conservation.

At Chehaw, the students will work alongside zoo professionals to learn the practical details of this important field. They also will be spending time with some of the Zoos leadership team, the Zoo director, the Zoo curator and Education coordinator to gain valuable insight into the inner workings of an AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums) -accredited Zoo.

This first class is being made possible through the willingness of university faculty and zoo personnel to take on additional workloads. In the future it is hoped that this initial class will grow into an entire zoo technology program with an emphasis in threatened species conservation.

The course instructors realize that modern Zoological and Conservation Parks and Aquariums utilize cutting edge technology to care for and breed many hundreds of animal species. Therefore most parks now require that their staff hold the minimum of a two-year and preferably a four-year degree in biology, animal husbandry or related field.

These new demands have opened up unique university-zoo collaboration opportunities to provide the requisite qualified zoo animal care personnel. Furthermore, in the near future a greater demand for zoos and aquariums is predicted, as their roles in animal conservation become increasingly more valuable.

Original post:
GSW, Chehaw collaborate in conservation biology