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On the Job: Zoo VeterinarianExplore more photos from the story |
Suzan Murray, chief veterinarian at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C., oversees the health care of 2,000 animals from some 400 species. On a recent spring morning's rounds, she checked on an artificially-inseminated elephant, a giant anteater with skin abrasions, a kiwi named Manaia and an anesthetized Burmese python. Murray discusses what it takes to become a vet and what it's like making house calls at the nation's zoo.
What made you decide to become a zoo veterinarian?
As a kid, I liked animals, and I was good at math and sciences. We had a lot of animals around the house, and my grandparents had a farm. Those were some of the things that made me realize that [veterinary medicine] was something I was interested in pursuing.
What skills and training are required for your position?
After college and four years of veterinary school, typically you do a one-year internship and then a three-year residency. A residency is a period in which you specialize in a particular area of medicine. So in human medicine, you can have cardiology, urology, dermatology. Veterinary medicine has a number of those same specialties, one of which is zoological medicine. The National Zoo runs one of the few zoological medicine residency programs in the country. I actually did my training here years ago. After that, you can do something to become a specialist and become board certified in zoo medicine. In order to run a training program, you need to be board certified, to be a specialist in zoo medicine.
How does the National Zoo differ from other zoos?
One of the great things about the Smithsonian is all of our different resources and levels of expertise. Not every zoo has a pathologist, or nutritionist or the level of keeper training that this zoo has. The standard of animal care that we provide is excellent, so I think that, along with the ability to contribute to science and conservation, is what really sets us apart. We use what we learn to take care of animals here and to learn how to manage animals in the wild.
We have a lot of conservation programs where we use information from the wild to help manage animals here. We have a project in Kenya looking at kori bustards, the largest flighted bird. In captivity, we found that they have a high instance of liver disease, of hemochromatosis, which is the storing of iron in the liver. We studied what they're eating in the wild, collected blood samples, analyzed that for iron and then compared to what we do in captivity. We learned that they're not eating much meat in the wild. They're eating more berries and insects. That helped us modify the diet to keep them healthier in captivity.
How many veterinarians work at the zoo?
We have myself and two clinical vets downtown as well as two residents, and then the head vet at the Conservation and Research Center [in Virginia], Luis Padilla.
How closely do you and the other vets work with the zoo's animal keepers?
As head of the department, I don't have as much direct animal care as I used to or as I would like. The veterinarians that do the clinical care get a lot of interaction with the keepers, who are really our eyes and ears. They're the ones that know the animals. They're the ones that can tell when something's wrong. We depend on each other a lot.
What is an average day like?
There really is no average day. We start out with rounds early in the morning, and then we have our duties divided. There's someone who does our park checks and there's someone who stays behind and does the clinical work. The animals we work on really vary—from a fish to an elephant to a bird to a reptile—so every day is going to be a little different.
Comments
What do you do with giraffe's in a thunderstorm? What do you do with them in the winter?
Posted by sue on April 26,2008 | 04:30PM
do you... send them indoors so they dont get hurt from the thunderstorms..because they are so tall? if you could , could you wright me back Thank you
Posted by annomonious on June 3,2008 | 02:50PM
Hello,my name is Manessa Muskett. I grew up with a lot of animals too. Being around animals is something I would like to do for a living. I am in college and still wondering about my major. I want to be a veterinarian, but I have so many choices. I want to be able to pick the right job that will allow me to be around animals. As I grew up taking care of animals. I have seen alot of animals get abused. I would take in animals that are hurt. I just need help finding the right job that would allow me to be with animals and saving them.
Posted by Manessa Muskett on October 16,2008 | 12:37PM
Hi I'm shannon and I'm 14 years old. I really want to be a zoo vet when I grow up. I would like to start preparing at an early age but am not sure how. What should I do?
Posted by Shannon on April 29,2009 | 03:11PM
what type of college classes are required for your field?please write me back im doing a school project and i nead awnsers
Posted by hp on May 18,2009 | 09:33AM
How many diplomas to you have to get to become a zoo veterinarian what is required
Posted by baily on May 31,2009 | 07:52PM