I started with cats, then bears, seals and sea lions. You become specialized eventually, but most people are very versatile. You work with all the animals, from elephants to fish. And you appreciate and respect them all. Dr. Cambre, who came here two years ago after 15 years at the Denver Zoo, says that being a zoo veterinarian gets into your blood.
Animal personalities are fascinating.
We have PhD curators here and a keeper staff that's mostly college educated. We depend on them to report unusual behavioral patterns for individual animals to us. Sometimes these are early warning signs of illness. It takes a team effort to figure out what's going on. Without an owner to tell them what an animal's problem is, Zoo people have to rely on their own close observations.