What Is It Like Being A Zoo Animal Vet
Scott Citino of White Oak Conservation talks well-nigh Sumatran rhinos, Okapis and more than
I idea most becoming a vet when I was a child just quickly gave up the thought when faced with dissecting a frog in loftier school. And then my noesis almost what vets really do on a twenty-four hours-to-day basis is pretty limited. When information technology comes to zoo veterinarians, it's fair to say I knew nothing well-nigh the field before speaking with Scott Citino, D.Five.M., staff veterinary at White Oak Conservation, a private conservation center in Yulee, Florida that specializes in rhinos, cheetahs and Okapi.
Here are seven cool things I learned near being a zoo vet from Scott:
i – Zoo vets do residencies, simply like doctors
Scott spent a lot of time on local farms in Northeast Ohio where he grew up, which sparked his involvement in becoming a vet. He was initially planning to get a large brute vet but got interested in wild animals medicine during his veterinarian studies at Ohio State University. Upon completion of his studies, he did a residency at the National Zoological Park, after which he was hired by Miami Metro Zoo as their Director of Veterinary Sciences. He later went dorsum for a short stint at the National Zoo before coming to White Oak, which is where he's been ever since.
2 – Zoo vets spend 70% of their 24-hour interval working with animals
A typical solar day for Scott usually starts pretty early – he typically gets a lot of his morning time cases washed before most people arrive for staff meetings. Since it'due south hot in Florida, he tries to accept care of the outdoor cases in the morning while it's yet cool, and so address the indoor cases and office work in the afternoon. He spends about 70% of his time working direct with the animals. He also spends time on training programs with residents and students.
iii – Working with big animals like rhinos tin pb to some exciting close calls
I was curious to know what challenges Scott faces in his piece of work with big animals like rhinos. Information technology was hard for him to option out i challenging moment considering he sees them all the time. However, he did share this exciting story well-nigh close calls while working with blackness rhinos in the field:
If you immobilize a black rhinoceros in the field, when they recover, they volition oftentimes try to hunt the truck down. They get their bearings about them, plow in a circle and listen. If they hear the truck, they'll accept off after it, and at that place have been at to the lowest degree a couple of times when we've had a rhino horn through the door."
–Scott Citino, DVM White Oak Conservation
iv – Helping global conservation projects can be an exciting part of the job
Scott has been working with the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary (SRS) in Republic of indonesia since it first started dorsum in the 90s and was instrumental in helping them bring the start Sumatran rhinos there as part of his piece of work with the International Rhino Foundation. In addition to sharing knowledge, all-time practices and helping to train the vets in that location, Scott also helped them go setup on ZIMS on a recent trip. Their Species360 membership was sponsored by the International Rhino Foundation with a grant from Mazuri Diet. There are fewer than 100 Sumatran rhinos left in the wild, so the piece of work that Scott is doing to help the SRS team is critical to ongoing conservation efforts.
It's really good to have a record keeping system like ZIMS in minor facilities like this in developing countries considering the information is so important. Fifty-fifty though the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary only has seven rhinos, there are less than 100 Sumatran rhinos left, and so we need to accept equally much information about them as possible to save them. Much of what we know virtually this species has come up from the few animals that have been in captivity."
–Scott Citino, DVM White Oak Conservation, Intl Rhino Foundation Scientific Informational Board
He'south been part of many of their important milestones, such as the birth of Delilah, a Sumatran rhino who recently turned 1.
Videos at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary by Scott
Scott is involved with several other conservation projects, 1 of which is the Okapi Conservation Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It's a project that was initially started past and currently directed by the previous director of White Oak, John Lukas, who is now the Conservation Manager at Jacksonville zoo. Scott currently serves on their board and helps them out with their website and other technical support.
Video of Okapi in wood past Okapi Conservation Project
5 – Animal records management is an important part of the job
Keeping detailed records on animals is an important part of the work. Scott explains that keeping detailed records on the animals in a collection is fundamental to knowing what works well – "For example, we know when and what type of anesthesia we used, then we know what worked well for that species but too for that detail animal." This is important knowledge for ongoing care, fifty-fifty if an animal is transferred to another facility.
White Oak uses ZIMS as the beast record system, both on the management side and veterinary side. Since they'd used MedARKS for years, ZIMS was the logical upgrade. "I like ZIMS a lot – it'due south been very useful for maintaining our records," says Scott. Some of the features he likes the best include the ability to keep records, search records, pull data from records as needed for diverse studies and having multiple people using the arrangement at the aforementioned fourth dimension.
The biggest AHA for Scott, still, was discovering how much easier it is to extract the information you need than years agone when everything was paper records:
What used to accept weeks and weeks can now be done in a day, making it a lot easier to write a report or practice research. Transferring an brute is a lot easier and greener now too since we can hands share the records with the other facility. In the past, you lot might send a whole stack of newspaper that yous had copied."
–Scott Citino, DVM White Oak Conservation, Intl Rhinoceros Foundation Scientific Advisory Board
half-dozen – Animate being data science will be an important role of the job in the future
Scott believes that pooled data is going to go increasingly more important for species management in the future, particularly when looking at disease trends and problems. If he's trying to pull data on the Okapi, for example, information technology's useful to run across if the bug he is facing are like to problems with all Okapi everywhere or is in that location a specific problem here that needs to be addressed.
When you tin come across what'southward happening with a detail species in collections all over the world, yous can extract really important information on direction of that species – that's very powerful."
–Scott Citino, DVM White Oak Conservation, Intl Rhino Foundation Scientific Advisory Board
7 – Zoos (and zoo vets) will exist playing a bigger role in conservation
In the past, zoo vets have primarily worked with animals in captivity in their own establishment. All the same, zoo vets may increasingly go more involved with conservation initiatives as a part of their job as information technology becomes more of import to zoos. Scott believes that every zoo should be involved with in-situ conservation in at least a few species considering it helps address public concern and pressure effectually a zoo's purpose in the world. Information technology's easier to explicate that purpose when zoos have those linkages between their ex-situ piece of work and education and conservation.
ZIMS data is an of import role of that linkage. Scott says, "a lot of studies for wild animals actually start with captive species data – finding patterns and problems and then comparing that to data collected in the field on 
wild species." In some cases, like with the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, the data that is collected is as close to in-situ as you lot can go with a captive population. Since the sanctuary is located in the woods that is the native habitat of the Sumatran rhino, variables such every bit climate, wet, and nutrition are nearly identical to wild populations. Having this data in ZIMS will yield critical insights into the relationship betwixt animals and their habitats in the hereafter.
Proceed in mind that most animals that are kept in zoos are not from that region. Similar hither in North America, the majority of animals we have are not from N America. I call up information technology'southward actually important to accept those links with the range countries. Adding more range land facilities to ZIMS would be a great way for this to happen."
–Scott Citino, DVM White Oak Conservation, Intl Rhino Foundation Scientific Advisory Board
In add-on to improving the data in ZIMS with convict animals in virtually in-situ habitats, from a technology transfer betoken of view, ZIMS could as well aid improve the record keeping and tape stability at these facilities. Scott explains – "Often they simply have one or two people doing everything, and so if they leave, the records end up going with them and the new person has null to start with in terms of records on the animals – with ZIMS, the records will always be there."
What's next?
White Oak but hired an associate vet which is the first time Scott has had a total-fourth dimension person to help him. He's hoping it will complimentary him up to practice more than work on the outside projects in research, training and in situ conservation that he really enjoys. He expects to be traveling more to piece of work on these types of projects in the time to come.
In terms of hereafter directions, he hopes to see more outreach and partnerships similar the International Rhino Foundation and Mazuri that will aid go ZIMS out to small facilities in developing countries because the data is so important and will be disquisitional to conservation efforts. Language barriers can be a challenge in some developing countries, then translations of ZIMS to more languages would be helpful going frontwards. Other items on Scott's wish list include imaging technology within ZIMS, the ability to interface with PACS systems (radiology, ultrasound, etc.), and mobile device input ability.
Well-nigh Scott Citino
Scott Citino, D.V.M, is the staff veterinarian for White Oak Conservation and sits on the lath of directors for Wild fauna Conservation Global. He is too a Diplomate of the American Higher of Zoological Medicine (Dipl. ACZM) and serves several conservation organizations in a scientific or technical capacity including the International Rhino Foundation, Chetah Conservation Fund, International Wildlife Institute, Okapi Conservation Projection, and American Zoological Clan (AZA) Species Survival Planning (SSP). He is a recipient of the American Association of Zoo Veterinarian'southward Emil P. Dolensek Award for infrequent contributions to the conservation, care, and understanding of zoo and costless-ranging wild animals and is the author or co-author of numerous publications in diverse disciplines of zoo and wild animals medicine. He holds adjunct clinical kinesthesia positions at the University of Florida and Academy of Miami, and his research interests include anesthesia, infectious and non-infectious diseases, and reproductive physiology of convict and free-ranging wild fauna.
past Julie Yamamoto, Connecting Content for Conservation
Source: https://www.species360.org/2017/08/7-cool-things-zoo-vet/
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