I facilitated in the design, data collection and entry of four concurrent research projects on captive apes, lemurs, and monkeys run by Dr. Tara Stoinski: “Social Learning in Captive Ring-Tailed Lemurs;” “Orangutan Empathy (A Replication of Dr. Frans De Waal’s Research);” “Technology Usage and Capacities of Captive Orangutans;” “Behavioral Responses of Captive Juvenile Gorillas to Novel Foods.”

As the penguin colony intern, I was responsible for ensuring the daily husbandry needs of the Aquarium’s 80+ individual penguins were met.  The New England Aquarium is home to three different species of penguins including: Rockhopper, African, and Little Blue Penguins.  I helped feed the individuals and maintained the exhibit for the health and safety of the animals.  I also provided ongoing educational outreach to guests and visitors.

During my semester living abroad in Australia, I spent a majority of my time working with bats and volunteering at the Pteropus House (now called Tolga Bat Hospital).  This place is a hospital for orphaned megabats whose mothers had been killed due to paralysis ticks and various tropical diseases.  I helped to feed, swaddle, and monitor the collection of infant and juvenile bats.  I spent time working with the staff in their efforts to rehabilitate the bats–also known as flying foxes–for later reintroduction to the wild.

As an intern for the African Veldt Wing of the Oakland Zoo, I supported the head keepers in ensuring the safety, health, and enrichment needs were met for captive giraffes, warthogs, hyenas, emus, vervet monkeys, wallabies, and meerkats. I also arranged and ran weekly question and answer sessions with the public.