Oh animals they are amazing they’re
loving exciting unconditional once
establishes a human animal bond is truly
one like no other and I don’t know I
know that some of my closest and most
consistent relationships have been with
animals take a minute and think about
your first or most impactful final
experience was it in nature a chance
encounter with a black tailed deer or
nuthatch
was it praying through the glass of an
aquarium or looking into the eyes and
exotic species you’ve never seen before
I mean maybe it was a time you held your
first hamster or meeting a friendly or
an aggressive canine it’s the diversity
of these experiences that shape the
roles that animals play in our lives I
know that my first impactful experience
took place between myself and a
chimpanzee I was 11 years old and I was
off to the zoo with a backpack full of
apples and oranges off to feed the
animals this is at a time when we’re
still allowed to do so and I remember
approaching the chimpanzee exhibit and
tossing an apple into one of them one of
them proceeded to catch it and members
of his cohort came over to see who would
toss this Apple now I watched them from
up above and they came over and looked
up and the chimp who was eating the
Apple scanned the wall there were must
have been about 50 visitors saw me
locked eyes with me and pointed at me
it was amazing it was humbling it blew
my mind and I guess you could say that
that’s where my lifelong love of animals
began I’ve had a pretty awesome career
path and it’s carpets way from wildlife
biology to teaching in a formal setting
and eventually returning to my roots of
becoming a zoologist and education
director as well as the director of a
small walkthrough area at Wildlife
Safari I’m living the dream I get to
work hands-on every day with these
animals all while being able to educate
about the importance of wildlife
conservation and wild connections I’ve
seen and lived through some pretty
amazing experiences bird Bites bear
bites animal births animal deaths and
there’s one story that I want to share
with you today this is a story of
pancake pancake and her sister were born
at wildlife safari weighing in at only a
few ounces and it was a highly
anticipated birth through everyone
involved keepers spent many sleepless
nights watching the monitors for the
tell-tale science of contractions from
the mother and while the birth was
textbook we began to notice that a
couple days later they weren’t gaming
the weight that they should have it then
at the anticipated rate and seemed to
overall to be struggling to survive now
a zoologist the decisions that we make
are difficult if not impossible at times
and it’s only through really
understanding our animals that were able
to make the best decisions for them this
situation was particularly sensitive as
we had such high hopes that pancake and
her sister would grow up to join the
breeding population of their species in
zoos you see in the wild
90% of cheetahs don’t make it to four
months of age a lot of this is due to
predation but a lot of it is also due to
the fact that they have such a small
gene pool it makes their immune systems
compromised and susceptible to disease
so with all this in mind we had to make
a decision quickly and we knew that this
decision would impact not only
pancake her sister the keepers but also
the cheetah species as a whole as well
as everyone else who would get to meet
them so with this in mind we decided to
pull pancake and her sister from her mom
a mere hours later we lost her sister
and through this tragic loss we
discovered that pancakes mom actually
wasn’t producing milk and had we not
pulled them it’s very likely that
pancake would have succumbed to the
exact same fate as her sister now we had
to play the role of Henry’s and pancake
and this entailed having someone with
her for 24 hours a day seven days a week
for the first six months of her life
and as a result pancake lives a life
that’s quite different from those
cheetahs that are in the wild now
pancake is the face of and sheds light
on the myriad of threats that wild
cheetahs face many of which are human
wildlife conflict
cheetahs right now are being killed to
protect livestock they’re part of the
illegal pet trade and they’re also
enjoying an enormous habitat loss
according to the Zoological Society of
London the Wildlife Conservation Society
and Panthera there’s a little over seven
thousand cheetahs left in the wild to
put these put things into perspective
this is down from a hundred thousand
cheetahs just over a century ago
compounded with this is the fact that
they’ve lost about 75% of their habitat
so this brings us to cheetahs that exist
in US zoos across the United States
currently we have about 300 cheetahs
that exist in these places many of which
are backed by the association of zoos
and aquariums or the aza the aza in
conjunction of the Species Survival Plan
cooperatively manages these cheetah
populations in order to breed as many as
possible to really increase their
species diversity their genetic
diversity now at wildlife safari were
really good at doing this so much so
that were the number two cheetah
breeding facility in the world
– to date we’ve bred over 210 cheetah
cubs and it’s only through the hard work
as cheetah keepers and detailed
observations were able to do so and
while one day we do hope to be able to
reintroduce these back into the wild
right now we’re just working on really
maintaining a sustainable captive
cheetah population so why should we care
I mean we all know we lead such
incredibly busy lives why should we care
about these species that are so far
removed from our everyday lives why
should we care that every single day
we’re losing dozens of species dozens of
plants mammal insect bird species and
this is a conservative estimate we
should care because without sea otters
the level of sea urchins would rise so
much that they eat all the kelp forests
which give home and habitat and food to
so many species of ducks geese and
snails we should care because without
African elephants the African savannah
would not be a savanna
as they fords the way for savanna
grasses fertilized soils and provide
homes and habitats for other herd
species you should care because without
insects and the role they play with
flowering plants the world as we know it
right now what ceased to exist in 50
years 50 years the entire delicate
balance of our planet is being shifted
and through the destruction of all these
species were inadvertently destroying
ourselves so what do we do how can you
turn all this knowledge and words into
action every single one of you guys can
become citizen scientists you could
visit sites such as universe org and
participate in real world science pick
out a project that you love you could
learn how to count animals on a camera
job
stars identify rocks or plants you could
visit an AZ accredited zoo or aquarium
aza donates 160 million dollars every
single year to both insets U and exit to
conservation projects currently they’re
funding over 2,500 projects in over a
hundred countries you could go for a
walk
you could learn how to identify birds
learn how to identify frog calls or in a
very doable level plant some flowers for
the bees refrain from pesticide use or
if next time you see a spider or a
beetle why not help it on its way in our
increasingly urbanized and
technology-driven world it’s so
important that we make these wild
connections and I know how difficult it
is but we have to because in the lot in
the words of Sir David Attenborough a
lifelong advocate for our planet no
one’s going to protect what they don’t
care about no one’s going to care about
what they’ve never experienced no one’s
gonna care about we’ve never experienced
but we have to pancake is
– pancakes presents she’s raising
awareness and playing a direct role in
fighting extinction for our species
without these wild connections we can
allow ourselves to look the other way
and remain silent contributors the loss
of so many amazing living breathing
species I want you to take a look at
pancake I want you to look into our eyes
and let it be this connection for you
just as that chimpanzee was for me one
that’s gonna inspire courage and
advocate action one that’s going to make
us be that positive change that we all
know we can be right now because if not
right now then when thank you
[Applause]
she’s really dedicated conservation
loving exciting unconditional once
establishes a human animal bond is truly
one like no other and I don’t know I
know that some of my closest and most
consistent relationships have been with
animals take a minute and think about
your first or most impactful final
experience was it in nature a chance
encounter with a black tailed deer or
nuthatch
was it praying through the glass of an
aquarium or looking into the eyes and
exotic species you’ve never seen before
I mean maybe it was a time you held your
first hamster or meeting a friendly or
an aggressive canine it’s the diversity
of these experiences that shape the
roles that animals play in our lives I
know that my first impactful experience
took place between myself and a
chimpanzee I was 11 years old and I was
off to the zoo with a backpack full of
apples and oranges off to feed the
animals this is at a time when we’re
still allowed to do so and I remember
approaching the chimpanzee exhibit and
tossing an apple into one of them one of
them proceeded to catch it and members
of his cohort came over to see who would
toss this Apple now I watched them from
up above and they came over and looked
up and the chimp who was eating the
Apple scanned the wall there were must
have been about 50 visitors saw me
locked eyes with me and pointed at me
it was amazing it was humbling it blew
my mind and I guess you could say that
that’s where my lifelong love of animals
began I’ve had a pretty awesome career
path and it’s carpets way from wildlife
biology to teaching in a formal setting
and eventually returning to my roots of
becoming a zoologist and education
director as well as the director of a
small walkthrough area at Wildlife
Safari I’m living the dream I get to
work hands-on every day with these
animals all while being able to educate
about the importance of wildlife
conservation and wild connections I’ve
seen and lived through some pretty
amazing experiences bird Bites bear
bites animal births animal deaths and
there’s one story that I want to share
with you today this is a story of
pancake pancake and her sister were born
at wildlife safari weighing in at only a
few ounces and it was a highly
anticipated birth through everyone
involved keepers spent many sleepless
nights watching the monitors for the
tell-tale science of contractions from
the mother and while the birth was
textbook we began to notice that a
couple days later they weren’t gaming
the weight that they should have it then
at the anticipated rate and seemed to
overall to be struggling to survive now
a zoologist the decisions that we make
are difficult if not impossible at times
and it’s only through really
understanding our animals that were able
to make the best decisions for them this
situation was particularly sensitive as
we had such high hopes that pancake and
her sister would grow up to join the
breeding population of their species in
zoos you see in the wild
90% of cheetahs don’t make it to four
months of age a lot of this is due to
predation but a lot of it is also due to
the fact that they have such a small
gene pool it makes their immune systems
compromised and susceptible to disease
so with all this in mind we had to make
a decision quickly and we knew that this
decision would impact not only
pancake her sister the keepers but also
the cheetah species as a whole as well
as everyone else who would get to meet
them so with this in mind we decided to
pull pancake and her sister from her mom
a mere hours later we lost her sister
and through this tragic loss we
discovered that pancakes mom actually
wasn’t producing milk and had we not
pulled them it’s very likely that
pancake would have succumbed to the
exact same fate as her sister now we had
to play the role of Henry’s and pancake
and this entailed having someone with
her for 24 hours a day seven days a week
for the first six months of her life
and as a result pancake lives a life
that’s quite different from those
cheetahs that are in the wild now
pancake is the face of and sheds light
on the myriad of threats that wild
cheetahs face many of which are human
wildlife conflict
cheetahs right now are being killed to
protect livestock they’re part of the
illegal pet trade and they’re also
enjoying an enormous habitat loss
according to the Zoological Society of
London the Wildlife Conservation Society
and Panthera there’s a little over seven
thousand cheetahs left in the wild to
put these put things into perspective
this is down from a hundred thousand
cheetahs just over a century ago
compounded with this is the fact that
they’ve lost about 75% of their habitat
so this brings us to cheetahs that exist
in US zoos across the United States
currently we have about 300 cheetahs
that exist in these places many of which
are backed by the association of zoos
and aquariums or the aza the aza in
conjunction of the Species Survival Plan
cooperatively manages these cheetah
populations in order to breed as many as
possible to really increase their
species diversity their genetic
diversity now at wildlife safari were
really good at doing this so much so
that were the number two cheetah
breeding facility in the world
– to date we’ve bred over 210 cheetah
cubs and it’s only through the hard work
as cheetah keepers and detailed
observations were able to do so and
while one day we do hope to be able to
reintroduce these back into the wild
right now we’re just working on really
maintaining a sustainable captive
cheetah population so why should we care
I mean we all know we lead such
incredibly busy lives why should we care
about these species that are so far
removed from our everyday lives why
should we care that every single day
we’re losing dozens of species dozens of
plants mammal insect bird species and
this is a conservative estimate we
should care because without sea otters
the level of sea urchins would rise so
much that they eat all the kelp forests
which give home and habitat and food to
so many species of ducks geese and
snails we should care because without
African elephants the African savannah
would not be a savanna
as they fords the way for savanna
grasses fertilized soils and provide
homes and habitats for other herd
species you should care because without
insects and the role they play with
flowering plants the world as we know it
right now what ceased to exist in 50
years 50 years the entire delicate
balance of our planet is being shifted
and through the destruction of all these
species were inadvertently destroying
ourselves so what do we do how can you
turn all this knowledge and words into
action every single one of you guys can
become citizen scientists you could
visit sites such as universe org and
participate in real world science pick
out a project that you love you could
learn how to count animals on a camera
job
stars identify rocks or plants you could
visit an AZ accredited zoo or aquarium
aza donates 160 million dollars every
single year to both insets U and exit to
conservation projects currently they’re
funding over 2,500 projects in over a
hundred countries you could go for a
walk
you could learn how to identify birds
learn how to identify frog calls or in a
very doable level plant some flowers for
the bees refrain from pesticide use or
if next time you see a spider or a
beetle why not help it on its way in our
increasingly urbanized and
technology-driven world it’s so
important that we make these wild
connections and I know how difficult it
is but we have to because in the lot in
the words of Sir David Attenborough a
lifelong advocate for our planet no
one’s going to protect what they don’t
care about no one’s going to care about
what they’ve never experienced no one’s
gonna care about we’ve never experienced
but we have to pancake is
– pancakes presents she’s raising
awareness and playing a direct role in
fighting extinction for our species
without these wild connections we can
allow ourselves to look the other way
and remain silent contributors the loss
of so many amazing living breathing
species I want you to take a look at
pancake I want you to look into our eyes
and let it be this connection for you
just as that chimpanzee was for me one
that’s gonna inspire courage and
advocate action one that’s going to make
us be that positive change that we all
know we can be right now because if not
right now then when thank you
[Applause]
she’s really dedicated conservation
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