Zoo Logic

The care team at Tanganyika Wildlife Park is celebrating the survival of its young giraffe calf born several weeks early via terminal C-section two months ago. This extremely rare veterinary procedure for giraffe was made necessary as all indications suggested the experienced mother was unlikely to survive to full gestation and delivery due to suspected toxemia. Two senior members of the park's care team, Dr. Sam Russak and Jess Price, discuss the difficult decision to humanely euthanize the mother even as the team fought to save the calf.  Despite the long odds and hours, the team managed to help the calf achieve extraordinary benchmarks with  the help of other zoological facilities and experts.  While concerns about building her immune health remain, the team is optimistic about the calf's prognosis with visual introduction to the rest of the herd already underway. Animal Care Software

Lea Korsgaard is a journalist and best selling author who spent a season documenting all 64 butterfly species found in her native country, Denmark. A self-described newbie in the world of insects and field work, her motivation was "simply a hunger for beauty and a desire to dive into the mysteries of nature." When we all seem overly distracted by screen time and the macroscopic universe, Lea enters the world of the citizen entomologist to describe the fragile and minute world of the butterfly to remind us of the importance of slowing down and paying attention. The Butterfly Season is an international best seller and is now available in English. Animal Care Software

National Wildlife Federation's naturalist, author, and tv host David Mizejewski joins Zoo Logic to discuss the organization's many child focused programs designed to help families connect with Nature in their own backyards. From the classic Ranger Rick publications to promoting wildlife friendly gardening, NWF works to inform families about the importance of less screen time and more engagement with the very creatures and plants that share our world.  David discusses the many platforms NWF uses to meet people where they are including their new podcast with PBS Nature called Wild Critters USA.  The show gives younger kids the opportunity to ask experts questions about animals. Animal Care Software

Dr. Dino Martins is an entomologist and evolutionary biologist with a new book entitled Hidden Creatures: Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies, and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites (Knopf). Growing up around animals in Kenya, Dr Martins travels the world investigating parasites and their hosts. With parasites making up about half of all biological species, he argues we need better and more research and a new generation of young scientists to understand these creatures and their impacts on human health, society and economies throughout history. Animal Care Software

Many training conversations lately involve the buzz words Choice and Control.  In fact, zoological welfare programs often insist that choice and control form the foundation of good animal welfare, but are these behavior terms new or simply a rebranding of protocols trainers have been using for decades? Renown behaviorist, Ken Ramirez, Executive VP and Chief Training Officer for Karen Pryor Clicker Training returns to discuss the history, importance and limitations of these terms. Animal Care Software