mandaloriandragontrainer asked:

Sorry to see you’re getting harassed by the lovely “animal rights” folks on here (I’ve had multiple run ins with them myself). So… what’s your favorite species you’ve worked with, and what’s your “dream species” if you haven’t worked with it yet?

Well, as someone who has been a vegan/vegetarian for about 20 years and is an animal rights activist myself, I know that most of them are coming from a place of empathy and caring for the other inhabitants of our planet, so I can’t fault that.

But I could live without the harassment and threats of doxxing, etc. I actually had to inform my employers today, so that’s fun. All I really want to do is educate and inform others, and I appreciate anyone who is open to learning. I’m all about learning new things myself.

My favorite species I’ve ever worked with are probably anything in the monitor lizard family. Monitors are a special interest of mine, and I’m very partial to herps in general. But monitors are one of the most intelligent of reptiles and they are remarkable to work with; very responsive and endlessly fascinating.

My “dream species” that I haven’t had the opportunity to work with (yet) is elephants. I came really close once, but it was not to be. In 2016, the AZA determined that elephants must be kept in herds of 3 or more. I had just started at a zoo with two elephants and because we didn’t have the land necessary to expand their (already very large) enclosure in order to accommodate a third elephant, we had to relocate them to another facility with more space and a larger herd. Sad for us, the community, and especially for those zookeepers that had worked with them for years, but it was in the best interest of the elephants. They integrated well into the herd, and the transfer was a great success.