Scientists use a variety of techniques to study the health and welfare of animals at the zoo. For example, a research project may begin with questions from animal caretakers which lead to scientists monitoring the animal’s behavior. Animal behavior is often the most immediate and reliable indicator of animal health and welfare. Encouraging animals to exhibit natural foraging, social, and exploratory behaviors is essential for the Zoo to fulfill its important mission of increasing knowledge and appreciation of wildlife among visitors. To study the animal’s behavior, scientists may monitor behaviors the animals are performing, their activity levels, how often and what type of foods they are consuming, how they interact with other animals in their group, or where they spend time in their exhibit, just to name a few examples.
In addition to animal behavior, scientists at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo also study hormones to learn more about the health and welfare of animals. Hormones are messengers released in the blood that signal events to occur in other parts of the body. Studying hormones is important as they often underlie changes in behavior and may even be evident before behavior is altered. Hormones can be measured directly from the blood or saliva as well as from the animal’s waste products such as urine and feces. Staff scientists at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo measure hormones in the Zoo’s Research Laboratory, located in the Sarah Allison Steffee Center for Zoological Medicine. Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is proud to be one of the few zoos in the country with lab space capable of measuring hormones to assess the health and welfare of animals at the zoo.
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo also has a strong epidemiology program. Epidemiology research at the Zoo focuses on factors that affect the health and well-being of captive and free-ranging wildlife populations. To accomplish this, staff scientists combine measures of the animal’s behavior with chemical measures such as hormones and other markers of health. Some epidemiology projects we have been involved in include: understanding and controlling diabetes in zoo animals, monitoring the health of Metroparks deer herds, monitoring for avian influenza, or investigating reproductive challenges in elephants.
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is also increasingly conducting research in the fields of energetics and nutrition. It is not often known the exact number of calories most animals need each day to survive and thrive. Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is the only zoo in the country with a liquid isotope analyzer that can quantify the number of calories an animal expends in a day as well as an animal’s body fat composition. That information is then used to reformulate zoo diets to ensure that the diets offered better match an animal’s energy requirements. Research at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo also examines how the macronutrient and micronutrient contents of diets impact animal behavior, gastrointestinal health and microbiome composition, and reproductive potential.
The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is also a proud member of the BioScience Alliance, a collaboration of Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Holden Forests and Gardens, and the Zoo to deliver high-impact research and training programs in biology. Within this partnership, Zoo scientists are adjunct faculty members of CWRU and serve as primary advisors for graduate students seeking a degree in biology from CWRU, using the animals at the Zoo as the focus of their thesis research.