Nine Thousand Miles for Fifteen Minutes By Tim L. Tetzlaff

Partners in wildlife medicine, from Naples to Ngorongoro

By Tim L. Tetzlaff
Director of Conservation,
Naples Zoo at CaribbeanGardens

At Southwest Florida International Airport, Naples Zoo veterinarian Dr. Kelsie Stovall and I checked five bags.

Two were ordinary: clothes and items for colleagues. The other three held two blood analyzers and nearly 12 liters of liquid reassuringly labeled “chemical reagents.” But getting them on the plane was just the first concern. One analyzer was already a replacement after the original broke in transit from Tampa to Naples. Now we were shepherding them all 9,000 miles to East Africa.

Thirty-three hours later, Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority Veterinarian Dr. Wambura messaged me at 1 a.m. The equipment had finally cleared Tanzania’s medical-device import process. The diagnostic rotors Dr. Stovall had carried in cool packs were also safely refrigerated. When we unpacked everything with the veterinary team in their new laboratory, we all exhaled when both machines powered on.

We soon tested them under real conditions. While I was helping place a tracking collar on a lioness, Dr. Stovall drew a blood sample. Back at the lab, as she and the team ran the sample, I thought back to June 2025. In the Crater, they first told me they needed machines like these. At Naples Zoo’s Glass Animal Hospital, run a complete blood count and get blood chemistry in less than 15 minutes. But for Dr. Wambura’s team to assess the health of any wildlife, such analysis meant arranging transport, keeping samples cold, paying lab fees, and waiting days. Understandably, it was often not feasible. Now we stood together watching Ngorongoro’s first in-house blood results print out.

That success meant more after what we saw the day before. Someone had laced a young giraffe’s carcass with poison, likely in retaliation for lions killing cows earlier that week. At least one lion and many vultures died. Dr. Stovall helped the veterinarians’ collect samples for toxicology testing. It was a visceral reminder of why we work for a future where people living alongside wildlife benefit from its survival rather than just bearing the costs.

Naples Zoo has supported the critically endangered black rhinos in Ngorongoro since 2019. That relationship has already provided patrol vehicles, ranger observation outposts, binocular telescopes, vet supplies, tents and other equipment. That equipment now protecting rhinos is only there because people gave specifically to this work, while others supported Naples Zoo’s broader conservation efforts and gave us the flexibility to respond when our partners identified a priority.

Many of those priorities were identified in meetings arranged by Ngorongoro’s Rhino Coordinator Deogratius Maige. He and Naples Zoo’s Country Director Albert Mollel, whom I’ve known for over 15 years, are my brothers in this work. At the request of Ngorongoro leadership, I drafted a revised formal agreement that would create the Ngorongoro–Naples Zoo Rhino Conservation Council. It now awaits national approval. On this trip, I again discussed those larger recovery goals with Tanzania’s national rhino coordinator as well as the coordinator for Serengeti, along with the head of research for the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute.

Back in Naples, Dr. Stovall stays in touch with Dr. Wambura and the team through WhatsApp. Equipment expands capacity, but regular visits and ongoing exchange build the long-term trust that makes partnerships last. And a lioness Maige named “Kelsie” is a living reminder of those relationships.