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Unhistoric Acts:

Hidden Medical

Efforts in

Conservation

by Tim L. Tetzlaff,
Director of Conservation,
Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens
n a quiet treatment room, the patient
lies still beneath anesthesia. The surgical
I team leans close. No flashing
warning lights, rushing bodies, or
urgent shouts that lend weight to
the importance of what’s happening
now. This is just one of the unseen
medical efforts in saving species.
Conservation is often imagined
as something that happens in faraway savannas or rainforests.
And while Naples Zoo works there too, conservation medicine
is also practiced right here in the Glass Animal Hospital, a
few steps from where our guests watch orangutans swing and
play. The scene above has played out over a dozen times in the last year
as Naples Zoo’s veterinarian Dr. Kelsie Stovall and her team surgically
implant tracking devices in invasive Burmese pythons to aid research
and removal efforts in hopes of restoring what’s already been lost in
Florida. Our hospital has stored biological samples of Florida panthers
and served as the starting point for two new pharmacology studies that
will help properly treat giraffes both in and outside the wild. While less dramatic than larger efforts we’ve supported like giraffe
Far from Naples, crucial bloodwork data commonly available in your translocations or outfitting rangers with new vehicles and observation
neighborhood vet clinic for domestic cats and dogs are often unavailable outposts, the immediate impacts of accurate diagnostics for an animal in
to help the world’s rarest species. To rectify that, Naples Zoo and our distress or key research data are critical brush strokes in the larger picture in
supporters have funded two sets of blood chemistry analyzers, identical recovering the natural world. And this is often the case. As stated near the
th
to what we use in our hospital. These units have been field tested, as end of the 19 century British novel Middlemarch:
another set of these is already in use helping giant anteaters and giant “The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and
armadillos in Brazil. This fall, Dr. Kelsie Stovall and I will be traveling to that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing
Africa to deliver and set up these new sets. to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”
The first set will be delivered to wildlife veterinarian Dickson In our conservation work, and in many aspects of all our lives, our
Wambura at Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority. greatest impacts often come not from dramatic moments, but from the
Ten new monitoring foot collars purchased by the zoo will be placed quiet work faithfully carried out, the hidden lives devoted to detail, and
in upcoming months. Blood collected will allow the veterinary team to the choices we make to support them. In Naples, those unhistoric acts are
assess both individual and population health. shaping the survival of species across continents.
The other set will be used by the Madagascar Fauna and Flora
Group to give veterinarians the precious data they need to care for the Contact me at tim@napleszoo.org
thirteen species of endangered lemurs at Parc Ivoloina as well as the To learn more or support these efforts, visit NaplesZoo.org/conserve
confiscated lemurs that often arrive in ill health. Dr. Stovall will also be
training the Parc’s animal care team on key practical veterinary skills.

Together, we can create a brighter, more resilient future for people and wildlife.
Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens is a private 501(c)(3) nonprofit entrusted with educating families and caring for rare species in a century old historic garden. Since 2014, Naples
Zoo has invested over $3.5 million saving plants and animals in the wild and fully funds the annual salary of 27 field staff in 7 countries including three wildlife veterinarians.
To learn more about how you can invest in a better future for people and wildlife, email tim@napleszoo.org.
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