BioScience Alliance - CMZ Affiliates

Thanks to the Louise Harkness and David Sinton Ingalls Foundation for their support!

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo Affiliates

Pam Dennis, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACZM

Veterinary Epidemiologist, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

Associate Professor in the Department of Veterinary Preventative Medicine, the Ohio State University

Adjunct Professor in Biology, Case Western Reserve University

I serve as the veterinary epidemiologist at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and am an associate professor at the Ohio State University in the Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine. This dual role provides me with opportunities to teach graduate and veterinary students in the areas of conservation medicine and wildlife health, as well as investigate wildlife health issues in populations in human care or in the wild. My research focuses on wildlife health and the interface of wildlife, humans, and the environment. The diversity of the questions I seek to answer provides many opportunities for collaboration. Whether it is trying to understand the role of diet in heart disease in gorillas or how the frequency and meal size affect health parameters of cheetah, the focus of my questions regarding wildlife in human care centers on understanding and improving wildlife health. The same focus applies to free-ranging wildlife, when asking questions ranging from the cause of skin disease seen in wild giraffe to environmental influences leading to increased antimicrobial resistance in free-ranging white tailed deer in Northeast Ohio. The answers often require knowledge outside of my expertise. An exciting aspect of my work is that it provides me the opportunity to collaborate to answer questions that will advance our understanding of the human-wildlife interface and improve wildlife health.

Noah Dunham, PhD

Research Curator, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University

My research interests fall under two broad categories: 1) feeding and nutritional ecology and 2) functional morphology and locomotor kinematics. As a Research Curator at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, much of my research focuses on improving the health and welfare of zoo-housed individuals by promoting naturalistic behaviors and by adjusting zoo diets to better match the nutritional content of diets consumed by free-ranging specifics as well as the caloric content of zoo diets to physiological requirements. As part of the BioScience Alliance, I teach the Animal Behavior Lab course at CWRU and routinely advise undergraduate capstone students on projects related to animal behavior.

Diana Koester, PhD

Research Curator, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University

My primary research interests include vertebrate reproductive physiology and endocrinology as well as physiological and behavioral indicators of welfare in ex situ animals. I use an applied approach, focusing on increasing our understanding of little-known species reproductive physiology and associated environmental factors that may be contributing to overall animal welfare. My work then strives to develop management protocols that will maximize reproductive potential and health. Relatedly, I am also interested in the development of novel methods of non-invasive pregnancy detection for mammals, particularly carnivores.

I am a relatively recent addition to the research team at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, but interaction with scientists at Holden Forests & Gardens, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Case Western Reserve University has opened my eyes to the impressive collaborative potential of these institutions. In addition to combining expertise to further research interests, I believe this alliance offers a vitally important opportunity for diverse experiences available to connected graduate students and post docs.

Kristen E Lukas, PhD

Director of Conservation & Science, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

Adjunct Professor in Biology, Case Western Reserve University

For more than 20 years as a zoo scientist, my personal mission has been to improve the lives of gorillas in zoos and advance conservation of gorilla populations in the wild. Trained as an experimental psychologist and animal behaviorist at Georgia Institute of Technology, my research interests continue to include environmental impacts on behavior, animal welfare, and conservation psychology. I also helped establish The Memoirs Program, a partnership with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in Rwanda to train students from the University of Rwanda in conservation science.

My research at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo has been enhanced and expanded by the strong relationship between the Zoo and CWRU in providing graduate training to biology students interested in answering applied research questions that improve animal health and welfare. In collaboration with Mark Willis and Roy Ritzmann at CWRU, I have served as primary advisor or co-advisor for five M.S. students and five Ph.D. graduates since 2008. Our Graduate Research Associates are employed in a part-time capacity at the Zoo and therefore operate as members of the Zoological Programs team to monitor animal behavior and welfare, address applied management questions, and develop innovative and often multi-institutional projects that advance our mission of excellence in animal care. Ph.D. candidates also receive advanced curatorial training at the Zoo and gain international experience in conservation science as trainers and research supervisors to undergraduates participating in The Memoirs Program.

Kaylin Tennant, PhD and Conservation and Science Research Fellow

I conducted my dissertation research at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo under Dr. Pam Dennis. The work was driven by my interests in the physiological drivers of behavior and how they relate to animal management and welfare in zoo settings. My research focused on the investigation of physiological mechanisms of regurgitation and reingestion in zoo-housed gorillas. As this behavior has never been observed in wild populations, one of the objectives of my work was to determine why it is prevalent in zoo gorillas. Specifically, the applied work examined whether insulin resistance plays a role in the development and maintenance of this behavior.

I was fortunate enough to receive the Louise Harkness and David Sinton Ingalls Foundation Bioscience Alliance Fellowship which provided the monetary resources that allowed me to focus on my research in my final year of the PhD program. Upon graduating, I was hired as the Conservation and Research Fellow at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. My current research expands on my dissertation work and aims to further explore the pathophysiology of regurgitation and reingestion and examine the association between insulin resistance and cardiac disease in the zoo-housed gorilla population. Not only did the BioScience Alliance allow me to obtain my PhD while gaining research and work experience at the Zoo, but it also offered vast opportunities for scientific guidance and collaborations with partnering institutions. The program’s unparalleled training encouraged my professional development to further prepare me for a future in the zoo scientific community.

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