About Me
My name is Zachary Steele and I'm a PhD Candidate at Old Dominion University (ODU) studying a novel approach to estimating animal water intake and metabolism by conducting field and lab-based research with model species such as non-native South African oryx in the deserts of New Mexico. This novel research is based upon the close relationship between stable isotopes of oxygen (16O, 17O, and 18O) that creates unique "signatures" in the water that animals drink and that animals use to facilitate metabolic processes. I am a member of the Animal Ecophysiology Lab in the department of Biological Sciences at ODU under my advisor Dr. John Whiteman.
https://sites.google.com/site/whitemanecology/home?authuser=0
Current Animal Ecophysiology Lab member Zachary David (right) and I (center) while conducting research on the giant panda in China, along with our colleague Stephanie Wong (left).
Before arriving at ODU, I completed my MS at the University of Florida (UF) where I studied Florida residents’ understanding of the ecological, economic, and human welfare risks associated with non-native and invasive species, and their support for management interventions (prevention, eradication, and containment). This research involved distributing questionnaires to Florida residents to examine how their support for management interventions varied depending on the physical appearance, negative impacts, and invasive range associated with different examples of invasive animals in Florida. While at UF I was a member of the Human Dimensions of Wildlife Management Lab in the department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation under my advisor Dr. Elizabeth Pienaar, who is now at the University of Georgia.
With some of the Pienaar Lab members. [from left to right: Dr. Ben North, Diane Episcopio-Sturgeon, myself, and Andrew Glass]
Before graduate school, I completed my BS at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa. While at USF I worked for various zoological facilities in the state of Florida including ZooTampa at Lowry Park, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Disney's Animal Kingdom, and Disney's SeaBase at Epcot. After graduating from USF, I studied behavioral stereotypies in giant pandas in Ya'an, Sichuan, China and then researched threatened and endangered birds with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Working with dolphins at Epcot