Residency Program Attracts Applicants Worldwide

With one of less than a dozen zoological medicine residency programs offered in the nation, the North Carolina Zoological Park is quickly making a name as a training ground for some of the country’s top zoo animal doctors.

The residency program was begun in the early 1990s by the zoo’s present chief veterinarian Mike Loomis. One person is chosen each year, out of 30 to 50 applicants, for the three-year program offered by the N.C. Zoo and North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Although there are many veterinary residency programs offered throughout the country, the N.C. Zoo’s is one of less than a dozen that gives the residents an opportunity to learn about and work directly with exotic and non-domestic animals.

So when other newly graduated resident veterinarians are working on horses, dogs and cats, residents at the N.C. Zoo are drawing blood from elephants, checking rhinos’ temperatures and examining lions’ teeth.

Zoo veterinary care is a specialized field with only about 300 vets in the United States working full time in zoo medicine. In the N.C. Zoo’s program, there are three areas of emphasis: general zoo medicine; aquatic medicine, which includes working at the Marine Mammal Center in California and a research lab on the N.C. coast; and free-ranging wildlife, which includes fieldwork both in this country and abroad – particularly Africa.

Program representatives look for candidates who want to make a difference in zoological medicine and be leaders in the field. Funding for the program is provided by the N.C. Zoological Society and the N.C. State veterinary school.

Exotic animals and domestic animals get many of the same diseases, so the actual diseases are treated similarly. The difference is how the vets learn how to actually deliver the medical care to exotic animals. Imagine giving a giraffe an eye exam, checking a laceration on a polar bear or performing a procedure on a hummingbird that weighs less than a penny.

The zoo also wants to establish training programs at the N.C. Zoo for veterinarians already working in natural-resource management in developing countries and is looking for donors, through the N.C. Zoological Society, to fund a residential training facility.
Article by Tom Gillespie

To learn more about the Residency Program click here.

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