Zoo InternQuest is a seven-week career exploration program for San Diego County high school juniors and seniors. Students have the unique opportunity to meet professionals working for the San Diego Zoo, Safari Park, and Institute for Conservation Research, to learn about their jobs, and then blog about their experience online. Follow their adventures here on the Zoo’s website!
Here the interns pose with Senior Research Coordinator Susanne Marczak and a couple of her colleagues. If you look closely you can also see Dudley, an adorable burrowing owl that is an animal ambassador for the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
At first Susanne Marczak had no idea what she wanted to do for her career. As she explored different subjects and talked to a variety of professionals, she left college with an undergraduate degree in ecology and economics. Throughout her professional life she found herself working many different jobs which eventually led her to the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research (ICR), where she has been working for 10 years. While at the ICR, Ms. Marczak has studied many species such as desert tortoises, golden eagles, iguanas, and various small mammals. When a position opened on the burrowing owl project, she took it. This continues to be her species of focus as a Senior Research Coordinator at the ICR. She coordinates logistics like staff and volunteers, vehicles, equipment, and also works on data management, report writing, and presentations. She does all this to coordinate her team as they research these owls and find new ways to improve conservation efforts.
These are links to the SDZSP’s burrowing owl cam https://www.sdzsafaripark.org/cams/burrowing-owl-cams and The Zoo: San Diego episode on Animal Planet where this work is highlighted https://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/the-zoo-san-diego/full-episodes/yeti-and-the-cubs . The burrowing owl cam allows you to see inside their nests. This is the perfect time to tune in because it’s the season for babies! Also mark your calendar for Summer 2020 so you don’t miss the premiere for season two of The Zoo: San Diego!
The burrowing owl plays a large role in the ecosystem by eating rodents and insects, ultimately keeping these populations and the food web balanced. Burrowing owls also rely on fossorial (burrowing) animals to provide an essential element to their grassland habitat. Unfortunately, fossorial animals such as ground squirrels or prairie dogs are commonly classified as pests. Therefore, Ms. Marczak plays a huge role as she is a voice for the owls and their habitat. She spends a lot of her time advocating the owls’ significance in the ecosystem, along with working with her team to understand the owls nesting success, predation and other causes of mortality, habitat needs and diet. While the majority of the owls that live in San Diego are located in Otay Mesa, there is a local threat that these owls are facing, habitat loss. Ms. Marczak and her team have started a breeding program in Jamul where they are creating artificial burrows for the owls. These acclimation areas mimic natural burrows in hopes to translocate many of the owls from Otay Mesa to a sustainable habitat in Jamul for breeding. The owls will typically stay in these artificial burrows for 30 days and throughout this time, Ms. Marczak and her team can collect data that will further allow them to understand this amazing species.
Up close you can see all the unique features of a burrowing owl like Dudley. He has sharp talons and a beak that can cut like a knife. Burrowing owls are also known for their impeccable eyesight and hearing.
While at the ICR, Zoo InternQuest interns met Dudley, a nine-year-old burrowing owl who is part of the Animal Ambassador program at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Burrowing owls are very unique and widespread, as they can be found throughout North America. They are generally monogamous and lay anywhere from 2-12 eggs a clutch. Most owls are nocturnal, but burrowing owls are irregularly active both during the day and night (cathemeral). They’re equipped with great hearing and can see about six times better than humans can. These animals are extremely intelligent and have been seen placing feces around their burrows to attract insects that they feed to their young. They also make rattling noises when they feel threatened to impersonate a rattlesnake. Unfortunately, burrowing owls have several threats to their populations. These include predation, habitat loss, and the extermination of fossorial “pests”. Burrowing owls live in abandoned burrows created by ground squirrels and prairie dogs. Most ground squirrels and prairie dogs are seen as pests, so as people make efforts to kill or ward off these animals, the burrowing owl population declines as well. This is unfortunate not only for burrowing owls, but also for other species, as ground squirrels create habitats for many.
Ms. Marczak’s work with burrowing owls has required her to be very resourceful. In order to excel in her field, an appreciation for the outdoors and wildlife is a must. Adaptability and flexibility are also important, as well as a willingness to get dirty. The ability to take on challenging work is key because Ms. Marczak and her team are looking to solve problems no one has solved yet, meaning that they can’t just google the answers to questions they have. She says that there are many tough realities one must face before going into this job – dealing with unpaid internships, seasonal work, and hard hours. Additionally, Ms. Marczak stresses the value of being able to communicate and work with a team, since all of her projects are team-oriented. She loves working towards a brighter future for burrowing owls, and is excited for future owl-enthusiasts to join her in her line of work.
If you would like to participate in the conservation of the burrowing owl, check out the Wildwatch Burrowing Owl Citizen Science Project https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sandiegozooglobal/wildwatch-burrowing-owl. Watch yourself transform into a researcher as you witness these captivating animals live in the wild and answer questions based on what you see!
Ms. Marczak enjoys every aspect of her job, however, some things are better than others. One of her favorite parts of the job is being able to hold a bird in her hand while collecting data. It is very difficult to pick up the burrowing owls, as they run around and hide in their burrows. Managing to grab hold of one owl after all of the work is very rewarding. With this passion for her job, she has also found the burrowing owl to be her favorite animal. She loves their small stature and respects their fight to survive the harshness of nature. Her favorite memory while working with the burrowing owls was on her birthday, when she and a couple of colleagues were out trying to collect an owl for examination. With no success, they were left with a sense of failure. However, they later managed to find the owl and acquire it. This memory stands out because she got a sense of accomplishment from doing something great for the birds on her birthday.
As an animal ambassador, Dudley is used to being a part of presentations to raise awareness for his species. Through positive reinforcement training, Dudley has learned to stay calm throughout these presentations and in return is rewarded with what the keepers like to call “mieces pieces” (pieces of mice).
Ms. Marczak plays a vital role in the conservation of the burrowing owl. She helps to track their population status and informs the public about the adversities that they face. The burrowing owl is very diverse, and requires unique people with a variety of skills to help save them. Through hard work and determination, you can land a job similar to Ms. Marczak’s and continue the work to save this amazing species.
Week Five
Winter Session 2020
