Teaching zoo trains students for animal careers

Daniel Miller, Tribune News Service

The serval did not want to go into her crate. The spotted cat's name was Naomi, she had just been weighed, and now it was time to do as she was told. "C'mon — in your crate," urged Thomas Barber, a student at Moorpark College. Naomi, held on a leash by student Trinity Astilla, was the picture of lithe, feline elegance as she slunk around a dusty enclosure, briefly hopping atop her crate — but not into it. "Rethink about building behavior momentum," animal training instructor Amanda Stansbury counseled Barber. After about 10 minutes — and a repositioning of the crate — Naomi entered.

"Good job — a good demonstration of working through it," Stansbury said. This is what class looks like in Moorpark College's Animal Care and Training Program, where students get real-world experience at the campus' Teaching Zoo. Home to 120 animals representing 110 species, the zoo is one of two such collegiate facilities in the country — the other is Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo in Gainesville, Florida — and draws students from California and beyond who are looking for a career working with animals.

The program traces its roots to 1971, when the community college began offering a class in exotic animal studies, expanding to a full-fledged major three years later. Students learn on the job, preparing food for the animals, feeding them, weighing them and even putting on demonstrations for children visiting on school field trips. "We do a lot of hands-on training, and to me, it's always magic," said Gary Mui, who graduated from the program in 1995 and now oversees it. The program admits 60 students annually, and about 45 graduate each year. "That attrition is a marker for how difficult and time-consuming the program is," said Mara Rodriguez, the zoo's development coordinator.

Still, it's popular: 150 or so Moorpark College students apply each year, gaining entry via a lottery. The two-year program prepares graduates for careers in a variety of fields, from zookeeping to Hollywood animal training, wildlife conservation and even pest abatement.

Wait, pest abatement? "At all the landfills now, they use natural ways to deter pests like seagulls and rats ... so they fly hawks," said Rodriguez, who graduated from the program in 1992 and started working at the zoo that year. The zoo is open to the public on the weekends — admission is $12 for adults and $10 for children — and despite spanning just five acres, it features animals like a 102-year-old Galapagos tortoise and two Bengal tigers housed in a $3.5-million enclosure. Many of the weekend staffers are students in the program. They even put on animal shows at the zoo's outdoor theater.

"I'm on stage with my target stick, my equipment, and having a porcupine do circles, follow me, roll a ball," said Jadyn Carnicella, 20, a Simi Valley resident. "It's one of my favorite parts, because it's showing off how incredible our animals are. It really is a way to promote conservation."

What the school's like: Moorpark College is tucked into the folds of the chaparral-dusted Simi Hills, about 45 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Walking among the zoo's exotic animals, it feels even farther — especially at the edge of the soaring, 8,000-square-foot tiger enclosure.

During a recent visit, Carnicella and another student, Trinity Sato, fed the two big cats, who had lumbered up to the fence after catching a whiff of their meal: a mixture of beef and horse meat called "Nebraska." (Carnicella advised against eating it: a student who did "got severe food poisoning.") She and Sato smushed big clumps of the meat through the chain-link barrier, careful to keep their hands flat, lest they lose a digit.

"Being here is a privilege and I always want to just keep my skills sharp, especially around the tigers, since they are such huge and dangerous predators," said Sato, 26, who is from Torrance. "It's an honor to be able to work with them and be entrusted with their care." One of those big cats, Neil, is something of a celebrity: He was confiscated from a Studio City man years ago after appearing in a widely seen YouTube clip with Logan Paul, the influencer and reality TV star.

Unlike institutions such as the Los Angeles Zoo, Moorpark College's facility has not faced major criticism on ethical grounds, perhaps because of its academic focus. It hosts many animals that previously were injured, ostracized from their social groups or illegally kept as pets — such as Neil.