Here's my robot-voice recording of my thesis that I completed in September for my Master's of Global Wildlife Heath and Conservation Biology at Bristol university.

I looked at the breeding success of hand-reared vs. parent-reared big cats.

Today I'm going to introduce you to ethograms. I think they're a fun activity to do at the zoo for those of you who have young, budding biologists or if you're a science nerd yourself.


An ethogram is inventory of behavior exhibited by an animal. To get started, list behaviors and describe them accurately. You can do this by observing animals at the zoo first and writing down what they do; or looking for examples online or in textbooks. Here's mine for the pigmy hippos at Bristol Zoo:

Then go to the zoo an observe the animals. There are different kinds of sampling methods, but lets just pick between two of them. You can 1.) either watch the animal(s) and record every time they do a behavior or 2.) you can record behavior at time intervals – like every 5 minuets. If you're doing this with young children just cater to their attention span. If 10 minuets of watching animals and writing down behaviors is enough then awesome.


If you're super enthusiastic, you can even make charts and graphs! Here's mine for the pigmy hippos.

They did a whole lot of nothing and that's to be expected with hippos. If you're doing an ethogram for the first time, especially with a child, pick an animal that's active - like pretty much any species of monkey.


And have fun! Feel free to share your results with me :D

[1] Bowers, T. E., Waterman, J. M., Kuhar, C. W & Bettinger, T. L. (2010). Social behaviors within a group of captive female Hippopotamus amphibus. J. Ethol. 28: 287–294. DOI 10.1007/s10164-009- 0184-6

Here's a decent article about zoos - their role in conservation and what they do for animal health and care. Worth a read!

I have been a little less active lately and that will most likely continue until August. It's because I'm doing a masters degree. Whoa! I'm doing a Master of Global Wildlife Health and Conservation Biology through the University of Bristol. Some of my courses are taught through Bristol Zoo Gardens. It's been fantastic so far.

Here's a another comic. For those of you whole aren't keepers, this might not be that funny but for those who are, you know exactly what I'm talking about. That darn hose. It gets caught on everything!!