by Regina Wang/ Enterprise Correspondent
A kangaroo that had fractured its neck, a bear cub that had mysteriously broken both of its front legs, a frog the size of a dime that needed eye surgery: Welcome to the world of zoo vets, where absurdity and unpredictability reign.
Lucy Spelman, co-editor of “Rhino with Glue-on Shoes” and a gorilla doctor in Africa, said being a zoo vet is “never a straight path.”
“You have to be flexible and creative, know the science, but do something no one has ever done before,” she said.
Through her job, she has encountered many extraordinary stories that have changed her perspective on life, animals and herself. “What about sharing these stories with more people?” she thought.
In 2005 she discussed her book idea with co-editor Ted Mashima and her colleagues, and they enthusiastically supported her, contributing to the book with their own poignant stories. The end result was a collection of true but bizarre animal stories by 21 zoo vets.
Spelman, who received her D.V.M. at UC Davis in 1990, was the youngest and first female director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C. She is now the regional manager for the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, monitoring the world’s last 700 gorillas in central and east central Africa.
A Connecticut native, Spelman attended the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine after completing her bachelor’s degree in biology from Brown University.
“My memory of Davis is extremely positive,” she said.
She remembered the days when she sipped her double latte at Café Roma (it closed in 2007), and studied with classmates who have become lifetime friends.
It was in Davis where she took up cycling (and thus broke both her ankles) and passed by the endless tomato fields and through the foothills. When she thinks of Davis, she remembers strolling down the vet school hallways, greeting her colleagues, mentored by professors like Autumn Davidson and Linda Lowenstine.
“It was about learning and belonging to a part of a community,” she said.
She began to see the fruit of this learning when she directed the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in 2000. She came on the board wanting to provide the best care for the animals, but soon realized the zoo was extremely underfunded and its infrastructure deteriorating — a prevalent problem among many zoos.
Spelman rolled up her sleeves and spearheaded a series of capital renewal projects, such as pushing for federal funding and a multimillion-dollar corporate deal.
Renovations soon got under way — but the animals probably did not appreciate the construction too much, she said.
Spelman now lives in Africa. She travels to Congo, Rwanda and Uganda, where the world’s last 700 gorillas live, leading a group of vets in monitoring their health.
“There are very few opportunities in the world to do my job,” she said. The rampage of human presence — such as polluted air and soil erosion — has touched almost all natural habitats of animals, she said. To protect the remaining gorillas, Spelman and her colleagues climb 10,000 feet in the mountains and learn Swahili and French to train the native vets.
Even so, they and the native vets try to interfere as little as possible.
“Basically we try to do nothing,” she said, explaining that vets intervene only when the gorillas are injured by humans. Human contact increases the risk of gorillas being infected by human diseases, such as polio.
Yet Spelman said she remains hopeful, and that’s why she launched the book project. She wanted to share how zoo vets around the world are trying tirelessly to restore heath to their patients.
“I truly believe when a doctor heals a patient, human or animal, the entire ecosystem benefits,” she said. “All lives are connected.”
Dr. Lucy’s blog: http://www.drlucyspelman.com/
