CRES Opens Its Doors to Students

Eighty high school students toured the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for Conservation Research at the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park February 8, 2005. The teenagers from Ramona, San Pasqual, Escondido, Escondido Charter, Orange Glen, and Oceanside high schools were treated to a special tour of the new conservation and science center through the support of the Rice Family Foundation.

The all-day event included a tour of the many laboratories and research spaces which are housed at the Beckman Center, including the library and archives. The Center is a brand-new facility for the San Diego Zoo's department of Conservation and Research for Endangered Species (CRES). The Center opened in November 2004. In addition, the students were given an update on the Center's work to conserve the world's largest lizard species, the Komodo dragons of Indonesia.

In the photo above, a research laboratory technician with the Genetics Division of CRES provides students with a view of such materials as a feather from a hyacinth macaw or a fecal sample from a Sumatran rhino. By analyzing DNA isolated from samples such as these, the Genetics Division staff is able to answer questions about an individual animal’s gender, species, and paternity, as well as identify genetic variation within a population.