Veterinary Research
While all accredited zoos provide top-quality animal care, Zoo Atlanta’s veterinary staff go several steps further to conduct and publish the basic research to inform improved standards and methods of animal care.
For example, our staff has led the development of new surgical techniques and has creatively managed to document crucially-important baseline information to describe what are normal and healthy parameters such as blood pressure in a non-anesthetized gorilla and orangutan.
Based on their reputations as innovators in veterinary medicine, our staff frequently are called upon to apply their skills to conservation matters in the wild involving diseases, such as persistent tumors in green sea turtles, or triage and rescue situations involving large-scale confiscations from the black-market wildlife trade.
The results of their efforts are published in major journals such as Journal of the American Veterinary Association and Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine so that veterinarians across the world can learn from their breakthroughs.