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I LOVE THE IDEA THAT I HAVE ANSWERED AT LEAST ONE VERY SMALL QUESTION ABOUT HOW WE CAN IMPROVE THE LIVES OF ANIMALS,” SAYS ROSS. rest of the zoo and aquarium world do the same. Given her initial indifference to primates, “it’s kind of funny,” she says, that she married Dr. Stephen Ross, the zoo’s head of primate research. But marry him she did, and as the years passed, she began to realize that despite the scientific rigor she and her husband and so many others brought to the Lincoln Park Zoo, they were too often hindered by an antiquated system that still relied on pen and paper or clunky computerized tools. Questions like that of the river rock in the penguin exhibit—or where and how animals spend their time—could easily be answered with a tool that lightened the load of manual input and automatically tallied that information. “Once we have that information, we can understand things like: Do they prefer this part of the habitat or
that part of the habitat? Are CLEVELAND they avoiding part of a habiMETROPARKS ZOO tat? How can we give them less of what they’re avoiding and more of DR. KRISTEN LUKAS what they like?” When Kristen Lukas, MS Psy In 2016, thanks to her pioneering ef95, PhD Psy 99, was a psycholforts, the Lincoln Park Zoo launched ogy major at Bowling Green ZooMonitor, a mobile app for collectState University, she watched ing data on animal behavior. Today, a special on Dian Fossey’s zoo staff can upload habitat maps work with gorillas in Rwanda and never looked back. and easily record animal locations. “My life’s trajectory changed The resulting heat maps, says product that day and I knew I would dedmanager Dr. Jason Wark, “potentially icate my career to caring for provide a more relatable view of beindividual gorillas in zoos and havior, as you can identify areas and conserving populations of gorilquickly interpret the graphs.” las in nature,” she says. After completing her PhD unThough originally designed for inder Dr. Terry L. Maple, whose house management, ZooMonitor is book Gorilla Behavior had been a now free and available for use by any seminal influence on her underaccredited zoo or aquarium. It has standing of the animal, she was since been downloaded in 52 counhired as the first curator of pritries and is used by more than 700 mates at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Today, she works with Tech grad institutions across the globe, from the Christopher Kuhar at Cleveland Monterey Bay Aquarium to LouisiMetroparks Zoo as the director ana’s Chimp Haven, the world’s largest of conservation and science. chimpanzee sanctuary. “My favorite place to expe“ZooMonitor has made a substanrience nature is in the forest. tial impact on our profession,” says It has a way of making me feel small and sheltered when all Dr. Kristen Lukas, director of conthe details of daily life feel overservation and science at Cleveland whelming,” she says. “I trust the Metroparks Zoo. A fellow Tech alumforest and know that if we just na, Lukas was hired by the Lincoln do our part to simply protect its Park Zoo in 1998 as its first curator of boundaries, it will continue to ofprimates—and recommended Ross fer the shelter, the oxygen, and biodiversity that we need for our apply as well. “I am using it today to planet to thrive.” conduct observations on our newborn infant gorilla. ZooMonitor allows us to turn a report around to the gorilla care team almost instantly so we can use Built in 1912, the stunning Praithe data to inform our management rie-style building—complete with decisions.” terracotta ornamentation and intricate brickwork—recently reopened following a $41 million renovation. On a cool morning in January, Ross “It’s definitely had a lot of lives, but is outside the Pepper Family Wildthis is the newest iteration,” she says, a life Center at the Lincoln Park Zoo. blast of warm arm air lifting her long blond GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | SPRING 2022
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