Rice pairs up with Houston Zoo for animal research

Rice pairs up with Houston Zoo for animal research

Photo by Jeff Fitlow

Hanszen senior Diana Cox observes Kwame the okapi’s activity and documents it every 30 seconds as part of her project to record the behavior patterns before and after items such as horse toys are introduced into its environment.

BY LINDSEY FIELDER
Rice News staff

After years of informal collaboration between Rice researchers and the Houston Zoo, the relationship was recently formally established with the Houston Zoo and Rice University Consortium in Conservation Biology.

Consortium co-directors Lisa Meffert, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Rice, and Stan Mays, curator of herpetology at the Houston Zoo, had been exchanging information on a small scale for several years. “It’s only fair that the zoo gets credit for helping with Rice research,” Meffert said. “At the same time, we’d like to reciprocate to the zoo staff and give them any benefits that Rice may have that could help with their work.”

Until now, to receive research credit in ecology and evolutionary and conservation biology, Rice students were limited to on-campus facilities. In Meffert’s lab, all the experiments deal with houseflies. “I admit it’s hard to sell students on working with flies,” she said. “I agree that houseflies are not very charismatic, so I can see why some students would rather choose something that at least has bones.”

Working with the zoo offers endless project possibilities for students. Working so closely with the animals, the zookeepers see research opportunities every day but simply don’t have the time to follow through.

“The keepers were spilling over with ideas for projects they’d like to study, but they just don’t have the time,” Meffert said. “They know that the Rice students will throw themselves into the projects and do an excellent job. It makes perfect sense for both institutions.”

Under the consortium, any Rice student can conduct their research at the Houston Zoo using the zookeepers as supervisors, mentors and consultants. These projects are mostly observational and noninvasive, but they are true research projects with hypotheses, methods and results.

At Rice, zoo personnel will be able to obtain visiting scholar status, audit classes and access library resources. “Considering how exclusive Rice is, I think it’s great for zookeepers to be able to take classes here,” Meffert said. “And our library and electronic resources are invaluable to them.”

Through the consortium, both institutions will also be included on any research manuscripts produced by the collaboration between the zoo and Rice.

Mays said, “Both Rice and the Houston Zoo have good reputations, and this formal collaboration will bring together the best of both the academic and practical worlds. Access to Rice’s library is going to be phenomenal for the zoo staff. We’re looking to forward to expanding this program in the future.”

Meffert said this is an opportunity that the students will never forget. “In working with the keepers, the students get a ‘backstage pass’ and they learn so much by being behind the scenes,” she said. “It’s absolutely ideal for students interested in ecology and evolutionary biology to work with complex organisms — big and interesting animals like they have at the Houston Zoo.”