Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / Assistant Zoo Director Jackie Peeler on her new role, conservation, and AZA accreditation

Transcript

Assistant Zoo Director Jackie Peeler on her new role, conservation, and AZA accreditation · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

• 0:15
  Welcome to the One oahu podcast.
• 0:16
  I'm your host, Brad Higa, and today is Thursday, July 31st, 2025.
• 0:21
  And we're joined this week by one of the newest members
• 0:24
  of our City and County of Honolulu Ohana and Jackie Peeler,
• 0:27
  assistant Zoo director here at the Honolulu Zoo.
• 0:30
  Jackie, thanks for making some time for us.
• 0:32
  Oh, thank you for having me. And really excited.
• 0:34
  And so first off, tell us a little bit about yourself.
• 0:36
  Where did you grow up?
• 0:37
  Where did you go to school?
• 0:39
  Some of your hobbies.
• 0:41
  That's a lot actually, that's a loaded question.
• 0:42
  I started my whole life story in a short little period of time.
• 0:46
  Well, actually, I was born in the South as one of North Carolina,
• 0:48
  and I grew up in the mountains over by Hickory, North Carolina.
• 0:52
  And then when, before I started school, we moved to upstate New York. So.
• 0:55
  And I say upstate, a lot of people think it's just the city.
• 0:58
  So it's just Binghamton, which is just right over the Pennsylvania border.
• 1:01
  So my parents had a farm up there.
• 1:03
  So I grew up mostly on a farm, so surrounded by animals
• 1:06
  for a really long time.
• 1:08
  I stayed pretty close to home there.
• 1:11
  I graduated from, Whitney Point High School,
• 1:15
  and then I attended, Broome Community College
• 1:17
  and then the State University of New York at Binghamton.
• 1:19
  So kind of stayed in that area.
• 1:21
  And then, I worked at a local zoo for a really long time.
• 1:26
  So I was there, I think I had every job possible there.
• 1:29
  I was night security.
• 1:30
  I helped with wildlife rehab.
• 1:33
  I was really excited when they, I worked in the gift shop,
• 1:36
  which was just a hut that we just opened up.
• 1:39
  So it was kind of limited.
• 1:40
  But I actually got to be the senior person there, too.
• 1:43
  Didn't take much. One season.
• 1:45
  I was senior the following year.
• 1:46
  My real goal was to be one of the zookeeper,
• 1:49
  so I would haunt them, follow them all around.
• 1:51
  I was like a little puppy dog.
• 1:53
  And eventually they started by taking me out after I had my work done.
• 1:57
  So I had a really great director who kind of tolerated it.
• 2:01
  So my first job was, a part time keeper.
• 2:04
  There I was, I had arrived.
• 2:06
  So that just meant that you worked 40 hours a week, got all the grunt jobs,
• 2:10
  and you could be laid off at any point in time for any length of time.
• 2:13
  So, I ended up being laid off for only a week,
• 2:16
  and then, came back again, finally working my way up into a full time job.
• 2:21
  And then I worked up to being a senior keeper at the Rose Park Zoo,
• 2:25
  and then eventually
• 2:26
  I was also the temporary that tech for about two and a half years.
• 2:30
  So I did have an array of jobs
• 2:32
  there in between, you know, helping with night security, doing tours.
• 2:36
  And then from there, I kind of, did decide that I wanted to try other facilities.
• 2:41
  So, I worked at the North Carolina Zoo, as at the Henson Robinson Zoo out
• 2:45
  in Springfield as the assistant director for about almost 20 years.
• 2:48
  And then I moved into the director's position there when our director retired.
• 2:52
  So that was really fun.
• 2:54
  And then from there, I went back to Ross Park.
• 2:56
  It's always fun to go back as a director.
• 2:58
  So literally, I think I had every job possible at the Prospect Zoo.
• 3:02
  And then from there, I transitioned over to trying life in the museum world.
• 3:07
  So at the
• 3:09
  Museum of Science in Boston.
• 3:11
  I was the,
• 3:13
  the manager of living collections.
• 3:15
  So I oversee all the plants and animal collection at the museum,
• 3:18
  because we had an easier facility within the umbrella of the Museum of Science. So.
• 3:22
  And then I saw an ad for the assistant director here in Honolulu,
• 3:27
  and I applied kind of on a whim, because it would be like one of those jobs.
• 3:31
  That'd be so cool.
• 3:33
  And then, surprisingly, here I am.
• 3:34
  So that's in it. A quick little nutshell.
• 3:37
  What made you want to take that jump, though?
• 3:38
  Why? Hawaii?
• 3:40
  I loved it when I was here and then here the year before,
• 3:42
  almost exactly to the day of applying for the position.
• 3:46
  My brother in law serves the military, so he was stationed here in Honolulu.
• 3:50
  So, my sister and I came out to visit him while he was on one of his, tours here.
• 3:55
  And I absolutely loved it.
• 3:57
  Had come to the zoo at that point in time.
• 3:58
  So most a year ago beforehand.
• 4:01
  And I'm also somebody who loves to jump at adventure.
• 4:03
  I love to explore new areas, new regions.
• 4:07
  So it was a really for me, it was like one of those things like,
• 4:10
  you go on a giant sun trip or you, you know, jump and take a new job.
• 4:14
  So I jumped into a new job. So.
• 4:17
  And don't regret it.
• 4:18
  Where did your love for animals begin?
• 4:19
  I know that you mentioned growing up on a farm,
• 4:21
  but not everyone that grows up in upstate New York goes on to become,
• 4:24
  you know, very interesting keeper.
• 4:26
  Very true.
• 4:27
  But it's, I think that I've always had.
• 4:29
  So I've been surrounded by dogs and cats, obviously, but on the farm
• 4:33
  I had a habit of rescuing animals.
• 4:36
  I remember one time when my parents had just gotten in the day, it was,
• 4:40
  you know, top, you know, the golden carpet on the on the patio area.
• 4:44
  They had gotten a beautiful new carpet, and we'd had a big storm
• 4:48
  and a horse had gotten out from a neighbor's farm.
• 4:50
  Never seen the horse before, but I brought it on to the patio.
• 4:54
  I don't know if you know it.
• 4:55
  A horse in a storm and gold carpeting does a good mix.
• 4:58
  Not so much.
• 4:59
  So I was always rescuing animals and I just love to work around them.
• 5:03
  So surprisingly, I was actually a poli sci major when I was in college.
• 5:07
  I, at my dream, hadn't gone straight to being a zookeeper,
• 5:11
  because when I grew up,
• 5:12
  you didn't really think of that as a job, as a as an actual job that you could do.
• 5:16
  And new people did it, but you don't necessarily
• 5:17
  think about how you're going to do that.
• 5:19
  So, I also grew up obviously on the farm.
• 5:22
  When we lost, the farm was very poor.
• 5:23
  So, for me, I really wanted a job that was that
• 5:27
  made money into me, like an attorney makes lots of money.
• 5:30
  So I was that was my goal.
• 5:32
  And, I did an internship in Whitehall in London
• 5:36
  while I was in college and realized that an attorney's life was not for me.
• 5:41
  I'm a people pleaser.
• 5:43
  I, I love learning about law, but I didn't necessarily want to enforce the law.
• 5:48
  So I lived not far from Regent's
• 5:49
  Park, where the London Zoo is, and I started just haunting that place.
• 5:53
  And I knew that in my heart, that's really what I wanted to do.
• 5:56
  So I really push kids, and especially students in school, to do internships.
• 6:01
  Not necessary to reinforce what they want to do,
• 6:03
  but to maybe show them what you don't want to do.
• 6:05
  So for me, I came back and changed my career.
• 6:08
  Much to many people's dismay.
• 6:10
  But I never looked back after I did that.
• 6:13
  We haven't had an assistant zoo director here in Honolulu for quite some time.
• 6:16
  For those who aren't familiar, what is your role?
• 6:19
  What are your responsibilities?
• 6:20
  So it varies.
• 6:21
  So a lot of things from the budget to, supporting the director
• 6:25
  in the different things that we have going on here in the museum, the,
• 6:28
  in the zoo, I should say, still stuck on the whole museum thing after six years.
• 6:33
  But it's also getting to know the animals, helping
• 6:36
  in any way possible to help run the facility as well.
• 6:40
  So I've been spending
• 6:41
  since I've gotten here, spending time getting to know the people that work here,
• 6:44
  what's working, what's not working, kind of looking at processes and and policies.
• 6:49
  And what's your vision.
• 6:50
  You know, when you're.
• 6:52
  Yeah.
• 6:52
  When you're, when you took this job I'm sure that you,
• 6:54
  you know, you said you visit the zoo here a year to the day.
• 6:58
  What are some of the things that you're trying to tackle
• 6:59
  as you take on this leadership position?
• 7:01
  I think we're looking at how we can constantly improve.
• 7:04
  So I'm somebody who loves to ask the question, why?
• 7:07
  So why are we doing something?
• 7:08
  Is it based on what we've been doing?
• 7:10
  Is there a different way to do it?
• 7:12
  Is there a more effective or more efficient way to do something?
• 7:15
  I also love to be around people
• 7:17
  who have a passion for their job, and it's how do we elevate those people?
• 7:21
  Like, how do we we want people to stay.
• 7:24
  We want people to continue to grow.
• 7:25
  I would love people to come through the gates
• 7:27
  and have an amazing opportunity to see things that they're never going
• 7:31
  to see potentially in their lives late in life when they're here.
• 7:34
  So a big piece of that for me is being able to really highlight
• 7:38
  that education piece to our community and to our visitors.
• 7:41
  Both are super important,
• 7:43
  but what you really want is you want the people
• 7:44
  to keep coming back to your gates, to continue to learn and to grow here.
• 7:48
  And it's also to promote the staff as well.
• 7:51
  Like what are their passions?
• 7:53
  How do we keep them vested?
• 7:54
  You know what?
• 7:55
  You have a job as a keeper. It's a hard job.
• 7:58
  But how do you still elevate that and get them to learn
• 8:01
  and to take on that next step and and to not stay at a plateau?
• 8:04
  We have to get to that plateau and say, okay, what's next?
• 8:08
  Because as we learn more, as from a science background, we need to do better.
• 8:13
  And I think that the best way to do that is to continue to grow
• 8:16
  and to stretch your capacity and your capabilities as well.
• 8:20
  That's how we grow.
• 8:21
  So I think ultimately, for me, it's it's really
• 8:25
  elevating the team, not just the keepers, but our grounds crew.
• 8:28
  Let's, you know, it's it's all of those pieces into creating a
• 8:33
  showpiece for people not only to come, but the conservation
• 8:36
  and everything add into there.
• 8:37
  I think it has so much potential for growth.
• 8:41
  I mean, we have a strong platform, but I'd love to see us
• 8:44
  continue to evolve and to create just a showcase.
• 8:49
  I like that you said conservation.
• 8:50
  I'm not sure if you've
• 8:51
  maybe noticed this yet, but boy, people have a strong sense of
• 8:54
  I don't know if it's like, responsibility, to keep Hawaii, Hawaii, basically.
• 8:59
  And they have a strong responsibility for our natives, in particular,
• 9:02
  native species.
• 9:03
  Can you talk about the conservation programs that you have been a part of
• 9:06
  in the past, and how you plan to implement maybe best practices to help that?
• 9:10
  Cause, you know, I think of our Hawaiian butterflies.
• 9:12
  We just had the year of the. Snail, correct?
• 9:14
  Yeah.
• 9:14
  And I and I think that was also one of the things
• 9:16
  that really pulled me to this position
• 9:18
  as well, is the such an amazingly strong conservation program.
• 9:22
  And it's really unusual to find one that focuses so
• 9:25
  strongly on native species, which to me, we always forget what's in our backyard,
• 9:30
  you know, like it's the first thing that we don't think about.
• 9:32
  We think about, oh, all these large species, all these other things.
• 9:35
  And we often don't think about what needs protection in our own backyard.
• 9:39
  So I'm a huge component of conservation,
• 9:42
  but I really think it needs to start in our backyard.
• 9:45
  And it's one of the big pushes here.
• 9:48
  Some of the programs I've been involved with and some of my favorite have been
• 9:52
  those smaller conservation projects, like I did Frog Watch.
• 9:56
  So frog watch is where you teach people about the different,
• 9:59
  frogs that are native to your area.
• 10:01
  So I'd have people come in and we teach them.
• 10:03
  It's not that you see them, they actually go out in the evening
• 10:06
  and they would count and determine
• 10:07
  how many vocalizations they would hear for the different frogs.
• 10:10
  So I had so much fun teaching
• 10:12
  families, citizen science that they could give back to the science.
• 10:16
  And but the kids, for some, they've gone out to see the frogs they like.
• 10:19
  It blew their little mind.
• 10:20
  So we'd we'd have, hikes
• 10:23
  that we'd do at the zoo itself to like, learn about how do you find the frogs?
• 10:26
  Like, you know, you're not looking for the frogs.
• 10:28
  I don't want you either catching the frogs.
• 10:30
  What you want to do
• 10:30
  is listen to the vocalization and see how many different ones you hear.
• 10:34
  And it was just amazing to see the kids eyes just come alive, with the knowledge
• 10:40
  that they know what you know, a peeper is versus a bull frog, you know?
• 10:45
  So it's those pieces that it's just so empowering to be able
• 10:49
  to give that power back to the people that live in the area,
• 10:52
  and then knowing they were going to go out to their site,
• 10:54
  and we gave them the skill
• 10:56
  to be able to set up what they were going to determine,
• 10:57
  and then they could add their own knowledge as a family to it.
• 11:00
  So I think conservation can come in so many different ways.
• 11:04
  You know, being able to teach people what's going on is important.
• 11:07
  I think telling the stories, though, is the one place that I think
• 11:12
  we need to do a better job, like being able
• 11:14
  to tell the stories of conservation,
• 11:16
  tell the stories of those animals that they work directly with.
• 11:19
  And it's so impactful for the students that, you can work with
• 11:22
  and even the adults.
• 11:24
  Like I had people from 87 to 3 in my classroom.
• 11:28
  So you know, it's just a just a huge diversity of ages.
• 11:32
  But they were all having so much fun.
• 11:35
  And then the only the other program that I think met a great deal to me
• 11:38
  was we started a Nature Buddies program where,
• 11:42
  people are sometimes afraid to go outside, you know, they're afraid of the bugs,
• 11:45
  they're afraid of the ticks.
• 11:47
  They're also you know, a lot of women are worried
• 11:49
  and nervous about going hiking by themselves.
• 11:51
  They found that I'd do it by myself.
• 11:52
  And they're, like,
• 11:53
  mortified that I would do it, and that that's a sad situation to be in.
• 11:57
  To begin with.
• 11:58
  But what we did is we empowered people to feel more comfortable at home,
• 12:01
  going out into the wild
• 12:02
  and touching trees and learning about what's in their backyard.
• 12:05
  So it was really a lot that that program was a lot of fun.
• 12:08
  It was mostly family based.
• 12:09
  Again, so you can see my connection with getting families
• 12:12
  really involved in conservation from that generational period.
• 12:16
  Two of the grandparents tell the story about when they came there the first time.
• 12:20
  And I think that's also such a strong cultural thing here in Hawai'i, too.
• 12:24
  That's really been impactful for me, making the decision to want to come here to.
• 12:28
  So let's see.
• 12:30
  I mean, you're kind of an expert frog finder.
• 12:33
  Are you an expert frog hunter?
• 12:35
  Like, if I'm one of my friends in Manoa says, I hear a frog in my yard.
• 12:39
  Can we call you.
• 12:40
  So I can tell you what it is?
• 12:42
  But the gold frog wife is not to actually identify them or find them.
• 12:46
  And that's okay.
• 12:47
  Kids always say to they're like, well, I caught six.
• 12:50
  I'm like.
• 12:50
  That's quite, not quite the goal we're.
• 12:51
  Going for here.
• 12:53
  But the kids, you know, they have a lot of fun.
• 12:55
  And I would bring our education, you know, frogs in for the kids to see as well,
• 12:59
  which is always fun.
• 13:00
  But I could help.
• 13:01
  Probably just idiot with vocalizations that I don't know if I'm any better
• 13:06
  than anybody else at finding them.
• 13:09
  It's no secret that this zoo, the Honolulu, lost its accreditation
• 13:12
  a few years ago.
• 13:15
  Before getting re accredited, though currently.
• 13:17
  But as you know, this is not a sure thing the next time around, right?
• 13:19
  We're always up for evaluations in your mind.
• 13:22
  What those our zoo need to do, our staff or grass keepers,
• 13:25
  even us at the mayor's office.
• 13:26
  What do we need to do to maintain that accreditation that we have now?
• 13:30
  So I think the hardest thing about accreditation is that it's the gold
• 13:33
  standard.
• 13:34
  So those every year they look at the standards
• 13:38
  for the best care and they are always improved.
• 13:41
  Just like I said earlier about the fact that as we get to a plateau,
• 13:45
  we know what we know, then we learn more and we have to continue to improve
• 13:49
  and, evolve.
• 13:50
  The same thing is true for the ACA accreditation piece as well.
• 13:54
  So it can be challenging.
• 13:56
  You know, it's making sure that your facility meets those high strict
• 14:00
  standards that ACA has in place.
• 14:03
  And it can be anything from, you know, finances, a huge piece of that, you know,
• 14:08
  do you have the finances to continue not to just grow, but to thrive?
• 14:12
  That's kind of one of those pieces that you have to look at.
• 14:15
  Finances are tough everywhere too.
• 14:17
  So that's one of the pieces
• 14:19
  that can be one of the bigger stumbling blocks from those facilities.
• 14:22
  It's not just here, it's everywhere.
• 14:24
  Finances are always going to be one of those challenge pieces that you have.
• 14:28
  Being able to, keep up with your,
• 14:32
  your maintenance and your deferred maintenance to,
• 14:35
  you know, you build a my theory is that you build a beautiful exhibit
• 14:38
  and then it only makes the other exhibits next to it look like they're older and,
• 14:42
  and, you know, out of date.
• 14:45
  And that's one of the things that happened even like in the museum,
• 14:47
  you know, we built this wonderful exhibit and then the exhibit next to it,
• 14:51
  which might have been built like ten years before everything's changed.
• 14:54
  And that that now looks like it was it needs to be modernized.
• 14:58
  So it's keeping up with that modernization piece and what that actually means
• 15:02
  moving forward.
• 15:03
  We have a strong conservation program.
• 15:06
  So I think that that
• 15:07
  always is going to put us in a really good strong footing for there.
• 15:10
  But remember
• 15:11
  when when you have an inspection, it's absolutely everything they look at.
• 15:14
  They look at everything from your front gate
• 15:17
  and they talk to everybody in your facility as well.
• 15:20
  And the focus for ACA is very much on animal welfare, animal well-being,
• 15:25
  and also what
• 15:26
  that experience means for our visitors that come to the zoo as a whole.
• 15:30
  So it's not an easy answer to answer.
• 15:33
  You know, anybody who comes in, we had the inspection.
• 15:36
  The different inspectors might have a different focus
• 15:38
  when they come here to it's like what is their background?
• 15:40
  So it is you're you're being you're being evaluated by your peers.
• 15:44
  And those peers might have different focuses.
• 15:46
  Like sometimes like
• 15:48
  I'd be worried about one thing and they're coming in and questioning
• 15:50
  like a whole different thing that I don't even think about.
• 15:53
  Not to even think about if it wasn't the focus
• 15:55
  that you thought that they would come into.
• 15:57
  So it's kind of one of those situations where we have to do
• 16:01
  our due diligence to be at our best peak.
• 16:04
  And one of the things about ACA is that we continue to evolve
• 16:07
  throughout the system.
• 16:08
  You come in for your accreditation, it's good for five years, but during that time
• 16:12
  period, you still have to keep up on everything during those five years.
• 16:16
  So it's an ongoing process
• 16:18
  and it can be one that, you know, is challenging to Facilites
• 16:22
  it's a lot to document if you haven't seen, it is very thick,
• 16:26
  with everything that they ask and that they look at.
• 16:29
  So it's, it's that putting that best foot forward for when they're here,
• 16:34
  but also keeping that up when they're not here to.
• 16:37
  For those that aren't familiar, why is that so important.
• 16:40
  The support of the ACA.
• 16:41
  So the ACA runs a lot of our, conservation animals programs.
• 16:45
  So a lot of the programs are managed.
• 16:48
  As you can imagine.
• 16:48
  We have to look at the genetics and the diversity,
• 16:51
  and a lot of the programs have a team that oversee them.
• 16:54
  The SSP program, which is a survival the species survival plan.
• 16:57
  But there's also different layers underneath that as well.
• 17:00
  We now have the safe programs, which is saving animals from extinction.
• 17:04
  And those are much more broader programs.
• 17:06
  It's not enough now that we're just looking at the genetics,
• 17:08
  but we're also looking
• 17:09
  at how we're looking at the animals in the range countries
• 17:12
  and what we're doing to their captive populations.
• 17:14
  So it kind of balances that somewhat unbalanced position.
• 17:18
  So we have to look at all of those pieces.
• 17:21
  And as a member of ACA, it is easier for us to access
• 17:25
  and have that group of people that help support you.
• 17:27
  They also help support you, like making sure they can come in and say,
• 17:30
  we are doing our best practices if it's questioned.
• 17:34
  So there's there's a multitude of different ways
• 17:36
  that it's an important piece.
• 17:38
  And to be honest, we are a much stronger process
• 17:42
  of conservation with your member support and being part of that bigger picture.
• 17:47
  We have a stronger voice.
• 17:49
  We have a stronger voice
• 17:50
  in Congress in all of the different places to make that impact.
• 17:54
  So belonging to the organization is, is is a really important piece.
• 17:58
  It's not just, oh, you've got that gold stamp.
• 18:01
  It also means that where we're at, we're doing the best that we can
• 18:05
  for animals, both here at RCA but also around the world.
• 18:10
  Turkey.
• 18:10
  Do you have any mentors who are there and why?
• 18:14
  So yes, my, one of the strongest mentors
• 18:17
  I have who I think has made the biggest impact was my first director.
• 18:21
  I think that, he took a risk with me.
• 18:24
  But his way of,
• 18:27
  pushing people out of their comfort zone really stayed with me.
• 18:31
  And my most recent mentor that I have to
• 18:33
  say was the president of the museum.
• 18:36
  He came in just before he started, like,
• 18:39
  two months before Covid, but he was man who is stationed in California.
• 18:42
  But in his spare time, before he took the position, he had accepted.
• 18:45
  But we were still waiting for him to transition.
• 18:48
  He would come and meet with people
• 18:49
  one on one, and he brought it down to their level.
• 18:52
  And his, his ideas for,
• 18:55
  enhancing
• 18:57
  the people who work there, the staff at all
• 19:00
  different levels was something that I aspire to do.
• 19:03
  He his vision and his views sometimes were just phenomenal.
• 19:08
  So he's somebody who I'm like, what would Tim do in this case?
• 19:12
  So I have to say, by far, he is somebody who I admire and strive to be more like.
• 19:18
  Going back to your first year.
• 19:19
  He said that he kind of like pushed you and you do,
• 19:22
  even though you had this strong passion for animals in the beginning.
• 19:24
  What kind of things did you need to be pushed at?
• 19:26
  So it's easy, I think, sometimes
• 19:29
  to love your job and love working with animals.
• 19:32
  But the reality is it's really hard work, you know, and you have a lot of different
• 19:37
  things that you question and you do and it's it's physically taxing as well.
• 19:41
  And, you know, there would be days where I was just exhausted and he would say, you
• 19:45
  know, he would just keep pushing you past that point.
• 19:48
  He push you like, you know, I was working with these animals down here.
• 19:51
  He's like, well, I think you also need to at worked with these animals up here.
• 19:55
  So under his guidance, I mean, I really, literally did every job in that zoo.
• 20:00
  And I think it makes me a much more rounded person.
• 20:03
  So when someone says that, you know, well, that's night security.
• 20:07
  I know what it's like to walk around a 90 acre park by myself.
• 20:10
  I'm not a very big person.
• 20:12
  And I'm thinking to myself, you know, what am I going to do
• 20:14
  if I come across somebody in the middle of night?
• 20:16
  And let's be honest.
• 20:18
  A squirrel is really.
• 20:19
  Scary when it's moving around at night and you're the only one there.
• 20:22
  At least you hope you're the only one there.
• 20:24
  So some of these things really did push me out of my comfort zone.
• 20:28
  I didn't think that, I didn't really think of it
• 20:30
  as a career path, in all honesty, until,
• 20:34
  you know, I saw the visions that it could be that I could be a keeper.
• 20:38
  I could be a senior keeper.
• 20:40
  And what those job meant, I could be a vet tech.
• 20:43
  It just really opened my eyes up
• 20:44
  into all the different opportunities that a zoo could offer someone.
• 20:48
  And it also gave me the ability to have
• 20:52
  that empathy piece that I think has stayed with me throughout my whole career.
• 20:56
  When I started there, my motto was that if I was going to work
• 20:59
  with animals in captivity, then those animals I worked
• 21:02
  with would serve a bigger purpose every single day.
• 21:06
  That every day I would have someone leave my facility,
• 21:09
  at least knowing something they didn't know when they walked in.
• 21:12
  And sometimes that maybe a llama is not a bird.
• 21:16
  I'm okay with that.
• 21:17
  But other times we made that impact on people
• 21:20
  that really changed the trajectory of their career.
• 21:23
  And you just don't know who those people are going to be that you can change.
• 21:26
  So, he really taught that, like by taking a chance on me
• 21:30
  and continuing push me to do these different jobs, I'd be like,
• 21:34
  you know, the first
• 21:34
  time I caught the Eagles by myself, you know, that was like,
• 21:38
  he was the one that knew that I was so excited that I did it by myself.
• 21:41
  Because you have to act really cool
• 21:42
  and not let the other people know that was the first time you did it.
• 21:44
  You know what I mean? It is. So you. Caught the. What?
• 21:46
  Our bald eagles.
• 21:47
  So they. Caught me. Yeah. So they were.
• 21:50
  They were in this enclosed.
• 21:51
  They were an enclosure.
• 21:52
  And, our male could fly pretty well.
• 21:55
  And it was like, probably about a 12ft high enclosure.
• 21:59
  Usually I was the one that chased the animals around to get him tired,
• 22:01
  and somebody else would do the work.
• 22:03
  And this is back in the day where nowadays keepers usually have an animal station
• 22:07
  and we don't really have to catch animals anymore at all.
• 22:11
  This is before that way. Before that.
• 22:13
  So the day I did that, I was really proud of myself, but I didn't want to like,
• 22:18
  show that off to the other.
• 22:19
  If you've been there. Before. Right? Right.
• 22:20
  You know, they all been there, done that, that kind of thing.
• 22:23
  But he knew that I had not done that before.
• 22:25
  So it was really impactful to get that.
• 22:27
  I did a good job from him.
• 22:28
  So yeah, those those are the kind of, that's the kind of mentor
• 22:32
  I always wanted to be, as well as to keep pushing people.
• 22:36
  Not like that they can't do it, but
• 22:38
  that they're more than capable of doing it if they want to do it.
• 22:42
  I've asked this question to several people that work on this
• 22:44
  property, and their answer is usually, no, I don't have a favorite animal.
• 22:47
  I love them all. But then they all have a favorite animal.
• 22:50
  So, Jackie, do you have a favorite animal?
• 22:52
  Oh, you know what?
• 22:53
  So I call it the flavor of the day,
• 22:55
  but I do actually, in all honesty, you can say I do have a favorite.
• 22:59
  So when I first started here, it was just an egg.
• 23:01
  But we have one of the white terns who I've watched it since it was an egg.
• 23:06
  It's developed okay. He hasn't fledged yet.
• 23:09
  So I have to say every day when I come in, maybe even on the weekends
• 23:13
  when I'm not here, I come in and check, just to see him every day.
• 23:17
  I don't see him or her. I call him Bernard. But.
• 23:21
  Yeah.
• 23:21
  So he's just in the tree out here, so I have to say right now, he's probably
• 23:25
  my favorite, just because I've been able to see the whole process
• 23:28
  and just seeing the other birds support him has just been.
• 23:31
  It just blows my mind the way they support their young as they leave.
• 23:34
  So yes, right now that's my easy favorite.
• 23:38
  If you could speak to one animal
• 23:40
  for a day, oh, they could completely understand you.
• 23:43
  You could completely understand them.
• 23:45
  Which animal would it be? And why?
• 23:47
  If you could share some of your conversation with this animal.
• 23:49
  So that's actually a really easy one for me when,
• 23:53
  I worked with a, a pack of Timberwolves
• 23:57
  and we had a female, her name was Iroquois. And,
• 24:01
  it was a three acre exhibit.
• 24:02
  So it's really a great exhibit to work with.
• 24:05
  And I went in there one day and she jumped up and put her paws on me.
• 24:09
  I thought I was going to get eaten.
• 24:10
  I was young, and there was just something about working with her
• 24:15
  that from that day on, I could walk just about anywhere in that exhibit.
• 24:18
  I wanted to walk to, to clean and do the care and everything.
• 24:22
  So it's one of those, like,
• 24:24
  so impactful moments that having the ability to talk to her.
• 24:27
  I think what is then one of those key things to find out,
• 24:30
  like what it was like to live in that kind of situation.
• 24:34
  So by far, I think that she was one of the most impactful encounters I had.
• 24:39
  You know, because she didn't accept everybody coming in there.
• 24:42
  There was a lot of people who couldn't go in there
• 24:44
  during breeding season and during different times of the year.
• 24:47
  But for some reason, I was deemed acceptable,
• 24:50
  and I always wanted to know what it was I did or how it was that
• 24:54
  I was able to do that.
• 24:55
  So I think in that case, that was
• 24:59
  if I could, that would be really fun one to do.
• 25:01
  So what did that mean?
• 25:02
  What did that behavior mean when she jumped up on you?
• 25:05
  I really thought I was going to get eaten. It didn't.
• 25:06
  If she wanted to kill you, she could. She could. Yes, but.
• 25:09
  What does it mean?
• 25:10
  It usually, it's usually like, more of a submissive thing, you know,
• 25:13
  she just jumped up and held me in place, and I was against the gate as well.
• 25:17
  Thank heavens it was something behind me.
• 25:19
  I was I would have been on the ground. But,
• 25:22
  then she just kind of jumped down, walked away from me.
• 25:25
  And after that point in time, I, I literally could take care
• 25:29
  of the entire enclosure without, you know, worrying about anything.
• 25:34
  So it's just one of those and I think it was more of an acceptance that,
• 25:37
  not that I was part I don't think that I was part of their group or anything.
• 25:40
  I just think that she accepted I wasn't a threat to anything in the space
• 25:44
  and therefore allowed to go in.
• 25:45
  If I had to take one take away, it was that I wasn't a threat,
• 25:49
  at that point in time and never ended up being a threat to the pack.
• 25:54
  So interesting.
• 25:55
  Well, Jackie, is there anything that we missed? Oh.
• 25:58
  I always get that question.
• 25:59
  No. I'm I'm super excited about there this.
• 26:02
  You know, you're for, you know, you're here.
• 26:03
  I've only been here for a short period right now and loving every second of,
• 26:09
  living both here in Hawaii but also working here.
• 26:11
  I have so much myself to learn.
• 26:13
  So, I'm looking forward to, you know, learning,
• 26:18
  and just jumping in so I can't think of anything you didn't
• 26:21
  ask, but, luckily, I had an answer for your face.
• 26:24
  And you, you can ask about favorite animals. So.
• 26:26
  Yeah. Exactly.
• 26:28
  Thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much.
• 26:30
  And next week is a bye week for the One Oahu Podcast.
• 26:33
  I'm all for listening. And until next time, Aloha.