3 (Mentor Interview)

Three Weeks with Greg Vicino:

A lifetime of Animals, Conservation, and Science

By Dani Toscano

When I entered the San Diego Zoo’s Guest Services office at 9 am, I had no idea who I would meet, what I would experience, and how this would affect my education. Before my internship even began, Greg Vicino was a mysterious voice in an email—a guy harder to reach than a well-known celebrity. In fact, it took so long for us to connect that my initial site visit was pushed back to two weeks later.  Now, I waited for him in the small, hidden, and stuffy Guest Services office. I was nervous.

Before long, a lanky man loped in and said hello. His features stood out to me: abnormally large feet, gel that tamed his curly hair, a long nose, and an Adam’s apple that bobbed up and down while he spoke to me.

He told me to call him Greg, and as I followed him through the Zoo, it was hard to keep up. His long legs strode twice as fast as mine; he was in a hurry. Although he rushed through our meeting, he was friendly. Greg smiled at his coworkers, and chatted with them on our tour around the Monkey Trail. This led him to explain what my project would be: research on Gorillas.

Throughout the next three weeks, I came to understand Greg’s personality, and his love for animals. Although he had out-of-control curly hair, an arm-band tattoo, and cowboy boots, he spoke with an incredible vocabulary—scientific terms that represented what he reads, and what he previously studied. When I visited him in his office, located in the famous Children’s Zoo, I often saw stacks of books that ranged in titles. Greg mentioned that Anthropology was meaningful to my study, and that he went into that degree during college at UC Davis. I really enjoyed getting to know my mentor, daily, weekly, and quite frequently through email.

Dani Toscano: What did you want to be when you were a kid?

Greg Vicino: Geez that was so long ago I can't remember. I was the youngest of five kids, so I was heavily influenced by "hand-me-downs" which consisted of National Geographic and Jacques Cousteau (now I'm really dating myself!).  As with most men my age, my father was my hero, and being like him was a big time goal.  He being a scientist was also hugely influential in my life decisions but not entirely.   I was fascinated by the explorers of the day, and that was the thing that really sticks out in my head.  Going to unknown places and discovering unknown things was my main purpose in life. I often fantasized about traveling to Africa and other far off places to study the environment and chronicle behaviors as yet undiscovered.  So in short, I wanted to be an explorer.  In those days we did not think of the reality of something like that (no internet, iPods, or social networking), and we just felt as though it was something you could do.  I had no concept of grants, employers, global conflict or anything like that.  I thought archaeology was what Indiana Jones did and I wanted to do that type of "stuff".  It was naive but hey, I was just a kid!

DT: What made you choose to work with animals? When did you choose?

GV: I had always had an affinity for animals, and I was always fascinated by diversity and cooperation in the natural world.  I began the idea of working with animals as a profession when I started college and began my studies in Marine Biology.  I was drawn to the ocean as a very young boy, and spent most of my childhood in it.  The incredible amount of diversity and variation found in the coral reefs blew me away, and I figured those were the animals I would work with.  When I got to UC Davis and took a job working with Primates, I was sold.  They were intelligent, diverse and complex, just like the animals of the reef.  The difference was that they were eternally linking to us in the most magnificent way: Evolution.  I had always had an affinity for people and connecting people to the things that inspired them, primates were a no brainier.  When people get to know a primate, they want to act, and by acting they make a contribution to the betterment of the wild world.  My choice was to be one of those people who made an impact, and made people think about the environment in a different way.  The fact that I feel very close to wild animals and I carry a tremendous respect of their adaptations and actions has only helped me be a better ambassador.

“My choice was to be one of those people who made an impact, and made people think about the environment in a different way.”

DT: What was your experience like in college?

GV: I had a great college experience due mostly to the University I attended and the subject I studied.  The study of Anthropology at a school like UC Davis was exactly what I thought it would be like... Stuffy, worldly professors with offices strewn with artifacts from far off places.  The program was also very intense and we were conditioned early on to understand the actual dynamics of working in the science field.  We were heavily encouraged to write and pursue our own research projects, and the support from such a large University full of resources made it very realistic.  We had a vet school, med school, primate center, raptor center, huge dairy, pig farm, marine lab, and field stations all over the world.  We had access to all of these things with the right support and it allowed us to become very well prepared for the real world of research.

DT: How long have you been working with animals? And what specifically interested you to work with primates?

GV: I have been working with animals since 1994, and most of that time it has been primates.  As I stated earlier I was drawn to primates due to my area of study (Anthropology), and my obsession with human and animal evolution and adaptations.  With over 270 species of primates ranging from 200g Mouse lemurs, to 450 pounders like Paul, they are the epitome of adaptability.  The idea that we are ancestrally related to these fascinating social animals is not lost on me either.  I have always been drawn to the dynamics of social behavior, and primates give you the whole gambit of different systems.  I also have an affinity for "whole systems biology" and many of the environments that primates live in fascinate me as well as are intimately related to the suite of behaviors that result from living in such an environment.

DT: What college degree(s) do you feel suits working with animals? Does it depend on the species or is it all the same?

GV: My father always told me it did not matter what your first degree was in as undergraduate school is just designed to prepare you for the real world. That being said it always helps to be in one of the sciences (Biology, Ecology, Environmental Sciences, Animal Sciences, Anthropology, Psychology, Neurobiology, etc.) because you tend to get immersed in that field and have many opportunities to work in that particular area as an undergraduate.

DT: You've mentioned before that you've been to multiple areas of Africa.What was your experience like? Has it strengthened your bond with animals?

GV: My experience in Africa was incredible, as was the case with my experience in Central and South America.  First thing that type of travel does for you is allow you to take yourself much less seriously as you become aware of how difficult life is for so many other people in the world. It also really solidified my understanding of how animals deal with their native environments.  I have always respected the beauty of how animals fit into their environment, but the time in the wild only strengthens the desire to conserve entire environments.  It also makes you realize how unforgiving the wild can be, and how dynamic an organism is.

“I have always respected the beauty of how animals fit into their environment, but the time in the wild only strengthens the desire to conserve entire environments.”