Dr. Caitlin J Curry, PhD

​I am a conservation geneticist on a mission to save the planet one carnivore at a time. Born and raised in San Diego, I have been spoiled with sunshine, the warm ocean air, and the San Diego Zoological Society, fueling my lifelong passion with animals and close relationship with nature. From grade school science fairs to adventurous workups on wildlife in Africa, my curiosity of living things has taken me around the world striving to find how I can make a difference by studying and working with animals.
My career has veered a bit away from always being centered around poop. But if it weren't for all the shit, I wouldn't be where I am. So, I am incredibly thankful for all my life's crap.

Well Shit......

The sun was just starting to rise over the termite mounds at the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in Namibia, Africa. I had been waking up this early for a few weeks so making my way down the dirt path with a flashlight being careful not to step on snakes and keeping a close eye out for leopards was starting to feel routine. With my clipboard and timer in hand I entered the cheetah pen. This was starting to become routine for the cheetahs as well, as they acted as though I didn’t exist. For two hours every morning I did behavioral observations on four cheetahs before anyone in the center was even awake. And every afternoon I fed these same four cheetahs chunks of meat laced with barley, corn, lentils, or rice (left) so I could determine who’s scat belonged to whom when collecting samples and later extracting the hormones. 

Where would you like to go?
a.k.a. your navigation menu through my career

​A little history behind my fascination with poo...

2003
I would like to say that was by first encounter working with feces, but I cannot. Aside from being forced by my parents to clean up after my pets growing up, while in college at University of Washington (UW), I was as an Animal Care Unit volunteer for three years at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle in the Tropical Rain Forest, African Savannah, and the Family Farm, aka, shoveling shit for free. But, as shocking as it may seem, it wasn’t the poop that attracted me to the job. Volunteering allowed me the opportunity to interact with many species of animals, such as ocelots, jaguars, monkeys, hippos, giraffe, and an aviary full of birds. 
2005
At UW, I took a course called Behavioral Studies of Zoo Animals. Being a volunteer led me to develop a research project on the Golden Lion Tamarins (GLT) I took care of in the Tropical Rainforest. This is what first sparked my interest in doing research. For this project, I investigated parent-rearing versus hand-rearing of GLTs by comparing the social interactions of two litters of GLTs from the same parents, one hand-reared by keepers, the other reared by the parents. I examined the behavior of the individuals in both litters to determine if they were developing in a typical manner. This project was the winner of the spring 2005 research contest, commended for being the most scientifically accurate.

​Cheetahs and Bears and Lions … Oh My

2005
In the summer of 2005, I spent three months in Namibia, Africa at the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) as an intern for the founder and executive director, Dr. Laurie Marker. During my internship, I was involved in a multitude of projects from 24-hour waterhole game counts to helping finalize the 2005 International Studbook and creating an identification handbook for the captive cheetahs at CCF and day to day care of the cheetahs. I also assisted in many workups on wild and captive cheetahs helping to take measurements, give medication, and take blood and tissue samples.

For my primary project, I set up behavioral research to coincide with the endocrinology project of a Fulbright Scholar who was doing research on the estrous cycle of captive cheetah at CCF. To continue the endocrinology portion of the project after the Scholar left, I was taught to do biological sampling (described above in “Well Shit”) and to extract hormones from cheetah scat. That was my first real experience doing lab work and I loved it! So much that when I got back to UW, I took an endocrinology lab course, furthering my fascination with the science of poo.
But the thing that inevitably redirected my career goals happened about a week before I was going to be heading back to the United States. Laurie approached me about a project CCF considered starting using scent detection dogs for fecal collection. At that point, it was just an idea and she thought my animal behavior background made me a perfect candidate to help get the project off the ground.

​I spent the next few years developing a project to use scent detection dogs for genetic analysis of small populations that eventually led me to and helped get me into graduate school.

​Quirky Persistence

​I earned my bachelor’s degree in animal behavior and cognitive neuroscience from the University of Washington, with a minor in anthropology, and got my PhD in conservation and population genetics from Texas A&M University. Seems pretty straightforward, but I took 6 years between undergrad and grad school to travel and improve myself, personally, professionally, and academically.
2006
I hiked the Inca Trail and went to the Amazon, ​visited the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford in England, volunteered at the San Diego Zoo (SDZ) and it’s Institute for Conservation Research (ICR), became a certified dog trainer through the Animal Behavior College, and took enough open university courses to obtain an equivalent to a bachelors in Biology, all while working multiple part-time jobs to save up for graduate school. 
I started volunteering at the SDZ as a researcher for the ICR, participating in studies on bears, birds, elephants, and the Giant Panda, then became one of the first interpretive volunteers, specializing in the Elephant Odyssey exhibit. ​
For the Giant Panda, I assisted with two fecal studies: (1) identifying and characterizing micro flora in the gastrointestinal tract of the giant panda; and (2) evaluating the physiological condition and foraging behavior of giant panda via fecal analysis. My responsibilities included monitoring giant panda activity, collecting and managing samples, and maintaining project supplies. ​

PhDoing it!

2012
I got my PhD in Conservation and Population Genetics at Texas A&M University through the Interdisciplinary Program of Genetics as a member of the College of Veterinary Medicine in the Veterinary Pathobiology department. It’s a bit of a mouthful.

I joined the lab of Dr. James Derr which included being part of the DNA Technologies Core Laboratory staff and the Texas A&M Wildlife Conservation Genomics program. The Derr lab uses biotechnology for the conservation and restoration of biodiversity. And, while a large focus of the lab is on the American Bison, my dissertation research was looking at biodiversity of the lion.
For my dissertation, I developed new protocols for lion genetic research and uncovered how genetic diversity of lions has changed over the past century using ancient DNA from museum collections.
My research on Zambian lion genetics got me to become a member of the African Lion Working Group, an organization that promotes comprehensive, scientifically based conservation strategies for free roaming lion populations in Africa.
2014
While in grad school, I traveled to South Africa and Namibia two more times. I took a chemical immobilization course for practicing veterinarians run by Dr. Derr where we learned to shoot dart guns and do medical procedures on wildlife.
2018
A few years later I joined Dr. Derr as a teaching assistant for a similar course for vet students then went off on my own to Kruger National Park to attend my first African Lion Working Group Meeting!
2019
​I defended by dissertation in June 2019 then promptly became a postdoctoral researcher at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. There I completed an analysis of relatedness and genetic diversity in the North American collection of captive African elephants and developed projects to produce reference genomes for various lemur species before COVID-19 got me furloughed. (Darn you Rona!)

Living the Dream

2020+
My time in Omaha was short because of the pandemic but it set me up for another grand opportunity. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to work for the SDZ. I was close as a volunteer. But the dream is to get paid. 

And I did it. It was a bit of an unconventional path, but I have my dream job! I now work for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA, formerly SDZ-ICR) in Conservation Genetics doing bioinformagic to identify genetic factors that leave species vulnerable to decline and extinction.

My research is focused on using next generation DNA sequencing technologies and innovative strategies for understanding and conserving wildlife and managing how we coexist on this planet. I believe that by characterizing wild populations, appropriate strategies can be developed to allow for the coexistence between humans and wildlife in the natural environment.

Check out my current research and all the amazing species I get to work with!

Alter Egos

I am an artistic scientist.  I enjoy photography and doing crafts, love to cook, have a fond appreciation for the arts, and have been a dancer my entire life. My mother has always said my brain is in a battle with itself, the right side and the left side, but I believe it just makes my point of view stronger, and has honed by organization skills only for the better.

Moral of the Story

Whether I was working towards becoming a behaviorist or a geneticist, I’ve always wanted to be a conservationist. And I got there with a little help from some crap.