I have been working with animals in zoological institutions for about 30 years. I have worked at Marine World in Vallejo, the San Diego Safari park, the San Francisco zoo, Canine Companions for Independence, The California Academy of Sciences and had my own business called Zoo Solutions. During that time I did a lot of problem solving and building of equipment to help facilitate animal husbandry.
Above are some of the penguin nest boxes I have made for various institutions including the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the San Diego Zoo and the California Academy of Sciences.
I made this penguin hugger (formerly called a squeeze) so that the vet staff hug the penguin in place so they don’t move during an x-ray.
This is a venomous snake restraint/examination box. The animal is encouraged to enter the box by providing heat in the box. The floor of the box is then pulled up to the mesh, so that the snake can be given a vaccine or anesthetized for a medical procedure.
Worlds nicest chameleon cage for the Academy of Sciences.
A few things I made for Canine Companions for Independence. Cosmo Jaffe pictured.
These are woolly mammoth tusk cradles I made for the California Academy of Sciences. They were made to safely store the tusks incase of earthquake.
This black cage is the nicest I have ever made. I made it for my friend Megan’s Emerald Toucanet. She put this website together for me in return. Thanks Megan!
I built several of these auto feeders for the Oakland Zoo. It was for a lemur exhibit, and distributed food at random intervals. The computer and code aspect was done by one of Karins grad students. The tube in the middle had several holes and would rotate randomly and drop the food for the animals.
The above cage was built for the California Academy of Sciences. It allowed biologists to capture the free flight birds from the rainforest exhibit remotely. The picture shows the two doors that can be remotely closed using a Bluetooth deadbolt.
This was an enrichment device for gorillas. I made them for the Gorilla Foundation who has the famous sign language gorilla Koko. Randomly food would drop into the “maze” and a gorilla would have to move it through maze using a stick and the slots than ran parallel to the “shelves”. Another of Karins students did the computer and code aspect
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I vaguely remember this project, but an animal was supposed to drop in a token and then get a food reward. But more complicated.
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