Cisneros, Robert - Animal Care Supervisor, San Diego Zoo

California , USA

 

rcisneros@sandiegozoo.org

 

I am an Animal Care Supervisor at the San Diego Zoo.  My supervisory duties include managing the Children's Zoo, a collection of over 200 exotic and domestic species. I have been with the Zoological Society of San Diego for over 15 years, in which time I have had opportunities to with most of the species in the collection including primates, carnivores, and hoofstock.  I was a hospital keeper at San Diego Zoo's Veterinary Services for over 9 years.  

Currently, I am on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Zoo Keepers and also serve as the Liaison for the San Diego Chapter.  I have been a local and national member of AAZK since 1996.

I am also a member of the University of San Diego 's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).  I was an executive board member for four years at the California Wolf Center in Julian , California . Since 2003, I have assisted with the Chemical Immobilization and Wildlife handling course for Wildlife Biologists at the California Wolf Center .

My expanded experience includes nine years as a behavior specialist working with autistic and profoundly retarded children.  My greatest challenges there were developing behavior modification programs and teaching sets using only operant conditioning.  Previous to that , I worked for the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology for six years as a research technician.  My experience there includes, aquaculture, mariculture , both submersible and ship time south of the equator, coral reef biology, artificial reef building and deployment, and fisheries conservation.