Chasing conservation: Forging a path to a career in zoo medicine

In this episode of The Vet Blast Podcast, Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, sits down with Cheryl Stout, DVM, a residency-trained zoo veterinarian, to discuss her path from a childhood fascination with wildlife to a career focused on conservation. Stout also discusses how she found her way into zoo medicine, what keeps her motivated to educate veterinary professionals and the public through social media, and more.

Below is a partial transcript, edited lightly for clarity.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: [For] those of you [who] may or may not know, in veterinary med, you don't get a lot of zoo med in the [veterinary education] foundation. So, what was that like for you?

Cheryl Stout, DVM: I knew that conservation was where I wanted to land, so I put my focus on zoo medicine because that seemed like the best way to get myself trained to put myself in a position to contribute to conservation in the US.

There are lots of ways that you can contribute both in and out of vet med, whether you're a researcher [or] a wildlife veterinarian doing your work in the US or outside of the US. But there's no real clear-cut path. And, as someone who is motivated by clarity, I liked knowing there's…a set path that you can pursue toward zoo med.

That's sort of why I ended up focusing specifically on zoo [medicine]. I went through vet school just trying to accumulate as many little opportunities as I could that would help me to investigate whether or not that was the right move. Because we all know that vet med is one of those professions that you should experience as much as you can before you commit to the financial burden, for lack of a better word, of taking on this career. [The] same goes for zoo med. You want to be sure before you get 8 years down a training rabbit hole that this is something that you really want. So, I found the exotics department in my hospital. I made sure that I was available anytime that they were open to somebody shadowing—same for the wildlife hospital at my vet school. I got to know the doctors there as well, and then from that, [came] opportunities.

People in this field are generally really willing to give advice and to teach, and so they told me to go to conferences. You meet more people. It all comes down to…networking.

Christman: Absolutely…. There are so many species to study and to understand. You went on to complete a zoological medicine residency with the Wildlife Conservation Society [WCS], right? How was that?

Stout: It's amazing and sometimes awful. Every emotion that you could come up with, I'm sure that I felt in those 3 years. And just for context, WCS is a conservation organization, but it's also the Bronx Zoo, the Queens Zoo, the Prospect Park Zoo. So that was kind of that network, and we primarily work out of the Bronx Zoo as WCS residents.

Want to hear the rest of the conversation? You can listen above or wherever you listen to podcasts.