Community Spotlight: Susan Hughes

Many of our clients carry their love of animals beyond their own homes and pets. In past issues we have featured clients involved with wildlife rehabilitation and the Pet Assistance League. This issue features a client, who as a member of the Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ), volunteers for the zoo's Behavior Watch Program.

Susan Hughes has been a member of FONZ and worked as a volunteer since 1984. The behavior watch program uses volunteers to collect data on selected animals. They are specifically trained for each program by the zoo. The data collected contributes to understanding the behavior and habitat preferences of the animals. Over the years she has worked on projects with foxes, bears, gorillas, flamingos, elephants, pandas, and golden lion tamarins.

For example, she currently serves as an interpreter for the golden lion Tamarin reintroduction program. These small primates are an endangered species from Brazil. Each spring, the zoo releases a family of tamarins in the Beaver Valley area and interpreters explain how the zoo trains captive-born animals to live in the wild. She has also worked with the pandas. Originally, she collected data during the pregnancy watch of Ling Ling.


Currently, she is monitoring the two new pandas, their mating rituals and habitat preferences. She is also involved with the Asian elephants, specifically Kandula, the new baby elephant. They are collecting data on the development, growth, play, sleep and nursing habits.

As a volunteer, Mrs. Hughes also assists with special events. In addition to the behavior watch program, the zoo has many other volunteer programs. Anyone interested in this or other volunteer programs with the zoo can call the volunteer line at 202-673-4956 or visit the website at www.fonz.org.

At home, Mrs. Hughes conducts her own behavior watch observing the antics of her two domestic cats and two ferrets. She adopted her cats through our Have a Heart Fund program.

Mrs. Hughes behavior watch includes lions at the zoo and her own cats. Similarities between the two are evident in these pictures.