MEET OUR TEAM
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My job is twofold: I lead the hospital and veterinary teams, the nutrition teams, and the clinical diagnostic labs at both the San Diego Zoo and the Safari Park; and I work with Nadine Lamberski, DVM, and Megan Owen, Ph.D., to help guide our Alliance to be the most effective conservation organization that it can be.
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Briefly describe your job with SDZWA.
What is the coolest thing about your job?
I am so fortunate to be leading some of the most respected zoological teams in the world; and I am able to help harness their enthusiasm and passion for conservation.
For my master’s program in New Zealand, I was 12 time zones away from home and everything I knew, when the future finally became clear. I was studying diseases in abalone, and the whole picture just “clicked” for me—science and research, and learning about wildlife and what we could do for them. I have gone from field science to clinical work as a veterinarian, and back again. I wanted to live in both worlds.
Hendrik Nollens, DVM, MSc, Ph.D.
With experience in the lab and the field, in water and on land, SDZWA’s vice president of wildlife health is just what the doctor ordered for the future of conservation. There are some 300 species of octopus— all of them intriguing.
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What do you see as the future of wildlife conservation?
I think people are more aware of what we are doing to our planet, and that conservation works—we can save wildlife and habitats. And the awareness that we are not the only beings on the planet, and that all our futures are connected. The future is all of our responsibility—this trend is growing.
ILLUSTRATION BY: MICHAEL HOGUE; PHOTO BY: LINGBEEK/E+/GETTY IMAGES.
6 / SAN DIEGO ZOO WILDLIFE ALLIANCE JOURNAL / JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022
What is your favorite animal? Why?
I think the most misunderstood and underappreciated creature has to be the octopus. I have personally observed their real problemsolving abilities. If there is any doubt, just watch My Octopus Teacher.
What book or film influenced you or made a strong impression?
Growing up in Belgium, I was an animal kid. And then Jacques Cousteau’s films introduced me to ocean animals and a whole world that I didn’t know existed. And then I came upon a Reader’s Digest article about a girl whose experience raising an orphaned harbor seal inspired her to become a marine biologist. When it was time for university, I first studied veterinary medicine and was then off to New Zealand to study marine conservation biology.
What was a turning point or defining moment in a project or program you’ve worked on?
