Conservationist Jon Rossi Visits the Zoo

On Tuesday, the Trevor-Lovejoy Zoo had a special visitor as Jon Rossi of the Rossafari Podcast stopped in for the day. A man of many talents, Rossi is a musician, actor, and advocate for endangered animals—and he’s well-acquainted with the Trevor-Lovejoy Zoo, having visited several times and run into our zoo curators at the annual Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) Conference.

“I love spending time here,” Rossi said. “I have interviewed students from the last three or four years in a row, and every one of them impresses the heck out of me. … I've loved watching the seriousness with which the kids take this.”

Not long after he arrived, Rossi was treated to a firsthand look at how all our classes take advantage of having a zoo on campus. As he and the zoo staff prepared for the day, students from Kat Miller’s American Voices in Art and Literature: On Beauty class spread across the zoo to draw various animals, a perfect example of the interdisciplinary study only available at Millbrook. Later, more students would head to the zoo for community service, during which they help the professional zoo staff care for the animals.

Dan Cohen ’86, the zoo’s director of media, also gave Rossi a behind-the-scenes tour of the facilities. He was particularly excited to get back to Millbrook to see some new additions to the zoo since his last visit: the binturongs and our adorable five-month-old red panda cub Ember. Rossi has a soft spot for red pandas, as he’s a member of the Saving Animals from Extinction (SAFE) Red Panda steering committee, along with Trevor-Lovejoy Zoo Director of Animal Care Kyleen Depew.

While on campus, Rossi recorded interviews with several students, adult zoo staff members, and Science teacher Dr. Kerry Dore, whose Independent Science Research (ISR) students often choose to study the animals at the zoo—for instance, students have studied animal stress by analyzing feces in the lab, and one recent project even involved teaching lemurs how to count.

In his interactions with students throughout the years, Rossi has noticed the incredible depth to Millbrook’s science education, thanks to a zoo that attracts dedicated students and instructors. “They're talking about deep biological stuff that they're studying at the zoo,” he observed. “I will tell you—I was one of the smart kids in high school, and I didn't know any of this stuff. You know, I've heard words here from students talking about their projects that I've had to go and look up. … So, I've learned things being here, which is incredible, and that's the kind of education that I think you are paying for.”

We’re grateful to Rossi for his kind words and for taking time out of his busy schedule to drop in at the zoo! You can follow along with his conservation journey here:

 

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