Apr

Meerkats, mother hens and fledglings get their due at the Zoo

The National Zoo’s fifth annual Peer Recognition Awards ceremony was held on Friday, April 9.

Jennifer Buff

The Peer Recognition Awards are given to members of the Zoo’s community whose significant contributions during the past year reflect a willingness and commitment to go above and beyond the call of duty in their efforts to help the Zoo achieve its goals. These dedicated individuals and/or teams have gone the extra mile to lend their time and expertise unselfishly, while making outstanding contributions to the Zoo through initiative and ability.

Congratulations to this year’s recipients!

Fledgling Award for Rookie of the Year: Jennifer Buff and Pat Harrington

Geoff Reynolds

The Hand Rearing Team, Meerkat Award for Team Recognition:

Mindy Babitz, Colleen Clabbers, Jilian Fazio, Dell Guglielmo, Kristy Jacobus, Courtney Janney, Gil Myers and Stacey Tabellario

Mother Hen Award for Mentorship: Dr. Bill McShea

Octopus Award for Enrichment Achievement: Amanda Bania

Otter Award for Good Karma: Geoff Reynolds and Preston Burke

Amanda Bania

The Black Footed Ferret Team, Prairie Dog Award for Working “Underground”:

Dr. JoGayle Howard, Lawrence Layman, Dr. Luis Padilla and Lisa Ware

In addition, JoGayle Howard received the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2010 Recovery Champion Award for her accomplishments in conserving black footed ferrets by developing protocols for breeding rare carnivore species, using cryopreservation techniques to demonstrate how genome research banks can contribute to conservation, and initiating a multi-disciplinary program to conduct a biomedical survey of black footed ferrets in the wild. Howard’s pioneering techniques have produced 160 kits released into their historic range in Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Kansas, New Mexico and Mexico.