Meet the Team Joel Pond Veterinary Technician, Lincoln Park Zoo Joel Pond is a certified veterinary technician who has been employed at the Lincoln Park Zoo animal hospital for 28 years. Zoo veterinary clinical pathology is one of his many professional interests, and he lectures on the subject both locally and internationally. He is also a co-founder of the Association of Zoo Veterinary Technicians, a group dedicated to teaching and communicating with colleagues in the field. Joel and others on the Zoo veterinary staff have been involved with the Chicago Peregrine Program for ten years. Their chief role is to assist in data collection by obtaining a blood sample from each of the chicks during the banding process. This blood sample is then archived with the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota. It can later be used for confirming the sex of the bird and/or genetic research. Joel also conducts additional research on routine blood-chemistry tests that are performed on the collected samples. These tests are quite similar to human blood tests carried out as part of routine health screens. Research and results from these tests help establish normal, clinical blood-chemistry values in Peregrine chicks at an important time in their lives—when they are just about to fledge (leave the nest). Another facet of this research is to determine if micro-centrifugation negatively affects the chemistry results. Micro-centrifugation is a process that allows technicians to collect and analyze smaller blood samples—an important objective when obtaining tiny samples from very small animals. Idexx Veterinary Laboratories, Inc., funds and provides the blood testing for the Peregrine research project, while Lincoln Park Zoo supplies the additional personnel. All of these efforts contribute to the knowledge and re-establishment of an endangered species in the Midwest. continue to tools >>