(scroll down for episodes).......................................Dr. Jones
Sloths with Stephanie Arne of the Honolulu Zoo
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..Stephanie Arne ...........................
We are going to talk with our Field Correspondent, Stephanie Arne from the Honolulu Zoo about Sloths. If you were lucky enough to spot one in the trees of the South American rain forest, it would look like a stringy clump of moss and algae in the branches overhead. It wouldn't seem to move, because they move so slowly. And because they live upside down, hanging from tree branches, you wouldn't recognize one as being an animal at all. But when you get to know a sloth that has been all cleaned up, you find that they are delightful creatures and down-right cute. Well, thanks to Stephanie, we are going to get to know Sloths.
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Oahu's enthusiastic Wildlife Educator uses her passion, knowledge and experience to inspire others to take action at a local and global scale.
Stephanie is originally from South Dakota and started her career with an internship in the Education and Mammal Department at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo. “I was fortunate enough to work with many zoo keepers from various departments to gain knowledge of the animal collection and more respect for the keepers. My first day as an intern was spent shoveling buffalo poop for 5 hours straight. Hot, sweaty, smelly and covered in blisters, I still asked all the questions I needed and kept a smile on my face. Luckily, I proved myself to the keepers and I was given the opportunity to work in every animal section
Within a month, Stephanie was hired on as the Education Outreach Coordinator. During her experience at HDZ, Stephanie increased the yearly outreach presentations, helped with the implementation of the Long Distance Learning program and created both the Homeschool programs and the Zoo to You Boxes.
Later, Stephanie received the opportunity to work as a civilian contracted Educator for the US military in Key West, Florida, Iwakuni, Japan and Pearl Harbor military base in 2008 where she finished her contract and found herself applying for the Honolulu Zoological Society. Stephanie worked with Vacation Adventures, Snooze at the Zoo and Twilight Tours.
On her quest to gain more experience working with wildlife, Stephanie moved to San Diego to work for Sea World and San Diego Zoo. At the San Diego Zoo, Steph hosted the Backstage Pass show and ran VIP/Behind the Scene Tours. Within the last couple of years, she got the opportunity to work on some wildlife projects in Borneo and Papua New Guinea. “My favorite experiences were working with whale sharks on Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia, doing coral reef checks on the Great Barrier Reef and helping clean off Little Blue Penguins on the North Island of New Zealand.”
Stephanie has just recently returned to the island of Oahu and re-joined the Education Staff as the new Education Outreach Coordinator. She is passionate about teaching the public about the importance of wildlife conservation and is looking forward to sharing her exciting stories and animal knowledge with the island of Oahu.
