Rollins Animal Health Center – Zoo Atlanta

Providing exceptional medical care for animals requires a veterinary team with diverse skill sets.

Domestic Animal Knowledge

The Veterinary Team at Zoo Atlanta needs to be familiar with medicine in all types of animals, from domestic animals to the most exotic animals. Understanding different domesticated animals’ physiology allows the Veterinary Team to apply this knowledge to the diverse array of related animals at the Zoo. 

Human Connection

Sometimes the veterinarians can consult human medical resources to make informed decisions for animals that are more closely related to humans. Primates, especially apes, can benefit from this. Some other examples:

• Gorillas with a cold take Robitussin, 
• Mona monkeys take ibuprofen for arthritis 
• Pregnant and nursing primates take prenatal vitamins 
• Animals that need calcium supplements receive Tums or Viactiv 
• Geriatric primates may received Centrum Silver multivitamins 
• Pigs, turtles, hawks, and primates may take Cosequin for arthritis

Zoo Atlanta’s Veterinary Team supports conservationists in the field and educates the next generation of zoo veterinarians through collaborative partnerships.  

Partnerships connect conservation, research, cultural, and educational institutions to achieve more for wildlife conservation than what each organization could do on its own.

While all accredited zoos provide top-quality animal care, Zoo Atlanta’s veterinary staff go several steps further to conduct and publish research to inform improved standards and methods of animal care.

For example, our staff has led the development of new surgical techniques and has creatively managed to document crucially important baseline information to describe what are normal and healthy parameters such as blood pressure in a non-anesthetized gorilla and orangutan.

Based on their reputations as innovators in veterinary medicine, our staff frequently are called upon to apply their skills to conservation matters in the wild involving diseases, such as persistent tumors in green sea turtles, or triage and rescue situations involving large-scale confiscations from the illegal wildlife trade.

The results of their efforts are published in major journals such as Journal of the American Veterinary Association and Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine so that veterinarians across the world can learn from their breakthroughs.

The Zoo’s academic partners include Agnes Scott College; Emory University; Georgia Institute of Technology; Georgia State University; Kennesaw State University; Morehouse College; The University of Georgia; University of North Georgia; Gwinnett Technical College; and Fort Valley State University.

Our partnerships with local universities benefit the animals at the Zoo and in the wild, as well as students and other professionals in the field who work and study in Atlanta. Formal zoo-university partnerships expand the scope of what we can accomplish through education. Many zoos focus primarily on K-12 programming and other guest-tailored education. These programs are certainly effective, but are limited to what can be understood by younger age groups, or processed in short periods of time. University-level education expands the scope of what can be learned at zoos, providing deep insights into conservation, biology, and veterinary-related fields not possible through traditional zoo programming.

Graduate students, in turn, bring their time, drive to learn, and additional funding to the partnership. These arrangements are time-intensive for both participating students and the overseeing Zoo team, but bring an intellectual stimulation and momentum that keeps zoos in the forefront of relevant fields. 
 

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