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Life after Catz: Working at London Zoo

Stephanie Jayson (2006, Veterinary Medicine)

Starting out as a budding vet student at St Catharine’s, I never would have guessed that three years after graduation I would be living my dream as a veterinary resident at ZSL London Zoo.

As I write this I am sitting among lizards and hummingbirds on a vivid green mountainside on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, about to embark on a forest hike. Though most of my time is spent looking after the myriad of fascinating species at London Zoo, for the next couple of weeks I have my fieldwork hat on, working on a collaborative project to find the last remaining critically endangered mountain chicken frogs in Montserrat and collect samples of their wild diet so we can better understand how to care for them in captive breeding programmes.

I realise now that studying Vet Med at Catz formed the platform to my career. Studying comparative anatomy and physiology in the early years gave me an understanding of the diverse forms and functions present in the animal kingdom – knowledge which I use every day in my job as a zoo vet. The small group ‘supervision’ system encouraged all of us to enquire openly without feeling under pressure.

The guaranteed intercalated degree in the third year (Zoology in my case) expanded my understanding of conservation and herpetology which now form my main areas of interest. Catz also provided great networking opportunities – I met several of my future employers by running the Cambridge University Veterinary Zoological Society.

Catz is where it all started and will always feel like a second home.