The Official Houston Zoo Blog

David with our Brown Pelicans

Hometown: Martinez, GA
Section: Children’s Zoo – Primary: Coastal/Mews

Special Interests/Hobbies:
Video games, golf, & skeet shooting

Interesting Facts:
While living alone on the GA coast, I was a naturalist for the Sea Island Company. The company owned a 5 star hotel, and I had to relocate eastern diamondback rattlesnakes from the premises.

What is your education, training, and previous institution(s) you attended before coming to the Houston Zoo?
Georgia Southern University 2002, BS in Biology with a minor in Chemistry.

David works heavily with birds of prey.

What animals do you train, and what is your favorite section in the Children’s Zoo?
I train a Nigerian Dwarf Goat named Domino, a Harris Hawk named Clint, a parrot named Picasso, and our porcupine named Ernie. My favorite section is Coastal/Mews.

What sort of advice would you give to anyone wanting to enter the zoo field?
It helps to do an internship at a zoo before attempting to get a job in the field.

What is your favorite animal story?
I was a naturalist for the Sea Island Company, which owns a private island along the GA coast. While working there, part of my job was to monitor their loggerhead sea turtle nest. During a night patrol for sea turtles, I came across 8 nests that hatched that night. By the end of the night, I had seen around 800 baby sea turtles!

If you have any questions or comments for David, feel free to post it in the comment section!