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• Blair Csuti, Ph.D., Conservation Program Coordinator
• David J. Shepherdson, Ph.D., Conservation Program Scientist

Blair Csuti, Ph.D., Conservation Program Coordinator
Csuti's Curriculum Vitae

Blair Csuti, the Oregon Zoo's Conservation Program Coordinator, earned his Ph.D. in zoology at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1977. In 1979, he became the first zoologist for The Nature Conservancy's California Natural Diversity Data Base in Sacramento.

From there moved to San Francisco to assume the position of Regional Director of Preserve Selection and Design. He left The Nature Conservancy in 1986 to help found Stanford University's Center for Conservation Biology.

In 1987, he moved to Portland, Oregon, and became a Research Associate in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, University of Idaho. Stationed in Portland, he was co-developer of the National Gap Analysis Program and coordinated the Oregon project.

He joined the Oregon Zoo's staff in 1997 and has concentrated on expanding the Zoo's regional and global conservation activities.

Blair is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Biology, Portland State University, and the Geosciences Department, Oregon State University. He serves on Oregon's Wildlife Integrity Review Panel and Natural Heritage Advisory Council. He also is a member of the Marbled Murrelet Recovery Team.

Blair has contributed many publications, including the Atlas of Oregon Wildlife (Oregon State University Press 2001) and The Elephant's Foot: Prevention and Care of Foot Conditions in Captive Asian and African Elephants (Iowa State University Press 20010).

David J. Shepherdson, Ph.D., Conservation Program Scientist
Shepherson's Curriculum Vitae

David Shepherdson obtained a Bachelors Degree in Biology at University of Sussex in the UK 1981 and then pursued a Doctorate in Animal Behavior while studying the foraging behavior and space use of the European badger.

In 1987 he accepted a research fellowship at the Zoological Society of London where he studied Zoo animal behavior and developed and assessed techniques for improving captive animal environments through environmental enrichment.

In 1991 he moved to the Oregon Zoo (then the Metro Washington Park Zoo) Portland, Oregon to continue and expand on this work with Dr. Jill Mellen.

He has published widely in the fields of environmental enrichment, zoo conservation and science education.

David is currently an associate editor for the journal Zoo Biology.

In 1993, with Jill Mellen he co-chaired the first international conference on environmental enrichment in Portland which resulted in the publication Second Nature: environmental enrichment for zoo animals published by Smithsonian Press.

He has worked hard in his capacity as Co-Chair to the AZA Behavior and Husbandry Advisory Group (BAG) to increase the profile of environmental enrichment in AZA zoos and to encourage AZA institutions to adopt institutional enrichment programs.

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