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Girls in STEM | Zoo veterinarian cares for many animals and embraces STEM career

Dr. Debra Barbarits visited the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo all the time as a child. She now makes a difference in the lives of the more than 3,000 animals there as a veterinarian.

More than 3,000 animals call the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo home, living in habitats like the African Savanna, Asian Highlands, and the Northern Wilderness Trek.

All those exotic animals are cared for by teams of experts, including the zoo veterinarians. We met one of those vets, a woman who has embraced a STEM career.

Every animal at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is one of Dr. Debra Barbarits' patients.

"I wanted to be a vet as soon as I knew what one was," she told us. "I think the smallest animal I ever worked on was a dart frog that needed a four-limb amputation. He was 2 grams. We do work with our elephants every week. we work with our grizzly bears, our giraffe. so it really truly runs the gamut between birds, reptiles, we even do fish."

The zoo vets work in tandem with keepers, technicians and curators on the animals' diets, training, enrichment and medical procedures.

So you may wonder, just how do they know how to treat so many different animals?

"Whether you are treating a human, a dog, a cat, an elephant, a giraffe or a grizzly bear, all the basics of medicine are the same," Dr. Barbarits explains. "So when I go to treat a wolf, I'm thinking of our domestic dogs. So the medicine is very similar, but as a zoo vet you really have to appreciate the differences as well."

Dr. Barbarits admits sometimes when an animal gets sick, they rely on each other and colleagues at other zoos to come up with a treatment plan.

"We are still learning every day. Some of the other challenges too are we work with wild animals and they are inherently dangerous because they are wild animals. They're not pets," she adds.

Dr. Barbarits visited the zoo all the time as a child. She volunteered with the zoo crew as a teenager, then worked at the zoo as she worked on her degrees.

And now? "I get to work with some of the world's most endangered and iconic animals. I get to make a difference not only in the lives of the animals here at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, but also in the lives of animals across the world."

Her advice to those children seeking a potential STEM career: "As soon as you have that spark, or that interest, really run with it. Don't be afraid to be different for liking science and liking math."

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