Patricia “P.K.” Robbins ’82

P.K. majored in biology at Yale, and when applying to veterinary school realized that her chosen medical path was anything but well trodden: “I remember a woman in the career counseling office at Yale being very patient with me. ‘We don’t really do very many of these,’ she told me.” After Yale, P.K. moved to England to study veterinary medicine for five years at Cambridge University.

At the zoo, every day was different, and while she loved her job, some cases were difficult. When an Asian elephant’s esophagus was punctured by a palm frond, causing an abscess, “there was absolutely nothing we could do,” recalls P.K. “The death of an elephant is a terrible loss.” Yet those days were balanced by others that brought small miracles. “We admitted a turtle to the hospital with no detectable heartbeat or respiration. Long story short, after much medical care, she eventually laid eleven eggs. Animals never cease to amaze me.”

In her years as a veterinarian, P.K. has seen a welcome evolution in the way zoos view their responsibility to animals. “Many have realized the importance of environment for the well-being of their creatures, shifting away from jewel-case exhibits, where visitors could see a wide array of species in small, barren enclosures,” explains P.K. “Instead, many zoos are now opting for more extensive, naturalistic exhibits, which allow animals more opportunity to express a wider range of ‘natural’ behaviors.”

P.K. is concerned about the damage humans have done to endangered species and is realistic about the role zoos can play in addressing this. “I used to think of zoos as safety deposit boxes for genetic material, but I now realize it is unlikely that much of our captive DNA will repopulate the wild,” she says. “So now zoos are more about education and awareness—trying to get people aware of the plight of the planet.”

Photograph by Ken Bohn/San Diego Zoo