Chris Mooney:
My name is Chris Mooney, and I am the lead of the butterfly pavilion in O. Orkin Insect Zoo at the Smithson's National Museum of Natural History. That means I take care of all the living insects and arthropods that you see in the exhibits. One of the most important parts of my job is to be sure my team and I follow the rules for keeping live animals inside the museum. Many of our insects come from outside the USA, and we need to be careful nothing gets out. I also make sure that we always have what we need so the visitors like you can see the animals and learn more about them. You may think you don't like spiders or are afraid of bugs, but the Insects Zoo and Butterfly Pavilion are great places to learn more about these insects, to understand them a bit more, and maybe even overcome these fears.
Getting into this kind of work all started when I was younger, about five or six. I liked reptiles and amphibians, especially lizards and frogs. I saw them when visiting my family in Costa Rica, and I thought it would be so cool to be a scientist who studies these animals: a herpetologist. In school I was not able to take any classes specifically about reptiles and amphibians though. But then I found a different animal group that interest me: insects. I also remembered the stories that my mother would tell me about her uncle, who would go into the rainforest and search for and study various insects. It was exciting for me to learn about a different group of animals. I thought it was cool that my great uncle studied them in Costa Rica. And I loved the idea that I could study animals in school and it could maybe even be my job one day.
When I got older, I got to work here at the Insect Zoo and learn how to feed and care for them so that visitors to our museum can enjoy and learn from them. I still work at the Insect Zoo today, and I love seeing people interacting with insects and changing their minds that not all insects are bad. And I love that I get to see and handle all types of insects and arthropods from all over the world.
Two skills come very handy in my job. The first skill is making observations, like looking at and monitoring handles in their habitat, listening for their sounds and even using my sense of smell are very important in keeping the animals healthy. It's kind of like if you forget to take the cat litter out for a while, if you smell it, you probably have to do something about it to keep your cat healthy. Problem solving is the other important skill in my job. Sometimes you have to figure out how to keep animals healthy and happy while on exhibit. While other times you may figure out why something died or something didn't hatch. A lot of times that problem solving goes back to thinking about the problem and the observations we've made and understanding the science behind what these animals need to survive. As is common anytime you involve live animals, you often have unexpected issues pop up from time to time with mold, systems leaking or just animals behaving in a way that is unexpected. The best way to deal with these is to always be prepared for anything and be flexible.
The first time that I saw myself as someone who could do science was in elementary school. We would have science projects and I always enjoyed doing them and learning new things as I did the projects. Science is something anyone can do as long as you want to learn more about the world around you. My advice for students is, do not be afraid to learn more about those odd subjects like entomology, as you might find something that really interests you. You can also think about doing things that you like to do now. If you're like me- enjoy visiting the forest and finding animals, keep doing that. You can even practice that really important skill of noticing the world around you by making observations.
