Kyle Miller:
Hello, my name is Kyle Miller and I work here as an animal keeper at the National Zoo's Reptile Discovery Center. That means I take care of a wide array of reptile and amphibians, ranging from giant snapping turtles and crocodiles to small skinks and geckos, and even giant aquatic salamanders and venomous snakes.
I've been a lifetime animal lover, and that doesn't mean just reptiles and amphibians, that includes dogs, cats, parrots, all of those things have always fascinated me from the time I was a little kid, so coming here to work at the zoo and every day contribute to the care and conservation of these animals that I interact with every day really keeps me motivated, and there's always something new. And so far it's been a great career and I feel like I'm just getting started.
So, the Smithsonian National Zoo is dedicated to research and work that supports conservation through captive breeding efforts. So, part of my job here at the zoo is to contribute to some of those efforts. So, that's been a big challenge, arguably the most challenging part of my job. We have several species here that have never been bred in zoos before, and so every year that we don't have success breeding them one of the challenges is coming up with new ways to replicate the wild habitat these animals are found in, in order to ensure future success and breeding. So, that's one of the parts of the failure we deal with, is when we work really hard to get animals to breed and hope for babies, and we're thinking we're doing all the right things, and then we don't get eggs, or the pair just doesn't show any interest in breeding, so that's been one of the biggest challenges, but it's about just staying creative, reading more, learning more about their natural habitat, and making adjustments to our environment here at the zoo to get those animals to breed in the future.
I'm often asked why is science important? And there's a very easy answer to that. Scientific research is how we learn everything about our natural world and that information is needed to make our planet a better place for both us and for future generations. So, I would say I first saw myself as a scientist, honestly, back in elementary school during our elementary school science fair. So, back when I was making, you know, fake volcanoes, I was like, "Oh yeah, I'm a true scientist." But in terms of my career, working as a keeper for a few years, I was fortunate enough to have supervisors that really saw my potential and encouraged me to do more than just the animal care side of this job and get involved with different research projects and field work, which I've been fortunate enough to travel the world working with reptiles and being a part of bigger conservation programs in their wild habitats.
And through those experiences, this led to just building a bigger network of wildlife professionals who I've worked with on collaborating with for scientific research projects, which has led to several publications. So, it was really just having the right supervisors that really encouraged me to take my skills that I had as an animal care specialist and broaden that skillset to working with these animals in the field and even on site with our zoo researchers and collaborating on different projects.
So, in terms of getting into this field, I just kind of fell into it. I grew up keeping aquariums, different species of reptiles, amphibians, I even had collections of hermit crabs, I've been doing that since first grade. I was also someone that always loved going outside and experiencing nature. As an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia, I was, to be honest, all over the place, I wasn't a hundred percent sure what I wanted to do, and through volunteering here at the Amazonia exhibit at the national zoo, when I was an undergrad, that's how I kind of found my path to, "Hey, I really want to work in the zoo as my career choice and work with wildlife."
So, my advice to all you students out there is to just honestly work hard and have fun, even if you don't see yourself as a science person or you don't enjoy what you're doing in your science classes right now, that's okay. Honestly, science is so broad that all of you out there are scientists and probably don't even realize it. Everything from figuring out what your dog's favorite treats are to mixing sodas together- I used to mix different sodas together or juices to see how they tasted when I was a kid- all that is considered science. So, I guarantee you anything from even just going outside and looking at the different birds you find and identifying them or mixing juices together, all those things count as being a scientist, so you all are well on your way to enjoying science, whether you know it or not. And again, just have fun in school and don't get discouraged even if you don't love everything you're doing.
