Serena Bos (Discovery Wildlife Center & Zoo)

This show has to be rescheduled for 11 PM EST. My sincere apologies. I've been trying to change the time for over an hour, but it is restricting modification. I apologize to Serena and my audience. It just won't allow me to initiate a time change. So I started a new BTR just now. ....... When we think of animal ambassadors, we typically think of animals in living collections at living institutions (e.g., zoos, aquariums, marine parks, and other captive wildlife facilities) where their lives are care-free. Although some may raise an eye brow at the notion of training animals as large as coastal brown bears, Serena Bos, a friend of mine, takes it in stride. As a caregiver for working or performing animal ambassadors, Serena helps make documentaries about wildlife a possibility. Although she does train animals for feature films, her work also entails the development of engaging educational programs that make for once in a life time opportunity for visitors to her facility in Alberta. I certainly don't recommend that other people do this on a whim, and I typically encourage protected contact training with apex predators, when possible. I admit that I got into this field because of opportunities to work with animals in free-contact situations. With that said, I have learned that there are skilled people who dedicate their lives to training animals for media programs that enrich our lives, and it's certainly a risky job. It requires great dedication and patience and there is still much learning to be exchanged among free-contact and protected contact training programs. We welcome Serena tonight at 9PM EST. She will be calling in from Alberta, Canada where she works with Discovery Wildlife Park. http://www.discoverywildlifepark.com/