Protecting Red Pandas

CMU alumna Sarah Glass leads conservation efforts for endangered species at Zoo Knoxville

Sarah Glass didn’t know much about Lincoln when they first met 12 years ago. Now, after years of working together, she can tell you all about his temperament, behavior, routine — and favorite place to nap.

Sarah is the wild ambassador curator of red pandas and ambassador animals and former curator of special exhibits at Zoo Knoxville in Knoxville, Tennessee. Lincoln is the oldest of the zoo’s red pandas.

At 12, Lincoln has already outlived the average lifespan of ten years of a red panda. Because of his age, he now has an important role to play in the species’ survival — with Sarah’s help.

In conjunction with her role at the zoo, Sarah serves as the North American coordinator for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ red panda species survival plan (SSP). The SSP aims to maintain a genetically healthy, behaviorally competent red panda population through conservation efforts and managed breeding programs.

Since many of the pandas in Lincoln’s bloodline have passed away, he is now being considered for breeding through the SSP. Normally, male red pandas are moved to a zoo with female red pandas to breed. In Lincoln’s case, however, it’s not in his best interest. 

“Lincoln's a quirky guy,” Sarah says. “Pandas all have different personalities. He hates change. He really loves his routine. If I were to move him to another exhibit or another zoo for breeding, it would be really stressful for him.”

Sarah and her team are developing a plan to bring a female red panda to Knoxville instead. In order to choose the right breeding partner, they’ll look at genetic data and something much less tangible — the pandas’ unique personalities and needs.

That type of research — combining quantitative data with qualitative— is something she’s enjoyed doing since she was a psychology student at CMU.

“Once I got into the degree I liked the fiddly bits of it — the whys and the research part of it. Not so much wanting to be a psychologist, as in a therapist. That was not my goal,” Sarah says. 

She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Dietrich College in 1989 and moved to Knoxville a few years later. She began volunteering at the zoo and was eventually hired for a paid position as a research assistant in the conservation research department, where she worked on a grant-funded project examining red panda maternal care and optimal nestbox design. 

“At the time, our department was not a traditional animal department,” she says. “All the pandas had been brought under our umbrella so we could do this observational research, and then over the years it just evolved.”

Sarah’s career has also evolved over the past 32 years. 

When curator of traveling exhibits, she helped design and implement numerous temporary exhibits at the zoo.

“I enjoyed doing those exhibits because we were able to bring things in that people hadn't seen,” she says. “There are the favorite animals people love — lions and tigers and bears and elephants — but I've always liked what I jokingly call ‘the things you can put in your pocket, but you shouldn't.’ So all the little things. Short-haired elephant shrews and leaf insects and leaf-cutter ants and tarantulas and tiny button quail. All the tiny things that make up the vast majority of our ecosystem, but no one really knows about.”

She also works with animal ambassadors that do educational programming and presentations at the zoo. As curator, it’s her responsibility to make sure the animals are properly cared for and ready to interact with the public.

“It’s an important program because it’s about being able to make the connection between our guests and animals,” Sarah says. 

Sarah has also helped coordinate red panda conservation efforts internationally. She collaborated with the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the Global Species Management Plan to establish standards and protocols for international transfers of animals between zoos.

“We met and were able to standardize expectations for the program and the level of care protocols for acquisition, disposition and receiving of animals and sending them out,” Sarah says. “That helped tremendously, because when you send an animal out somewhere, you want to make sure the institution you're sending them to meets or exceeds the level of care that you have.”

She’s thankful to Zoo Knoxville for supporting her work with the SSP, and to the network of zookeepers and curators who collaborate with her on red panda conservation efforts.

“We're not into gatekeeping,” Sarah says. “Anything that we can learn about pandas, we're going to share with everybody else, because if we really care about the wild population or the zoo population, it’s beneficial to get that information out there. So while I might lead the SSP, I have an army of people who are also dedicated to the pandas.”

Like everyone in that army, Sarah is fiercely dedicated to every panda she works with — especially Lincoln and his future breeding partner.

“We will find a female that meets the SSP’s requirements that can come to us,” she says. “That way we can meet the species’ needs, we can meet our institutional needs and we can meet Lincoln’s odd needs of not traveling. That's the numbers part of it and the more intangible part. We know his personality. Could we quantify it? Probably not. But either way, it's our job to know our animals and know what would be best for them.”