{"id":20327,"date":"2025-04-30T14:04:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T18:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/?p=20327"},"modified":"2025-04-30T15:41:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T19:41:35","slug":"kylie-mastropolos-bpz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/news\/kylie-mastropolos-bpz\/","title":{"rendered":"Animal Science Major Kylie Mastropolo on Interning with Buttonwood Park Zoo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Prepping harbor seal diets, brushing the seals\u2019 pool, cleaning filtration in the Rainforest tank, and observing animals such as a coyote and Canada lynx. This was all in a day\u2019s work for Kylie Mastropolo, an animal science and technology<\/a> major from Rockaway, NJ. She spent her spring semester as an animal behavior intern with the Buttonwood Park Zoo in New Bedford, MA, conducting behavioral observations on some of the animals who call the zoo home and assisting zookeepers with husbandry tasks.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buttonwood Park Zoo has been collaborating with Justin Richard, assistant professor of fisheries, animal, and veterinary science<\/a>, since 2021 on this internship, specifically designed for URI students such as Mastropolo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the most rewarding parts was observing the harbor seals over time and learning to identify their individual personalities and behavioral patterns,\u201d Mastropolo says. \u201cIt was fascinating to see how each seal responds differently to enrichment or training sessions.\u201d While animal behavior might seem like it is mainly instinct, Mastropolo points out that it\u2019s actually really complex. \u201cAnimals have personalities, make decisions, and react to their environments in really specific ways,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s not just random\u2013they have preferences and emotions, and their behavior can tell you a lot about how they\u2019re feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to learning about animal behavior, internships bring coursework to life in a way that can\u2019t be replicated in a classroom. \u201cSeeing real-time examples of animal behavior, enrichment strategies, and welfare considerations helped me connect theory to practice,\u201d Mastropolo says. \u201cConcepts like operant conditioning, stereotypic behavior, and species-specific enrichment suddenly make so much more sense when you\u2019re seeing them unfold at the zoo. It\u2019s also made me a more curious and critical observer. I find myself asking deeper questions and thinking more practically about how animal care decisions are made.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After she graduates next year, Mastropolo is hoping to become a zookeeper and eventually a marine animal trainer. \u201cI\u2019ve always been fascinated by the bond that can form between trainers and animals and how training can be used to support both health and mental stimulation,\u201d she says. \u201cGetting to build relationships with animals while also contributing to their care, enrichment, and behavioral health is exactly the kind of work I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hands-on experiences are a crucial step on the path. \u201cStudents in this internship gain experience using the science of animal behavior to inform the care of a wide range of animals, skills that are highly valued in this competitive and rewarding field,\u201d says Richard. As she built connections with professionals in the field, Mastropolo says she now has a better understanding of the day-to-day reality of zookeeping and behavioral research. \u201cIt helped me determine that I see a future career for myself caring for marine mammals,\u201d she says. \u201cFor that I want to give a huge thank you to the staff at Buttonwood Park Zoo for being so welcoming and supportive. It\u2019s been an incredible learning experience, and I feel so lucky to be a part of it!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kylie Mastropolo, an animal science and technology major, pursued an internship at Buttonwood Park Zoo this semester. \u201cOne of the most rewarding parts was observing the harbor seals over time and learning to identify their individual personalities and behavioral patterns,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1089,"featured_media":20328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20327"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20331,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20327\/revisions\/20331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}