NCAB November General Body Meeting

About this topic: Each workplace had its own unique goals and practices, however Amanda always maintained a focus in non-human primate behavior, enrichment, and training and how each of those can better the overall welfare of animals. This is the exact topic her Small Mammals House project focused on and the topic of her presentation. Amanda will focus on the zoological park setting and the study of contrafreeloading preference in primates- do primates prefer to work hard for food/reward? Do animals value high risk-reward uncertainty? And is this the best form of optimizing nutrition and enrichment?

About our presenter: Amanda Lee graduated the University of Maryland, College Park with a Bachelors in Animal Sciences, Pre-Veterinary Medicine. Passionate for working with animals, she kicked off her career working in small animal veterinary practices and an aquatics lab at the University of Maryland. From there she interned at the Smithsonian National Zoo’s Small Mammal house where she gained hands on experience working with nearly 40 different species of animals, from rodents and primates to sand cats and equine. After the internship, she transitioned to working with North American species and pinnipeds at the Zoo’s American Trail, while simultaneously joining the veterinary tech team with the Division of Veterinary Resources at the NIH. Eventually she made her way to bldg. 49’s Central Animal Facility as an animal health tech II, and that lead to her current position as Animal biologist and Laboratory Manager with Dr. Daniel Reich’s lab within NINDS.