We met Dr. Terri Roth at the Lindner Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW) facility at the Cincinnati Zoo where she leads wildlife conservation efforts. She is a leader, problem-solver, researcher, and scientist who engages local and global communities in conversation to reach a common ground on saving endangered species. Her work and passion for animals link the importance of protecting wildlife to meeting the needs of people for a better world and quality of life.

Interview by Kelly Carrigan. Photography by Stacy Wegley.

Why is your position at the zoo important to you? What is the “why” behind what you do?

I really believe in the fact that science can help us save endangered species, and the Cincinnati Zoo – specifically CREW – is an outstanding place for that mission. It is very rare for a zoo to have a facility like CREW dedicated to state-of-the-art research that will help save wildlife from distinction. We feel very privileged to work here and to pursue that mission. I got involved in wildlife conservation science not with a specific species in mind, but rather with the idea of trying to solve some of these problems to help save wildlife. It has been a great pursuit.

Did your passion originate in a childhood interest?

Yes. According to my mom, I was born loving animals and have done so as long as I can remember. I grew up in California, and we had a very small piece of property – kind of a rural setting – and we put every animal we could possibly fit on that land: parakeets, guinea pigs, rabbits, sheep, and a horse. I always wanted to work in a zoo.

What brought you to Cincinnati?

An incredible opportunity brought me to the Cincinnati Zoo. While I was working at the National Zoo in Washington D.C., we traveled to Cincinnati to work on cheetahs at the amazing CREW facility, and I saw great potential. A few years later, the director job opened up, and I applied. It has been a privilege to work here.

How do you convey the urgency of saving endangered species among other global and even local priorities?

If we still believe in humanity then we should believe that we all have a part on this planet.

It’s really a part of everything else we are facing right now. I think of climate change and how it ties in very closely with the loss of wildlife. The change in forests and vegetation is impacting human life and wildlife, as well. They are really not distinctly different – there is a lot of overlap and integration.

How do you get others to listen to you?

[Laughs.] We do have a bit of that term “preaching to the choir.” There’s a core group of individuals who totally believe in what we are doing and really want wildlife to be saved. There are those who are just going to look at you and say, “It’s not going to affect my daily life and I don’t really care.” I work very hard to convert those people. It’s extremely hard. I won’t give up trying.

We do try to relate how it will impact the overall human quality of life, as well. It’s not all about the animals. The quality of life we have is enhanced by natural resources. You have to take different approaches. In some cases, it may be trying to find a common ground in that water contamination is affecting our wildlife and us, which people understand when their children have high levels of contaminants in their blood.

How do you touch base with people on a common ground? It sounds challenging.

You know, it can be, but we aren’t dealing with a very controversial subject. When you talk about wanting to save wildlife – whether it’s plants or animals – it’s hard to argue against it. Now, it’s another step when you start saying you can’t live in this forest because it’s needed for wildlife. You can start at the level that all life is sacred and we share this planet with a number of different species and if we still believe in humanity then we should believe that we all have a part on this planet.

The problems you get into, especially when you are working in different countries, is people don’t have a lot of resources and they’re going in the forests simply to support their starving family. It’s tricky to tell people that you shouldn’t be in the forest and those resources aren’t for you but for the wildlife. In that case, you can talk to them about how wildlife will help them economically in their communities.

There are some great programs to help incentivize local communities to save wildlife by providing in return medical and educational services. For instance, if we go for a year without any poaching in this forest, your kids will get some new school books or vaccines. In these programs, we can start to reach a common ground when they would otherwise say, “These natural resources are what I need,” and destroy them.

As a scientific expert, you also connect with communities by engaging in relationships and dialogue with people.

When you’re involved in trying to save a species, it’s a bigger picture out there and science is just a piece.

Yes, that’s a big part of conservation and admittedly not my strength – because I am the animal lover and scientist – but it’s a piece you have to learn. My passion is to save animals, and when you look at the challenges these animals face, part of it is managing the large human population on the planet with limited resources. You have to look at the human side and start working with the human side. You have to put yourself in different roles that maybe didn’t initially focus on that aspect of wildlife conservation.

It sounds like you are stretching into an uncomfortable zone of what is necessary to complete your work.

You have to be, and you have to understand different viewpoints. You don’t get to a compromise by going in saying, “You all need to think like me,” especially when you’re dealing with different cultures and people in different places. You really have to be open to, “Okay, what are the problems that you are facing and how can we make things better for you?” and, at the same time, make things better for wildlife. My time is also spent on scientific questions and trying to get data and answers and resolve scientific issues. When you’re involved in trying to save a species, it’s a bigger picture out there and science is just a piece. It’s the piece we excel at [here at] CREW, but it’s not the only thing that is going to save the species.

When you work to save endangered species, how do you maintain hope?

It’s a tough time for people who are in this field, and there’s a lot of bad news out there. You need a thick skin and you’ve got to be comfortable with incremental progress, which scientists learn because progress doesn’t happen quickly – it’s slow, and you are wrong a lot of the time, but you can get there. When you do find a discovery or answer a question, victory is sweet and it can be really substantial. You tend to look at incremental progress. I am not going to be alive long enough to know if rhinos are going to survive long-term, but what can I do today that is going to help? Let’s take it one day at a time, one week at a time, and look at the successes.

You say one person, one scientist can make a difference.

Oh, definitely. You can’t singlehandedly do it, and a really strong champion makes a huge difference. We can have a whole committee of people who are partially engaged and the effort may go nowhere. And you can have one dedicated individual who makes all the world of difference. It’s important.

Who is the champion in your career?

It’s a hard question for me to answer. I’ve been asked that before, and I don’t have a single person I can point to that I looked up to as a child. One thing that is important to me and that we need more and more of today is really a strong ethical foundation in a person. A really strong, honest ethic in a person means a lot to me. I see that a lot in my mother. She had her values set right and I hope that rubbed off on me.

How did she encourage you?

She was very supportive of whatever we wanted to pursue. Both of my parents really tried to encourage us to be independent and to think independently. It was okay to disagree with each other, and that’s where I differ from other families who emphasize always getting along. We could disagree with each other, but we had a civil conversation about it.

You grew up in a family where dissent was acceptable and encouraged as a way to learn. How do you encounter challenges in your personal journey and work?

If you are in the science field, you are definitely going to encounter it. Scientists by nature disagree with each other and argue with each other – in a healthy way, most of the time – so I don’t have a problem with it.

I struggle when I find that somebody doesn’t make a sensible argument. I’m willing to look at facts and rethink my own position on things, but you’ve got to give me a solid argument and reason for it, and some people don’t know how to formulate an argument. It’s where I struggle, because if you don’t have the facts and data to give me a strong reason to rethink my position, I can’t get to where you are, which is challenging.

What are some ways individuals can take care of themselves, to persist and keep going?

I don’t get so hung up on things that are out of my control. When you work internationally, you can get bogged down by an election in a country causing all of the officials to change and all of the relationships that you built to be gone and starting over. You have to say, “I just ran that nice little experiment downstairs, and the data looked great,” and focus there to find the balance.

What brings you joy amidst all these challenges?

Animals. I only spend so much time outside in the park among these animals. Less and less, it seems like, because I spend a lot of time in front of the computer, but I’ve got my animals at home.

What is it about animals that make you happy?

I like my animals to live the way they want to live – they don’t live for me.

I love their personalities, how they are different, and how we need to figure them out. My animals are not well behaved or well disciplined – and I don’t care. I like my animals to live the way they want to live – they don’t live for me.

What do you think that we can learn from animals?

We can certainly learn more compassion. Animals really do bring out the compassion in us. There is something about being able to relate with an animal that you can’t have with people.

What about Cincinnati created the unique resources at CREW?

I credit my predecessor and the previous Cincinnati Zoo director, who was here for 38 years, because they were visionary to get the resources to dedicate a facility and conservation program like CREW. Clearly, they were ahead of their time, and other zoos have now tried to emulate it. They established a culture for research and science at CREW that includes learning more about our animals rather than only taking care of them. We are very fortunate here. Cincinnatians are very proud of their zoo.

How do you build on your predecessors establishing and implementing a great vision here at the Cincinnati Zoo?

It was an interesting process. When I got here, it was probably one of the bigger challenges in my career because my predecessor was beloved by Cincinnati, the staff, donors, and many of the volunteers. You don’t come into a such a program and start making radical changes. You come in, really get to know the lay of the ground, and look at the things that have been going on that you agree with and continue to raise those up. Then, you also start making changes – slowly – and make sure that you bring everybody with you because you don’t want to develop a combative interaction. It was a good foundation that was started. There were some things I wanted to change, and we did it slowly, which moved us in different directions. We came up with a different long-term strategy for how we were going to approach our conservation programs, and I think it’s gone really well at this point. It took a number of years, but it was a careful dance and you have to be aware of different sensitivities among different groups of individuals.

Who is one influential woman in your life?

My third-grade teacher was amazing. She was an elderly lady full of energy and had traveled quite a bit around the world. During lunchtime, sometimes she would cook octopus, which was rare then, and let students try it for the first time as a unique experience. I will always remember it. She spent other time showing us pictures and wildlife of Africa – so maybe part of it was the wildlife that caught me, but also it was her energy, sharing something different, and introducing third-grade kids to something they would not have been exposed to otherwise that was really neat.

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The Cincinnati Zoo’s Terri Roth: The Great Pursuit of Wildlife Conservation