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Meet Mark Gonka

Job title: Lead keeper at SEVEN SEAS and PINNIPED POINT
Length of time at Brookfield Zoo: Full time since 1999;
about two years as a seasonal and as an animal care staff
aide before that.
Job responsibilities: A lot of Gonka's day
is spent preparing diets, cleaning habitats,
and training animals. “We work directly
with our animals quite a bit. All of their Far left: Gonka with Topeko, a 38-year-old
food comes directly from us. We do bottlenose dolphin at SEVEN SEAS
five to seven training sessions with our Above: Gonka tending to a stranded harbor
dolphins every day, and three sessions seal pup at the Marine Mammal Care
Center in San Pedro, California
with each pinniped group.” Gonka Left: Gonka training Lucy, a California
leads the zoo’s dive program for staff sea lion at PINNIPED POINT
who scuba dive to take care of habitat
maintenance. He makes sure the dive and touching it to its rostrum,
program and equipment are safe and or nose. We blow the whistle
meet requirements. He also spends time and it gets a reward, so it learns
training staff. that when it touches its nose to

How he got into this field: Gonka began that ball, something good happens.
college as a business major and quickly switched to The next step might be raising the ball
biology with aspirations of becoming a veterinarian. While an inch above the dolphin’s nose. When it
earning a master's degree in biology at DePaul University, he took raises its body out of the water to touch the ball—
an animal training class taught by the director of animal training at the that’s a breakthrough. It’s recognizing it has to actively do something
Shedd Aquarium. "He took me to meet one of the beluga whales and to get that reward. Then you move the ball further up, add a hand cue,
I loved it. That got me interested in the marine mammal field." Gonka and reinforce the behavior when it occurs with the hand cue, and Voilá!”
volunteered at the Shedd while he completed his master’s degree Career highlights: Gonka has enjoyed participating in Chicago
and then got his seasonal position at SEVEN SEAS. Zoological Society research projects—the Sarasota Dolphin Research
Program and a fur seal health assessments project in Peru. “A lot of
The purpose of animal training at the zoo: Animals are trained in
behaviors that enhance their welfare, said Gonka. They are trained in places will talk about conservation and field research—but Brookfield
husbandry, care, and management behaviors. These include voluntarily Zoo really does commit,” said Gonka. When the Marine Mammal Care
giving blood; undergoing ultrasound, eye, and mouth exams; and Center in San Pedro, California, needed help during several mass strand-
jumping onto a scale to be weighed. Training also provides animals ing events, Gonka volunteered. "They had strandings of a huge number
with mental and physical stimulation, such as exercise that keeps their of elephant seals, California sea lions, and harbor seals along the
bodies healthy and strong. "We have a dolphin named Noelani who’s West Coast. I spent 12-hour days tube feeding animals and helping
almost too smart for her own good. We train animals like her, who to rehabilitate them. It was hard, rewarding work."
are always thinking, in cognitive behaviors like puzzle solving. They Professional organizations: Gonka is committee chair for the
thrive on learning those types of behaviors.” Furthermore, animals may International Marine Animal Trainers’ Association (IMATA) Animal
receive training to enable them to participate in research studies that Training Advisory Committee.
advance the understanding of their species, or to educate and engage Off-the-clock activities: Photography, scuba diving, traveling,
guests who will then be inspired to become conservation leaders.
hiking, and camping. Gonka's top travel destinations have been
Gonka describes training a dolphin in a new behavior: Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Every behavior is broken down into very small steps. “Imagine training Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands, and Antarctica.
a dolphin to jump out of the water and hit a ball 20 feet into the air.
We may start by taking that ball, bringing it in front of the dolphin,

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