Page 21 - Gateways_2018_FALL

Important work isn’t always glamorous. Jocelyn Bryant, endocrinology lab
Just ask Jocelyn Bryant, the Chicago manager, analyzing fecal samples.
Zoological Society’s endocrinology lab
manager. (Endocrinology is the study of hormones

and their functions.)
Bryant spends her days in the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice
Conservation Biology and Research Center, a building that
most guests walk by without thinking twice about. Inside,
she and the team are helping to answer some important
questions, both about animals at Brookfield Zoo and animals
in institutions around the world—answers that help us
continually advance the care and welfare of our animals.
How exactly are they finding these answers? One of the ways AMUR TIGER

they do this is by analyzing hormones in fecal samples.
“People sometimes laugh when they hear I spend my days
working with fecal samples,” Bryant said. “But really, it’s amazing
how much information we can glean from these samples.”
While hormones can also be measured in blood, serum,
urine, and saliva, fecal samples are ideal because the sample
collection is non-invasive and the samples are easy to collect.
Jocelyn estimates that since the lab’s inception in
2001, she has analyzed 100,000 fecal samples.

BROOKFIELD ZOO | FALL 2018 21