Sara Weller knew from an early age that she wanted to work with animals. Going to the zoo as a child convinced her that she should work with exotic animals, preferably in a zoo setting. But getting there wasn’t easy.
A native of Cincinnati, Weller majored in zoology at Indiana University and held several peripheral animal management jobs before her resume landed at the Dallas Zoo, just at the time that the burgeoning Wilds of Africa exhibit allowed the zoo to go on a hiring spree. When they called, she was ready.
“I had never been to Dallas in my life, knew nothing about the zoo here, and I accepted the job over the phone!
“That’s how much I wanted to be in a zoo.”
When Weller came to Dallas she chose Junius Heights for her home. “I liked the older neighborhood, the character and quaintness, and the fact that it was eclectic and diverse.” Now she considers herself a longtime Old East Dallas resident.
That was almost 10 years ago. Starting out as a hoof-stock keeper (with hooved animals such as antelope and deer), she currently is a primate keeper, working with apes from lemurs to gorillas. For about five years, she has also been in the zoo’s research program, working on issues dealing with the endangered ocelot, a native Texas cat.
“Their habitat is endangered because they require dense cover Ð they hardly ever come out in the open. And because of development and increased border patrol activity, the ocelot’s habitat in Texas and Mexico is shrinking.”
Ocelots are fascinating creatures, hardly bigger than a housecat and with similar mannerisms, but with the spotted markings of a cheetah or leopard. The Dallas Zoo’s only current ocelot resident, a female named Chula, strides around in her cage with the ease and outgoing nature of a domestic cat and the arrogance of felines everywhere.
According to the Dallas Zoo, the ocelot originally ranged from Arizona and southwest Texas to northern Argentina. Today, less than 10,000 acres of habitat remain in the lower Rio Grande Valley.
The zoo’s research technicians and its partners in the academic world are working to try and reverse those statistics. Working with other zoos, universities and federal wildlife agencies participating in the Ocelot Research Consortium, experts such as Weller are working to preserve this endangered small cat. Through both captive and field studies, at Fossil Rim and the Los Ebanos Ranch in rural northeastern Mexico, Weller collects research data, trains other researchers, writes articles and coordinates the efforts of other organizations involved in the project.
The research project offers paying volunteers a chance to work in the field on research projects or conservation programs, radio-tracking ocelots and jaguarundis on the Mexican ranch to determine their home ranges, habitat use and population densities. Volunteers also study the cats’ habitats to documents kinds of vegetation preferred, space requirements and other ecological data.
“The ranch in Mexico is a working ranch,” Sara explains, “but they have wild preserve areas for the native animals. It shows you can combine ranching practices with wildlife habitat conservation.
“We hope that ranchers in Texas will be able to follow that example.”
Weller is also president of the Dallas Chapter of the American Association of Zookeepers, which is dedicated to improvements in animal care.
When not with her primates or researching ocelots, Weller likes to spend her time enjoying the arts at museums, the symphony and arts festivals. She also enjoys camping and hiking, and at one point indulged her love of travel by backpacking through Africa for a month, which she describes as Òevery animal person’s dream.”
