#50 It's all happening at the Toronto Zoo! A conversation with Dolf Dejong

In this episode, we are speaking with Dolf DeJong, Chief Executive Officer of the Toronto Zoo. Dolf has had an exciting career at the intersection of conservation, public spaces and education. Dolf joined the Toronto Zoo in 2018 after acting as Vice President and General Manager of the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre. At the Toronto Zoo, Dolf has focused on strengthening the zoo’s relationship with the surrounding community, and finding new and creative ways to connect the public with animals and conservation science to help raise awareness and fight extinction.

Chatting with Dolf, he reflected on his personal journey into conservation and how it relates to the scientific and strategic work happening at the Toronto Zoo. We explore how the Zoo's location within Rouge National Urban Park informs its partnerships with Parks Canada, and the exciting plans for the Zoo’s upcoming Conservation Campus, which is being built in collaboration with the University of Toronto Scarborough. We also talked about the emergence of so-called “de-extinction” technologies and their implication for both wildlife conservation and zoos. We then reflect on a recent trip to East Africa that Dolf and I took part in with some colleagues and unpack some of the ethical and ecological complexities of ecotourism in developing nations. In the wildlife conservation world, Zoos are sometimes portrayed as relics of an outdated conservation ethos. But we hope our conversation with Dolf works to dispel that view, highlighting the vibrant science happening at the zoo, and the deep connection to applied conservation biology.