Experience: Independent Research at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium
Reagan Jennings ’23 is spending the semester researching the social behavior of harbor seals at the Columbus Zoo and comparing their behaviors with behaviors documented in the wild by a team of divers from Washington State. The diving crew, called “The SpongeBob Crew,” and a few other independent divers have been monitoring harbor seal encounters in the Puget Sound.
Jennings is being mentored at Ohio Wesleyan by
Shala Hankison, Ph.D., associate professor of Zoology and a 1995 OWU alumna. At the zoo, Jennings is being supervised by
Shane Gorbett
’15, now part of the zoo’s pinniped team (seals, sea lions, and walruses). At Ohio Wesleyan, Gorbett was a Pre-Professional Zoology and Spanish double major. Jennings earned an OWU Connection small grant to support her experience.