Kim Schreiner
Research Assistant
/ Gorilla Caregiver
Kim grew up loving all animals, visiting zoos and aquariums,
and collecting as many types of furry, slimy, and scaled critters
as possible. She always knew she wanted to work with animals
and dreamed of working for National Geographic traveling all
over the world researching and photographing wild animals. While
earning a B.S. in life sciences and educational psychology at
the University of Minnesota she began working at Underwater
Adventures, Minnesota’s largest aquarium, taking care
of the animals, feeding, enrichment, scuba diving (one of her
passions), and cleaning. She also worked with the education
staff teaching both onsite classes and outreach programs involving
live animals.
Kim was fascinated by her encounters with underwater sea life,
especially certain types: "There is nothing more exciting
than to see two glowing eyes cruising around just beyond the
edge of your light or seeing the vivid change of colors and
shapes of a curious octopus." Her interest and continuing
love for animals brought her to San Francisco where she volunteered
at The Marine Mammal Center rehabilitating Sea Lions, Elephant
Seals, Fur Seals, and Harbor Seals. This soon led Kim to find
her current career with the Gorilla Foundation.
Kim was overjoyed to find the position at TGF working for and
with gorillas Koko and Ndume. She was thrilled by the prospect
of being able to communicate with non-human primates using a
very natural method of communication, signing with the hands.
She had always observed people communicating with each other
while naturally using hand gestures, and it made sense to use
the same approach to communicate with other primate species.
In college she took American Sign Language and was very eager
to apply her knowledge of ASL to Gorilla Sign Language and help
break the barriers of inter-species communication. "Humans
can learn valuable lessons from all animals."
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