Dr Betsy Herrelko

Betsy is an Honorary Research Associate at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. For the past few years, as a Postgraduate Student at the University of Stirling, she studied the lives of the chimpanzees at Edinburgh Zoo. Her research explored four topics while assessing the development of a cognitive research programme and introductions in zoo-housed chimpanzees: welfare, cognition, public engagement with science, and animal management. The project's use of touchscreen technology and on-exhibit research was the first of its kind for the UK and was the focus of the BBC Natural World documentary, The Chimpcam Project (2010). Her work on introductions has also been highlighted in the BBC documentary Origins of Us: Brains (2011). Prior to moving to the UK, Betsy started her zoo career in the USA. During her undergraduate years she volunteered within the education department at the Bronx Zoo (New York), earned her Master's degree in animal behaviour and conservation from Hunter College, CUNY (New York), and worked at the Gorilla Foundation (California) in gorilla care, research, and facility operations.

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