{"id":2174,"date":"2023-10-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.cals.ncsu.edu\/?p=2174"},"modified":"2023-10-18T00:22:55","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T04:22:55","slug":"barbara-durrant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.cals.ncsu.edu\/barbara-durrant\/","title":{"rendered":"Birds, Bees and Rhino Babies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
From rattlesnakes to rhinos, Barbara Durrant, a three-time alumna from North Carolina State University\u2019s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, has worked with hundreds of different wildlife species throughout her nearly 45-year career at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her focus is the \u201cbirds and the bees\u201d of zoo animals. As the Henshaw Endowed Director of Reproductive Sciences, she studies reproductive biology, endocrinology and behavior, and develops methods to encourage species reproduction with an important goal: conservation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat could be more interesting than reproduction? And the result is wonderfully cute babies of different species,\u201d Durrant says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Durrant\u2019s interest in animals began while growing up near Syracuse, New York. She enjoyed spending time outside observing the native wildlife, sometimes returning home with injured birds or mice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy parents were both in medicine, so when I brought home injured animals, they would help to rehabilitate and release them,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her parents urged her to become a vet, but she had her eyes set on exotic animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEverywhere my family traveled, I always made them go to the local zoo,\u201d Durrant says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere wasn\u2019t anybody doing reproductive physiology, so I stepped into a job that wasn\u2019t there and created one. It really was a dream job, and it still is.\u201d <\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n During high school, Durrant\u2019s family moved to North Carolina, and she decided to study animal science<\/a> at NC State. She was one of only two women in the animal science program at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Durrant remembers being laughed at by her male classmates\u2014who grew up on farms\u2014because she didn\u2019t have the same skills they did, but she didn\u2019t let that stop her. After earning her bachelor\u2019s degree, she earned a master\u2019s in physiology and a doctorate in reproductive physiology, studying embryo metabolism and reproduction genetics, respectively. She received an Outstanding Alumni Award in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA Wild Start<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n