Welcome to Jennie of the Jungle!

Meet Aron Smolley, Senior Bird Trainer at the Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake City, Utah. This lucky duck has been working at the Aviary for the last five years. He has worked with many types of birds, including toucans, parrots, vultures, roadrunners, hawks, eagles, owls, crows, cranes, and more! Here are some of the bright birds he's currently working with... Zazu, the wrinkled hornbill Grunt, the colorful king vulture Precocious kea parrots Tropical turaco named Kambo Aron and the Aviary contribute to conservation efforts on a daily basis by using education birds to inspire curiosity and love in those who visit. A love for the natural world and its animals is important in instilling a desire to protect it. Aron not only cares for the birds at the Aviary, he is also responsible for creating and presenting the Aviary's bird shows, which focus on educating visitors about the simple things they can do to protect the environment, birds and their habitat....

I recently attended a talk about the Future of Bird Conservation with University of Utah ornithologist Cagan Sekercioglu. In this talk he outlined the threats of our current lifestyle to bird populations, as well as the necessary steps that need to be put into place to reverse these threats. Cagan (pronounced "Shawn")is a conservation ecologist, ornithologist, tropical biologist, and nature photographer. He has conducted ornithological fieldwork in Alaska, Angola, Colorado, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Turkey and Uganda to investigate the ecological factors behind the extinction-proneness of certain groups of birds. Read the rest of his bio and about his current projects here . Cagan began his talk by stressing that biology only goes so far in saving the world's endangered birds. More interest needs to be paid to the field of Environmental Law, as this is where and how the important decisions are made about the environment. Environmental lawyers have social and media training, w...