Sarah Sheldon

Sarah Sheldon serves San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance as a Research Associate in Recovery Ecology. She currently works with the endangered San Clemente loggerhead shrike, providing daily husbandry for the population of birds at the San Clemente Loggerhead Shrike Breeding Facility. Her work also involves behavioral sampling, record keeping, enclosure maintenance, and pharmacy supply ordering. During the breeding season, she monitors pairs and parent-rearing birds, maintains artificial incubation and hand-rearing facilities, and prepares juvenile birds for release to the wild.

Sarah is currently working on creating educational materials to share with visitors and U.S. Navy personnel, and on creating breeding protocols and husbandry documents to share with other avian propagation facilities. She hopes to foster sharing, cooperation, and understanding within the island community. She is also working to maintain and analyze egg records over time.

Sarah earned bachelor’s degrees in Biology and English from the University of New Mexico, where she worked on projects assessing elevational adaptations in Andean hummingbirds and mate choice in pupfish. She also volunteered at a wildlife rehabilitation center and local zoo. Whole-heartedly dedicated to conservation, scientific research, and biological discovery, she enjoys assisting other natural resource projects on San Clemente Island.