Andrea Fidgett, Ph.D.
Andrea Fidgett, Ph.D., serves San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance as Director of Wildlife Nutrition. She leads the nutrition program for more than 800 species and subspecies, including more than 16,000 animals at the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
The Wildlife Nutrition team ensures that all wildlife at both facilities receive the nutrition they need to thrive. In practice, that translates into guiding and participating in commissary operations, clinical nutrition, field- and SDZWA-based nutrition research, nutrition education, and outreach. Andrea also manages collaborative nutrition support for field conservation programs, and participates in the recovery programs for Hawaiian forest birds, Pacific pocket mice, San Clemente loggerhead shrikes, and mountain yellow-legged frogs. Her primary research interest is in the role that nutrition has in reproductive success, She also believes healthy food should be part of healthy, sustainable, and just food systems that nourish wildlife and people.
Andrea earned her bachelor’s degree in zoology from the University of Glasgow, and her master’s degree in animal nutrition from the University of Aberdeen. She returned to the University of Glasgow to attain her doctorate in avian nutritional ecology. Before joining SDZWA, Andrea was the first full-time animal nutritionist employed at a zoo in the United Kingdom. She has provided expert training and consultancy in comparative nutrition internationally, and has conducted targeted, collaborative research on multiple taxa.
She co-founded and chaired the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) Nutrition Group, served as vice-chair of EAZA’s Research Committee, was editor-in-chief of the Zoo Animal Nutrition book series, and was a founding editorial board member of the online open-access Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research. Her professional affiliations include the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Nutrition Advisory Group, the American Academy of Veterinary Nutrition, the Comparative Nutrition Society, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission’s Conservation Planning Specialist Group.
