Calgary Zoo

Exactly.

So in the maybe inappropriate, given new information, but a bunch of people were then sending around one where a goose got in the, um, Calgary Zoo and fought the tiger, and the tiger ran off with its tail between its legs.

[laughs]

Yeah, I did see that clip too.

Yeah.

So my cousin's wedding was at the Calgary Zoo.

So we went a little bit early in order to enjoy the zoo before the wedding.

And And if you've listened to this podcast before, you know that Megan and I are not the biggest zoo fans.

That's not something that we usually choose to do.

The Calgary Zoo, also known as the Wilder Institute, claims to be a conservation organization that operates as a zoo.

The animals, you know, they did seem happy and healthy.

I still have very conflicted feelings about zoos.

Currently, Jen sits on the board of directors for Bird Construction in Toronto, chairing the HR and governance committee, and member of the EH&S committee.

The Calgary Zoo is board chair, and is one of the co-founders of Board Ready Women.

Jen also served on the Veren Energy board for five years until their sale in February 2025, serving as their chair of the compensation committee, and Women in Mining Canada board as the national co-chair of the board from April 2017 to April 2021.

Jen holds a Bachelor of Commerce degrees with honors from the University of Alberta, and has her director's designation, ICD, from the Rotman School of Business, the University of Toronto.

Let me give you an opportunity to talk about something that's near and dear to your heart.

The near and dear to my heart is conservation.

One of the things that I was the chair of the Calgary Zoo board for, uh, the last couple years, and I was there for nine years, and the Wilder Institute in the Calgary Zoo is a global organization doing great things around species at risk.

So you don't have to go to the Calgary Zoo and the Wilder Institute website.

I mean, I guess I, you know, I feel, I, I feel like I'm tooting my own horn here, but yeah, this, this, this is an am- It's been amazing to see the population recover, and it has certainly been an incredible team of people.

So we work with partners at the Calgary Zoo and the Toronto Zoo, and they've really helped us develop our conservation breeding program while managing, um, marmot conservation breeding programs themselves and, you know, and working with, you know, other partners as well, Mosaic and BC Parks and naturalist groups.

Um, it's, it's been a, a real, a real group effort.

You know, I often tell people that I came to this project, and I had a background working with other species at risk.

Its mother had been involved in like a logging accident.

People had been moving brush pile on a property and the bear had been denned underneath and so the mother unfortunately did not survive that accident but they did find a surviving cub and so the cub my dad had called around and you know this is still things are quite different now this was in 1989 or 1990 i think it was and uh and so he called around and he found a place for it at the um the Calgary Zoo.

But first it was going to spend one night in our basement.

And so he brought home this black bear cub and, you know, my brother and I were there.

But of course, so we just moved back to BC recently.

And so now we are bringing ourselves back into the Greater Vancouver Zoo as being our like home zoo.

because the Calgary Zoo was great, but I can't go there anymore.

So I'm leaning in to the Greater Vancouver Zoo.

And my mom was like, she's a member there, of course, and I will be soon as well.

But she was like, there's this event coming up.

It's called Brew at the Zoo.

Like, do you guys want to go? And I was like, I don't even need to hear more.

the tickets or whatever and they had I think 15 give or take breweries or whatever set up with a tent and they'd give you a cup and you'd get a four ounce drink cool of everything with one ticket was like four ounces we went with our friends we had a great time like live music fun games for the kids and just had like that's when they threw it all yeah I had a couple samples but like I was driving but the dad's like really indulged they really loved it

They do something similar at the Calgary Zoo.

My girlfriend goes every year out there and she says it's wineries.

And I was like, oh, I like that.

The Liberals announced plans in April to import a model similar to those used in the UK and Europe that sees independent adjudicators resolve complaints over issues ranging from flight refunds to accessibility.

The Calgary Zoo's troop of western lowland gorillas is growing.

Zoo animal care manager Jana Swartz says 25-year-old Dossie is about 16 to 17 weeks pregnant, and she's doing well.

It is a very important milestone, not only for the species as a whole, but also for our efforts here at the zoo.