NOTE: It is with a heavy heart that we share news of Hilda Tresz’s passing in April 2019 whilst doing her incredible work in Nepal. This piece of content is a tribute to the world changing effort Hilda put into everything she did! Here at Animal Training Academy we will work tirelessly to play our part in continuing Hilda’s mission in improving animal welfare everywhere.
HILDA TRESZ – Phoenix Zoo
Hilda was born and raised in Budapest until 1989 when she moved to the United States. She began working as a Zoo keeper immediately after graduating from high school and over the last 28 years she has honed her skills as a caregiver, enrichment specialist, trainer, educator, and behavioral manager of a huge array of species with an additional special focus on chimpanzee’s. On top of this Hilda additionally holds a triple major degree in Biology, geography and education. She uses her education and experience to help change the lives of animals, the people that work with them and the organisations that house them. As mentioned Her current role is the behavioral enrichment and international animal welfare coordinator at the Phoenix zoo as well as being a mentor for the Jane Goodall institute. She’s worked with numerous international zoos in India, Israel, Qatar, Egypt, the UAE, Mexico, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, China and other countries and is especially skilled in helping these organisations create productive, healthy, mentally stimulating conditions for their animals with little to no funding. Internationally Hilda’s policy is to leave no chimp isolated, no elephant chained or no tiger malnourished she embraces those who may not know and teaches them they are the voices for those that cannot speak, the the guardians for those that cannot step away and the saviours for those who cannot save themselves.
CLICK HERE for an article about contra freeloading at the Phoenix zoo
CLICK HERE for the AAA zoo article mentioned in the podcast
Another stellar podcast!! Thank you Ryan for continuing to bring such ear- and soul-pleasing content. And Hilda, I’m so inspired by your devotion to animal welfare, particularly from the stand point of sustaining long-term, captive animals from so many different taxa. And not to mention the creativity!! Love your work, and everything you’re about 🙂
This podcast has inspired me a lot on many aspects towards animal welfare I must say , thank you so much Ryan for this wonderful podcast you have made and thank you so much hilda for the interesting stories you have shared !
I have done some enrichment with contra free loading technique to my birds who are not so interested in eating fresh fruit . Here are a picture of today’s feeding time for them
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ2SIt5AHvFLBq–xzILH-lHPYxQK-JITXU5QE0/
They are working harder to get their food and in a way makes them more interested to the new way of feeding and now they have significantly increase their daily fresh fruit diet .
Big thank guys !
Hi,
We are really interested in watching “A Week to Change”. Is it available yet?
Hey BC wildlife park … I’m really excited to hear that you are interested in this !
The latest update the I have seen has the release date of the documentary for the end of April 2017 … additionally you can follow all updates on this Facebook page …
https://www.facebook.com/a.week.to.change/?fref=nf
I was just looking for the powerpoint presentations mentioned in the enrichment podcast. The links aren’t working – was http://www.chimpanzoo.org taken down?
Hey Elise…
I just checked the link it seems to be working for me from my mac computer form the google chrome browser… try this?
http://www.chimpanzoo.org/enrichment.html
Ryan