Suzi Rapp nears 40 years nurturing zoo animals

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On her 18th birthday, an eager Suzi Rapp showed up at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium looking to volunteer in any way she could.

At the time, Rapp had no idea where her adventure with the zoo would take her, but she knew it was where she wanted to be.

Inspired by her parents’ love for animals, a young Rapp spent a lot of time taking in sick birds and raccoons. She also boarded and showed her own horses in 4-H. Her mother, Carol Brannon, always emphasized that the animals she cared for were not pets, but animals to be rehabilitated and released.

Rapp eventually found a home in the education department at the zoo, where, with the help of another student employee, Laurie Ditmar, she started the Summer Experience Program. This was an educational camp for kids that Rapp built up every year when she came home from college for the summer. She majored in health and human sciences and education at Ohio University, where her father, Robert, also went to college.

Now the zoo’s vice president of animal programs, Rapp, 56, spends the closest thing to an average work day nurturing sick animals, especially cheetahs, and bouncing around from one exhibit to another, making sure that all of her programs are running smoothly. When she is not doing all of these things at the zoo or spending time with her husband, Richard, 58, and daughter, Brannon, 24, she is asked to care for animals all over the world.  

“If there is a cheetah cub that, for some reason or another, can’t be raised by its mother or it falls short, I’m typically the person they call,” says Rapp.

Rapp travels with animal ambassadors – including the zoo’s own director emeritus, Jack Hanna – and often stays in hotels with the animals. Suzi says that her favorite part about her job is getting to travel and spend quality time with the animals she feels close to.

“The animals share my room with me,” she says. “So much of my time now is spent in meetings, and I feel like I don’t have that animal connection that I used to have all the time. (Sharing a room with them) brings that feeling back.”

She is especially excited about the zoo’s upcoming partnership in 2019 with the Marine Mammal Center, which will bring a sea lion exhibit back to Columbus for the first time in over 30 years.

Jenny Wise is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.

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