{"id":607,"date":"2024-03-13T15:09:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T15:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.animaledzoocation.com\/southeast\/?page_id=607"},"modified":"2024-04-17T17:21:59","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T17:21:59","slug":"meet-our-naturalists","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.animaledzoocation.com\/southeast\/meet-our-naturalists\/","title":{"rendered":"Naturalists"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Meet our Naturalists<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAmazing Naturalists, providing you a premium experience everytime.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Jared Baker<\/a><\/h3>

U.S. Director \/ Founder

\n\nJared was born and raised in Mayfield, Kentucky where he now lives with his wife Christy and three daughters, Lily, Sarah & Leah. Jared holds a B.S in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology and a Masters in Environmental Education both from Murray State University\u2026<\/p><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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John Ham<\/a><\/h3>

Southeast Owner \/ Director of Operations

\n\nJohn was born in Pensacola, Florida and lived most of his childhood and teenage years in Huntsville and Birmingham, Alabama. He began working at the Birmingham Zoo at the age of 16 being assigned to both the Children\u2019s Zoo and Bird departments.\u2026<\/p><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Nicholas Petryk<\/h3>

Lead Naturalist - Tallahassee Region

\n\nWe are proud to announce that Nick will be taking on programs in the Tallahassee and Greorgia regions! Nick is an FSU alumnus and professional naturalist. Growing up, he always had a fascination with the wild outdoors. The culmination of over a decade of working with animals has led to countless hours of studying the behavior and training methods of dozens of species. He has worked with several zoological facilities and nature centers, and his favorite animals have always been reptiles. In his spare time, you can find him outdoors in forests, parks, and around his home photographing and interacting with wildlife.\u2026<\/p><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Kaitlyn Thomas<\/h3>

Naturalist - Pensacola Region

\n\nKaitlyn participated in Animal Tales Southeast\u2019s internship program and later accepted the secondary main presenter position in 2021, after graduating with her Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology from University of West Florida. Fun fact: Kaitlyn is a \u2018natural\u2019 because she assisted her father with reptile outreach programs in Central Florida when she was growing up!.\u2026 <\/p><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Rachel Ham<\/a><\/h3>

LCSW \/ Creative Consultant

\n\nSocial work and therapy may be Rachel\u2019s main focus but volunteering behind the scenes with Animal Tales is an endeavor that she is incredibly passionate about. Whether it be through administrative tasks or maintaining animal care and training regimens, Rachel is always there to lend a helping hand. Check out her art in our \u201cCreatures of the Galaxy\u201d program or say \u201chello!\u201d if you catch her at a demo!\u2026<\/p><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Book your event today!<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBe prepared to get up close and personal with animals from all over the world! Our programs don\u2019t just lecture but involve the crowd. We facilitate the learning experience by getting people involved in all of our programs. On top of that, every single show is unique because the animals (unlike the presenters) don\u2019t have a script!\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCHECK OUT OUR PROGRAMS<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meet our Naturalists Amazing Naturalists, providing you a premium experience everytime. Jared Baker U.S. Director \/ Founder Jared was born […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"full-width-container","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-607","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animaledzoocation.com\/southeast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animaledzoocation.com\/southeast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animaledzoocation.com\/southeast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animaledzoocation.com\/southeast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animaledzoocation.com\/southeast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607"}],"version-history":[{"count":52,"href":"https:\/\/www.animaledzoocation.com\/southeast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1351,"href":"https:\/\/www.animaledzoocation.com\/southeast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/607\/revisions\/1351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animaledzoocation.com\/southeast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}