Gary Priest has nearly 30 years of experience with the care, training, and exhibition of a wide variety of exotic marine and terrestrial mammals and birds. Priest is the Zoological Society of San Diego’s Curator of Applied Behavior. His department is responsible for developing behavior management plans for the animal collection at the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park. In addition, Priest is currently serving as President of the Animal Behavior Management Alliance, a national organization formed for the advancement of animal welfare through behavior management. Priest is a consulting editor for The Shape of Enrichment newsletter, an international publication dedicated to disseminating information to zoo professionals on behavioral and environmental enrichment. He is also a consulting employee to the Science Applications International Corporation, (SAIC) Bio-Solutions Division. Priest has published over a dozen professional papers on animal behavior management.

Priest was a founder and Co-Director of the nationally recognized Therapy for a Damaged Planet, Inc., an innovative conservation/education project. In addition to formal environmental studies at San Diego State University, the project offered selected university students the opportunity to participate in field conservation work in rainforest habitats.

Gary began his career in 1970, as an animal trainer for Sea World of California. Prior to joining the Zoological Society of San Diego in 1983, he served as an animal behavior consultant to the American Broadcasting Company in Dallas and to Marine World/Africa USA in San Francisco. Now, in addition to his current position, Gary frequently consults with other zoological institutions around the USA and internationally.