Jeff Zuba

Delivering birth control to elephants is more difficult than you’d think — and more important.

Jeff Zuba ’81, DVM’87 is the Margaret Sanger of the elephant kingdom.

You remember Sanger — the founder of Planned Parenthood, coiner of the term birth control, advocate for people to live rich, healthy sex lives without the consequence of babies. That’s Zuba, only for elephants.

Not many people would aspire to this role. But then, not many people have as much experience with these animals as Zuba does. With the possible exception of his colleagues Mark Stetter and Dean Hendrickson, Zuba has probably seen more elephants — their insides, at least — than anyone else in America.

Zuba is a veterinarian at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, a facility with more than 2,600 animals representing 300 species. “Most of my practice is small animals, birds, and reptiles,” he says, “but what we’re really known for is the megavertebrates, the big guys — rhinos, hippos, giraffes, and elephants.”

This Alumni World entry is an excerpt from On Wisconsin. To read the full story, please visit onwisconsin.uwalumni.com.