Bela Demeter, biologist at the National Zoo's Reptile House

Most of the contact I have with zoo visitors isn't face-to-face; it's through the glass. It's like "The Truman Show," the way people stare at me as I'm doing my work in the tanks and cages. Sometimes they watch me more than they watch the animals. In 32 years, I've never gotten used to that. Here's a gorgeous lizard, and everyone's looking at me! I don't know, maybe they're waiting for me to trip and fall, or get bitten or something. People like to tap on the glass, too, even though the sign right in front of them says not to. One day I'm gonna write a talkin' blues song called, "If you tap on the glass one more time, I'm gonna rip your arms off." It's going to be great.

Keepers and biologists spend most of their time taking care of the animals. But I've found another way to connect with zoo visitors: About 10 years ago I used to be in charge of cleaning the snake-necked turtles' tank, scrubbing off the algae that grows on the sloping bottom. It's hard work and a bit boring, and so one day I decided to get a little creative. I scrubbed a peace sign out of [the] algae, and it actually ended up being quite a conversation piece. So the next time I cleaned the tank, I did it again. I like to call it algae art. I did a pumpkin for Halloween one year. My biggest algae art was for the Fourth of July a while back -- a big American flag that went all the way across the tank. It really was something.

-- Interview by Alexa Hackbarth