Hassan Bayyan is an Area Manager at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. With the vibrant moniker of the “Caramel Cousteau”, Hassan is an urban conservationist, ocean explorer, and fierce advocate for the natural world. As a Science Communication Fellow sailing aboard Nautilus for the first time, Hassan has brought his wildlife knowledge, storytelling passion, and contagious enthusiasm to our team.
I’m honored to share some of his stories, insight, and pure zest for life here.
Tell me a little bit about young Hassan. How and when did your love of animals originate?
I caught the bug even before I realized it. One time I walked up to my mom-mom (my grandmother) and said, “did you know bats and dolphins can see with their ears using echolocation?” She loved telling that story. When I asked her how old I was then, she couldn’t remember exactly, but I was little — just barely above her knee.
I think that story represents two things: I was so enthralled with the natural world that I couldn’t keep it inside – I had to tell somebody. Both my love of nature and science communication manifested at such an early age. I can’t just sit on this information – I need to make sure everybody knows about this! Young Hassan was that kid picking up the rocks, counting the bugs underneath, looking for snakes, and all those type of things. It’s always been a part of me.
What did you do after you finished high school?
I wanted to go to college to study marine biology, but I ended up dropping out due to costs — it just didn’t make sense financially at that time — so I went looking for a job. My cousin worked at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, and she told me she could help me get a job there. When I went, I was going in to interview for a security position, but right above security was safari – so I asked if there were any open positions with them. They told me they had an opening, and if I wanted, I could interview for it immediately.
I hadn’t prepared for it, but I went ahead and did the interview. They asked me a lot of questions about things I would or wouldn’t be willing to do, like working outside, or working with certain kinds of animals. As the interview went on, more of my personality started to come out as they asked me questions that aligned with zoology. I got the job. I think I was under-qualified for the position, but they needed someone who wasn’t scared of talking to people and who was willing to learn.
I got promoted quickly because I did things exactly the way they wanted – I didn’t know any differently. When I wanted to go into management, I hit a little bit of a ceiling. So I pinched my pennies from working four different jobs and pulled together enough money to go to Zimbabwe to do an internship at a wildlife orphanage called Chipangali. That’s when I knew this field was for me.
How did you get to your current job?
After the internship, I came back to the US and got a job at the Philadelphia Zoo. Their Director of Education saw a presentation I gave and wanted to hire me. I moved into education there. From there, I did an internship in Australia doing coral restoration on the Great Barrier Reef. At that point, I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to do ocean or land-based work. Then I came back to the states and got an internship at White Oak Conservation in Florida. I learned how to work around massive herds of rhino and buffalo.
This was during the pandemic. The interns at White Oak lived on the property – every morning, there were rhinos living outside my window. It was pretty incredible. The antelope babies could only be fed by me – they couldn’t train anyone else because of COVID restrictions. A tremendous responsibility was put on my shoulders – I had eight baby animals under my care! If I don’t wake up on time, something bad could happen – they had to be fed on a specific schedule. So I was getting up every four hours, warming up bottles, and getting to it!
During the height of the pandemic, I was out of work for a month. My quarantine project was building a chicken coop with my dad. Then I got a job as a relief zookeeper at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore — but I still wanted to get to management-level. I applied for and got a job at the OdySea Aquarium in Arizona.
Now, I’m back at the Maryland Zoo, working as an Area Manager, which includes managing a team of keepers, working closely with the interns, and overseeing the Mary Wilson Fellowship for historically disenfranchised young adults.
Level Up: During his time with NEWF, Hassan learned many critical skills for professional photography and filmmaking.
Do it for the love: Hassan finds joy and connection in every minute he spends with animals. Here, he cares for a rhino at White Oak Conservation.
Science communication is a natural part of being a zoologist. Why and how do you want to expand your science communication expertise?
I want to take science communication and filmmaking really seriously. On social media, I’ve seen people harassing wildlife for clicks, likes, and views. Steve Irwin had his time and place, but we’ve grown to understand we shouldn’t be doing anything except taking pictures and leaving footprints. We should do no harm. We should allow animals and nature to exist independently of humans. But on social media, I’m seeing people grabbing snakes or jumping on alligators – reptiles get it the worst. People are behaving in very dangerous, unproductive, and unscientific ways – and then promoting it online.
The reason I want to dive deeper into science communication is to add balance on social media. I want to show you can have fun – you can be interesting and charismatic and educational – without using animals as props.
In 2023, I went to Jackson Wild Film Festival for the first time and connected with groups from all over the world, but the most impactful people I met were Noel and Pranga Kok, who run Nature and Environmental Wildlife Filmmakers (NEWF). Their goal is to tell African stories through African perspectives, which includes Africans across the diaspora. The following year, after attending their congress, they flew me to Sodwana Bay in South Africa to teach me how to be a real cinematographer. While I was there, one of my mentors, Erin Ranney, told me about the Nautilus and said I should look into their Science Communication Fellowship.
WE OUTSIDE: Hassan cheesin with Swazi Gurnell and Emily Jones on the back deck of Nautilus during a sunset photo shoot in Apra Harbor, Guam.
Coming to you live: Hassan poses for a photo with fellow Science Communication Fellows, Shelterihna Alokoa and Emily Jones, after our live event.
Can you tell me about your experience working with Black in Marine Science (BIMS)? How did you get involved? Why and how would you encourage others to get involved with BIMS?
BIMS is an organization that grew out of the pandemic, specifically in response to Christian Cooper, a black birder in New York City, who experienced a dramatic incident of blatant racism. BIMS started because many people of color who are naturalists don’t always feel safe. Black people crawling around in bushes looking for birds are often seen very differently than white people doing the exact same thing.
Especially here in the US, it’s important for us to have a place where we feel safe, welcome, refreshed, and have the ability to network and fellowship with people who have similar experiences.
My work with BIMS has been focused on communicating and connecting with early career individuals. I’ve connected so much with BIMS because the people involved are, fun, engaging, and unapologetically black. Also, their values — the question at the core of everything is how do we connect people to the ocean? They’re teaching people how to swim, they’re getting people dive-certified, it’s amazing.
The future is unpredictable, and life can present us with all kinds of opportunities and challenges. With that in mind, what are your goals for the future? How do you hope your career will develop and evolve?
I have three major professional goals. The first is developing an audience of people who can differentiate between good and bad science. I want to empower people to think about certain issues thoughtfully and critically.
Second, I want to develop and more meaningful connection between inner city people and wildlife. Just because you live in a city it doesn’t mean you’re not surrounded by wildlife. It’s incredibly accessible. As long as you’re looking, you will find wildlife — especially birds. I consider birds to be the gateway drug to zoology and understanding wildlife.
My third goal is to get more familiar with wildlife filmmaking. Storytelling is such a powerful catalyst for change — I want to be able to tell complex conservation stories in a way that resonates with people.
What advice do you have for up-and-coming science communicators?
I got three things. The first is: don’t shame people for being wrong. People in this field sometimes shame the uneducated and weaponize ignorance. That turns people off and makes them tribal. You have to approach everything from a position of humility: you didn’t always know what you know now. Don’t have so much hubris that you forget that.
The second is what I call being loyal to the soil – don’t tell lies. If you don’t know something, say you don’t know. If you don’t understand something, admit that. Don’t act like you have to know everything all the time. The words “I don’t know” are such a powerful statement.
Finally, do no harm. Science communication often sits at the intersection of ethics and the scientific frontier. When those two things bifurcate, it’s important to take the route of ethics, and do what is morally right, even in the pursuit of exposing people to science or learning something new. Don’t lose your humanity.
From the moment we met at the Honolulu airport, you have radiated positivity and joy. What fuels your internal sunshine? How do you maintain such a high level of optimism and sunny demeanor during dark times?
I’m Muslim. In Islam, we’re taught that on good days, you say Ahumdililalah. And on bad days, you say Ahumdililalah. It’s a prayer of gratitude. No matter what you’re going through, give thanks, because you are blessed. I hold the spirit of that prayer in my profession and in my daily life.
For me, I think it really helps to recenter and ground myself in the idea that I am living in my purpose and I am doing things I love. And I’m so grateful to be in the fellowship of people who are like-minded and pulling the rope in the same direction.
There’s a young Hassan out there who is looking at me and thinking I want to do the same thing! So I gotta show up for him, and for myself. I don’t want to take for granted a single moment of this extraordinary existence.
An attitude of gratitude: Hassan watches the sunrise over the harbor in Apra, Guam.
To see Hassan in action, follow him on Instagram @hassan_bayyan and visit his website: urbanconservationist.com