Sophie Laursen, DVM

Veterinarian

Dr. Sophie grew up in the countryside of Denmark, spending her childhood sharing her interest in horses with her mother and shadowing her dad’s work as a large animal vet. Inheriting a profound passion for animals, she enjoyed the company of horses, cows, pigs, dogs, cats and even pigeons from a very young age. By the age of 15 she got her first job within the zoo world, working as a dishwasher at Randers Tropical Zoo’s café, where she worked whilst qualifying for vet school. After being accepted to the University of Copenhagen, she started working as a zoo guide in Copenhagen Zoo and continued for almost seven years until obtaining the title as Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in the summer of 2022. Whilst working at Copenhagen Zoo, she assisted the veterinary team on several occasions including spending four months focusing on the use of ZIMS while investigating morbidities and mortalities, and even became co-author of a sedation study in psittacines with the zoo’s resident. After graduating, she pursued an equine internship in Germany and Denmark dedicated to becoming skilled within ICU care and anaesthesia of large animals. Her strong-beating heart for animals has led her to places like South Africa, Namibia, Norway, Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, USA, and Grenada. Her journey with Loop Abroad started in 2020 where she was the lucky winner of Dr. Chloe Buiting’s Instagram give-away during COVID, granting her a spot on the online Elephant Management & Medicine course led by Dr. Erica Ward. Although working full-time with stallion reproduction at the time and despite time zone challenges between Denmark and Thailand, she managed to excel the course and found herself more inspired than ever to pursue a career working with wild animals while sharing her passion with others. It is therefore a big dream being fulfilled when she welcomes her first group at the South Africa Zoo Medicine program this summer! Dr. Sophie is currently working at Sweden’s conservation zoo Nordens Ark, where she provides medical care to endangered and unique species such as Mountain chicken frogs, Maned wolfs, Northern bald ibises, Pallas’s cats, Snake-necked turtles, Amur leopards and tigers, Przewalski’s horses, European bisons, and many, many more! In her free time she loves to travel (especially to other zoos for networking and inspiration), hiking, searching for wildlife, horseback riding and generally just having fun, enjoying the moment and exploring the world.