Wow time has flown by!
Orientation is officially done however I have more shadowing and ‘practicals’ to complete. Thankfully the staff are flexible to accommodate any needs or changes to individual learners.
Over the last 10 days I’ve used my study time to tackle visitor center operations, introduce guests to the park, study the individual wolves, and take my outstanding quizzes. I’ve managed to knock out a few but had to take them multiple times. I’m sure my fellow neurodivergent girlies can understand the internal pressure and feelings of doom when you fail the same quiz more than once. I try to be kind to myself and stay mindful of when I need a mental break, but sometimes I crack under the pressure. Yesterday during my off time I went kayaking and had a nice nature ‘reset’ from all the quizzes and studying.
I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished so far, and am grateful to share my experience with you. Some highlights I want to share from the last 10 days is what activities I’ve been undertaking, like training on golf cart and gator operations, how to conduct perimeter checks of our 100 acres, learned about animal behavior and psychology methods, introduction to wolves and other canines, introduction to foxes, and even a butchering orientation.
Yes, I said butchering. I definitely cried during the first 5 minutes when the staff member was removing the head of a dead deer that we obtained from a local rancher. It was a road kill deer. In the circle of life, we were using the deer to feed our wolves, which is their natural diet. This is a very good thing, because it’s not only free, but also using a wildlife loss instead of letting it go to waste. This practice is also building community with local ranchers and landowners in the surrounding environment. Unfortunately, at 36 years old, this was the first time I saw a dead deer, and a whole carcass getting prepped for the deep freezer. So I cried from my uncomfortable feelings of seeing the deer get processed, but it was absolutely a good sustainable practice for our animals. I’m grateful the orientation is all I needed, and am no way forced to process the carcass during my time here. The smell alone may influence me to eat less meat in the future. Lol
Another great moment from the last week is getting an 8 out of 10 score (from my supervisor) with my first real guest at the visitor center! Catherine is such a good trainer and is very thorough on giving me all kinds of scenarios to ensure I’m prepared for what kind of guest I’ll experience at the park. My first guest was a family for 4 with 2 small children. The mom has been to Wolf Park before but it’s been many years. I thanked her for returning and told her about our current programs since they’ve changed from 15 years in the past when she was last here. The family was excited to be there but unsure what to do at first. I convinced them to take a tour with one of our tour guides and to have their children explore the area with a fun scavenger hunt. It definitely kept the kids engaged and interested in the animals and plants around the park. They loved their visit!
Another highlight was fox training. My fox training/presentation was really fascinating because I never really studied this animal before. Since we have red foxes and grey foxes on site, the presentation honed in on these 2 species. Both of these belong to the Canidae (dog-family), but the reds belong to the Vulpes genius, and greys belong to Urocyron genius. The greys are smaller with mouse like faces and have different color patterns than the reds. Did you know red foxes are known as ‘true’ foxes? Meaning, they have the scientific based physical traits that classify them from ‘false’ foxes who do not carry such traits. The red pretty much dominate the other fox species and tend to have a large range over North America (and UK). Red foxes also have their distinguished white tipped tail with black tipped-ears and black socks. Interestingly they have 3 different phases that make up different coat patterns. Their coats can range from the bright red fur we recognize from Disney’s Fox and the Hound, to a silver phase red color, and a fun cross-phase in the middle. The silver phase is a melanistic variation of their original red color pattern. The silvers still retain their white tipped-tail and golden eyes. At Wolf Park we have Scarlette who is a true red fox, and Mulder who is a cross-phased red-silver fox. Both have long snouts to use with finding food and eating small mammals like gerbils, mice, birds, and reptiles. I’ll have a separate blog soon about Scarlette and Mulder’s characteristics so you can get to know them more too.
That’s all I can share with you now. Thanks for stopping by and reading my field notes!
If you wish to support my journey as I tackle the remaining 2.5 months here in Indiana, you can donate to my GoFundMe linked on the Support My Journey page.
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