I can’t believe I’m halfway through my first official week! It has been really amazing! I’m really enjoying all of the learning opportunities—from diet prep, habitat care and maintenance, facility maintenance, vehicle operations, education discussions, conservation practices, and, of course… all the animal smells. There is SO much to learn, and overall, it has been an awesome experience so far.
Today I started my morning taking care of little Miss Clementine, our Eastern Box Turtle. She is so sweet and loves being outside. I assessed her indoor habitat by checking her surrounding temperatures and prepared her food. This gal LOVES mealworms! I absolutely hate worms, but we have to do things we may not like for those we love, right?
After Clementine’s check, I prepped meals for our red and gray foxes. I really enjoyed prepping their food and even felt a sense of pride that I’m able to help take care of them. Looks like all my baking experience has given me some solid measuring and guessing skills because I was chopping zucchini to the exact gram needed! Boom-Baby! Both species of our foxes are facultative carnivores, which means they don’t need solely meat to survive, and can adapt to more omnivorous eating. Some of them like blueberries, sweet potatoes, and other veggies, but none of them like carrots very much. And of course they enjoy meat in their regular diet. Recently they’ve been enjoying guinea pig from a large donation.
Later in the day, I trained on vehicle operations around the facility and helped with perimeter checks while learning about the different fencing systems that keep the animals safe and secure. We have lots of neighboring animal life including some birds of prey, smaller birds, squirrels, chipmunks, opossums, racoons, deer, bunnies, and other critters. I made a couple of mental notes on some great maintenance projects to tackle with the crew. One of the highlights from today was learning how to drive a gator. I love how fast they go! Each of our carts and gator move at a different pressure for acceleration so I have to get used to that.
The day was full of stacked learning opportunities. I attended a training on basic wolf ecology and another on behavior modification, in relation to training our ambassadors at the park. I knew most of the wolf ecology pieces but need to make time to study our different ambassadors, their coats, sizes, traits, and personalities. One thing I was surprised to learn in training was that all wolf pups are born with blue eyes-even though they change color to pale yellow or green-grey when they get older. I think that’s so cool.
The behavior modification training was really fascinating. Thankfully it was a refresher from what I learned in my previous college days in psychology 101. There was so much additional concepts and terms I didn’t know that I need to study too. So much learning, but so much excitement, and gratitude to be here.
Looking forward to assisting with diet prep again, learning more about canine behavior, shadowing tours, and bison orientation.
Thank you for reading and supporting me.
Chat soon!
Leave a Reply