My first day of orientation started with typical onboarding paperwork. Afterwards the real fun began with learning all the details behind animal care and diet prep. I was happy to see processes and documentation for everything, since I’m a process-oriented person. Standards are everything! And Wolf Park runs their organization really well with routine calendars and checklists. I feel very informed after my first official day. What’s really great is Wolf Park has TONS of enrichment toys and activities for the foxes and wolves! Did you know boxes and things like the cardboard from toilet paper rolls can be used for enrichment purposes? Then there’s scents like cologne, racoon pee, and other oddities that can be added to a texture item.
The kitchen is where we learned about the diet prep and food storage of course. Our box turtle clementine loves meal worms! Thankfully I don’t have to touch those yet. Foxes are omnivores and enjoy different fruits, vegetables, and meat in their daily diet. They are small critters but still eat a fair amount of food. Today one of our foxes had some sweet potato, a strawberry, and guinea pig for their dinner. Later on in training I got to see the walk-in freezer filled with other critters for the animal diets. Wolves of course eat a lot of deer and turkey. Sometimes people will give us their roadkill and we’re able to take it if it deems healthy enough for our animals. I know there will be a day soon when I need to go on a roadkill deer run, and I hope I have the stomach for it.
I had an hour break in between diet prep lessons and cleaning. I went back to the house and ate my delicious, from scratch, hamburger helper (with veggies). I also had a yogurt bowl with my homemade pecan granola topped with fresh nectarines.
Learning about cleaning was fairly easy. Even though there is a lot of info to learn at once, everyone at Wolf Park seems very kind and helpful. Some thunder clouds were rolling in pretty fast. The sky darkened across the park and then came some light showers. My light rain jacket kept me dry for the first day. I may need to invest in a thicker one soon.
Finally it was time for my first tour and guide around the perimeter! I shadowed Rose on her tour. She was so informative and did an amazing job. On the tour we had grandparents with their granddaughter who was very into wolves. They asked a lot of great questions about animal behavior. Right away on the tour we got to see our first wolf Sparrow with her beautiful white coat. She checked us out on the fence line for a little bit then walked away. We looped around and saw more of the other wolves, and then the bison. One of the bison was rolling in the dirt. Once we approached another wolf enclosure, they felt the need to let out a great long howl. It was wonderful! The howl carried throughout the park with light thunder in the background. Two wolves were communicating with others nearby. They had a little back and forth exchange, then we enjoyed the silence. We ended the tour by stopping by the fox enclosure. Scarlette was out with her faded orange coat due to her old age. She just finished her dinner and was walking the perimeter.
After that my first day was officially over. Time to get out of the rain and head home.
Thanks for reading! More to come soon!
