Okay, so I haven't been blogging for months, BUT I can catch you up in this post real quick like. This post will be about the internship I recently finished.
So I moved back to my home state of Illinois, and I started fishing for some temporary opportunities in the area. I decided on doing an internship at Wildlife Prairie Park, which I grew up going to and was fond of it. (There is also a sweet bench there in honor of my grandpa, and that makes the whole park cooler.) I also like the park because it only has animals that are or were native to Illinois, so it's great for kids/schools to visit and learn. So there was big stuff like elk, bison, bears, cougars, bobcats, foxes, wolves, otters...and stuff I dealt with raptors, small mammals, reptiles and amphibians.
Because the park was about an hour away, and I wasn't really getting paid (the joy of internships), I decided to take advantage of the onsite housing to cut away the commute and gas costs. That housing was this adorable little silo that people will probably make fun of me for for the rest of my life. It was basically an efficiency(one-room apartment). And there was a huge window on the other side. It was really quaint....and round.
My internship was in the education department, which means I wasn't out feeding and cleaning the large mammals. Although we did give some of them enrichment for public programs. A wolf after he got a treat out of a paper mached ball.
And sometimes I conversed with them as I closed the trails at the end of the day - I have audio of this cougar mewing back at me, it's pretty sweet.
And sometimes I had beautiful walks to work in the morning. On this particular morning the sun was rising over the prairie, the bull elk was bugling, and I snapped this shot. Just one of those moments where I was blown away by the beauty of nature.
So in the education department I did a lot of animal care, as the animals used for programs are the responsibility of the department. New things included SNAKES! I'm still not really into snakes. They are cool when they eat, ----->
(fox snake eating an already dead mouse)
and sometimes it's cool to hold them and feel their muscles....other times it freaks me out. But I cannot die that they are wonderful for programs. Everybody loves to see them, and almost everybody loves to touch them.
(Cocoa, a black rat snake, snuggling close to my arm.)
I also got to hang out with turtles, and they are pretty cute. The little guy on the right was about to be released into the wild. And the dinosaur on the left is Al, the alligator snapping turtle.My favorite turtle story is when I had a turtle lover visiting me. Going off his love for turtles, I handed him one, not knowing that he did not know how hold turtles, and he got bit. I had give explicit directions about every animal encounter after that.
And I got to hang out with raptors! Which if you didn't already know, I love raptors. The education department has a bald eagle, red-tailed hawk, peregrine falcon, barred owl, barn owl, screech owl, 2 american kestrels, coopers hawk, and a turkey vulture. I enjoyed getting to know them all and taking care of them. I tried over the few months I was there to spice up their lives with some enrichment. This was the red-tail cautiously approaching her rat which was next to a cardboard tube.
I got my first experience of working with an imprinted bird. And it's true, they are really weird. These pictures are of Ollie the barred owl, who never acted like a barred owl. She sunbathed, surfed, and was in love with a human. Just weird....she was weird.
This is Mikitcha, the bald eagle. I thoroughly enjoyed him and he had a wonderfully curious and sassy personality. He watched everything when you were cleaning his mew, and told you if he didn't approve. He also loved tearing up newspaper as you can see in this photo.
Jessie, the barn owl, was a sweetheart (anyone get it?). She was an old lady, had some arthritis issues and a little slow moving in the mornings. But she was young at heart, and she loved enrichment overnight. She would cackle and sweet talk you sometimes, and other times hiss her displeasure. One of the most gorgeous birds I've ever seen for sure.
But Mo, short for Missouri, the turkey vulture, was my
favorite. So vultures kind of sort of don't fall into the raptor category (They don't hunt live food and they don't have the gripping power raptors have with talons), but they are still really awesome. The turkey vulture is the only bird in north america that has a sense of smell, hwo cool is that! Some call them ugly, but look at her, she's gorgeous! Also they are so smart, scavengers are always smart! I got to do all kinds of fun enrichment with her. Plus, whenever she was sunning it looked like she was putting her arm around me :)
Ok onto the adorable things. Ducks! They are great. They snuggle. In cold weather they take baths in the sink. What more can I say about them?!?! Oh yah, they are a pain in the butt to clean up after...
And skunks! It was wonderful to snuggle with them. I did some training with them which was a lot of fun. But mostly they are spazzy and can't think about anything besides food.
Okay, the end! This wraps up highlights from this internship. As I write this, my room is a disaster as I prepare for the next one (When will I get a real job?) in Vermont! I will definitely get back into blogging as I move out east. New places, people, and animals to learn from and to share with you!
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