Hours Covered: 100-110
So during these hours, I came in for my Sunday shift after my previous week’s Tuesday shift. Looking into both the isolation and raccoon rooms, we were overflowing with raccoons now. It’s amazing how much can change in only a few days. My favorite four raccoons were still in the incubator, but all their eyes were open. They also all have great lungs because I cannot describe the amount of noise they make when they are hungry! Now because we have more raccoons, and there aren’t many volunteers that have their rabies shot, I had some duties switched. A couple volunteers have started to take care of the ducklings in the pond room so I can go directly to feeding the fawns, putting them outside, and then go feed the raccoons. Isolation only has one rack of raccoons, but in the raccoon room, there are three racks which were nearly all full. Even having started at 8 when we get in, it takes about one or one and a half hours to get all the raccoons fed and their carriers cleaned. I’ve heard from the second year interns that it will get faster, but because so many raccoons still need to be individually bottle fed, it takes a long time. Making the dishes is easier because all you have to do is put the dish in the carrier with them and move on to the next carrier. So far no raccoons are big enough to go outside, but when they are, the cages will fill up quickly.
On that note, the coyote pup we received finally got moved outside into a large mammal cage. When going in to clean, I can tell he is a bit stressed and afraid of humans. Hopefully, he will continue to be afraid of humans for the duration that he is here, which is expected to be a while according to his size. Next to the coyote is a group of four foxes who are very high stress. In fact, we are not allowed to use the hose to spray down the rocks daily like we do with the other cages. I’m hoping they settle down eventually, because I always feel bad for how freaked out they get when I go in to pick up feces and their old food dishes. The opossums outside are much different. They really don’t mind you being in their cage until you get too close to them. Unfortunately for them, we have to get close because every day when the cage is getting cleaned, we are supposed to count the animals in the cage to make sure there are no escapees. It is also good to check each individual in the cage to make sure everyone is healthy. Also, Jane told us a very interesting fact that I have found to be true. For some reason, the opossums love to poop in their water dishes. Nearly every time I go in to clean, they have pooped in the dish. We don’t know why they do it, but I would be interested to find out the reason.
In previous journals, I know I have talked about different temperaments of animals and seeing the four fox kits reminded me again. There is another single fox in a separate cage that is very much less freaked out by a human’s presence than the four kits. Thinking back to the animal personality course I took, I wonder if it was an environmental factor that caused this difference. For example, if their rescue was very stressful, would that affect their overall personality. On top of that, I am wondering if there is anything to do to change their stress level. In the personality course we talked about whether personality was static or could change over time. I will be keeping an eye on the kit’s behavior to see if over time they calm down or not.
My time at the wildlife is going great. The other interns and I work really well together. Each shift we split up the tasks that need to be done and always help each other out. I really enjoy the “lull” after the morning cleaning and feeding when we come back in the kitchen to fill out paperwork, and prepare meals for the afternoon. We just have a lot of fun, even when all we’re doing is chopping up raw hams and dicing fish. I am almost to the halfway mark of my time at the wildlife center and I can already tell I’m going to miss it. I’m starting to think that I might return here as a volunteer over winter break. It will definitely be slower than it is now, but I’m absolutely in love with this work.
