Hours Covered: 60-70
I have finally finished my series of rabies vaccines, so when I started my shift following the last vaccine, I was introduced to both the racoon room and the isolation room. The isolation room is where we keep animals that are too small for their rabies vaccinations. They stay there until they get their first vaccines, and then they move into the racoon room. Earlier in my internship, I got a little introduction into racoon care, but now that I finished my shots I was able to participate in the care and learn more. Raccoons all get fed four times a day at 8am, 11am, 3pm, and 6pm. Raccoons under a certain weight are bottle fed for all for feedings. The next weight milestone, the racoons get moved to bottle feedings for the first three feedings and a dish at their pm feeding. The next weight group is fed bottle, dish, bottle, dish for their feedings. The last weight group gets dishes all four feedings. A raccoon dish has a standard formula, but for bottle feedings, there is a chart according to exact weight how many milliliters of formula they should get. For cleaning, raccoons get a clean sheet and their pet carrier disinfected after their 8 am feeding, and a clean sheet after their 6 pm feeding. Of course there are exceptions, such as when racoons have diarrhea (which happens more often than I thought it would). Sometimes racoons are brought in so young their eyes are not yet open. Those raccoons also need to be stimulated after each feeding. These raccoons are also kept in incubators as they would still be relying on their mother’s warmth. In relation to the stimulating, I also found out a trick to raccoons. If a young raccoon isn’t eating well for bottle feeding, sometimes stimulating them can help. Now that I am able to do more things at my internship, my shifts are becoming busier. My usual schedule is to first put the ducks outside in their small pens with food and water. I push cleaning the inside bins until later. Then I start heating formula for the fawns. After feeding the fawns and making sure they are stimulated and then clean, they get put outside in a pen now that they have grown a bit from the last week. I’ve found the best way to carry a fawn outside is to use a towel to cover them and hold them to your side. This prevents them from kicking you to get free. The towel helps keep us clean, as sometimes they poop if they get really stressed from being moved. After the fawns are outside, I clean up their inside pen and place down clean towels and sheets for them. Next I move on to the raccoons in isolation and the racoon room. Usually, at least one person has already started with the raccoons, but it can take a long time because besides feeding their carriers have to be cleaned. Once everyone has been fed and cleaned, I check to make sure everything else has been done and start cleaning up from the morning. The other interns who work with me have different duties, but it all just depends on who gets started on what. One intern I know does the outside education area morning feedings and all the cleanings when she first gets in, and then moves onto the few animals outside on the rehabilitation side. Another intern is in charge of the bird room, which is her primary duty because birds need to be fed every hour and cleaned every two hours.
Now that I am working with raccoons, I have really been reminded that these are wild animals. I know we have discussed in basically every animal behavior course the importance of maintaining a safe distance when observing animals in the wild for your safety and so they do not act differently than they normally would. However, for working close up with animals, safety is still a priority. The other animals I have worked with such as the fawns and ducks, aside from the raptors I was introduced to on the education side, have been very “mild mannered”. However, some raccoons can be really aggressive. Some will try to bite only if you get too close, but others will lunge at you right when you open their cage. Big gloves are always on hand, as well as tags that go under the carrier that say “aggressive, handle with heavy gloves”. Of course, someone first has to find out if they are aggressive in order to know if they need a tag, and this is usually when people are bitten. Regardless of how small some of the raccoons are, they are still wild animals.
As I talked about before that there are other interns working on other things during my shifts, I thought it would be good to mention the dynamic in the wildlife center. I know I have described the volunteers and staff, but the other interns and I work really well together too. There really is never a time when we are wondering what to do, we just usually begin our own routines when we arrive for our shift. We also help each other often, such as helping one intern finish cleaning some cages or helping split up feedings. This makes sure everything is done relatively on time and that no one has too much to do for themselves. I feel that work like this is different because we all really want to be there and is interested in the work they are doing.
