Author: Carolyn

Journal Entry #8

This week has been full of excitement! We recently received a coyote pup. The mother was unfortunately shot, but someone found the one pup and brought him in. This was so amazing, because I believe this is the largest animal we can work with. Even though New Jersey does have bears and bobcats, we are not certified to care for them long term. We can only hold them for 48 hours before turning them over to another certified facility. So the coyote was by far the most interesting animal brought in that I had seen so far. He was perfectly healthy aside from being too young to be on its own. At such a young age he looked practically like a medium sized dog. Our mammal room did not have a cage big enough for him, so he was put in a double cage in the back ICU. There was a cage outside that would be suitable for him, but first it needed deep cleaning from the last resident (fox). A deep clean for a large cage can take a long time because we have to search for hidden poop(foxes tend to bury it everywhere in the enclosure). Next we take all the items in the enclosure like the plastic kiddie pool and the plastic dog house and crate and we disinfect them and scrub them down. The last thing we do is also spray disinfectant on the pebble substrate and soak the floors. This all gets rid of any germs left behind from the last resident as well as any smells that might bother the next animal to go in it. Next, in my last journal I know I talked about safety with the raccoons, but this week I was bitten by a raccoon. There was one by itself in a carrier with no warning tag but needed bottle feeding. I reached in to scruff it to move it to the counter, and it snapped at me before I could pull back my hand. It didn’t bleed, but did break the top layer of my skin so I had to report it. Our protocol on that is to alert a staff member, and make a note in the paperwork that it bit you and what day it happened. This way if it dies or begins to exhibit signs or rabies, they will text the raccoon and find out if it did in fact have rabies. So after cleaning my hands, I added an aggression tag to the raccoon’s identification number tag, and switched her to a dish for her feedings. In contrast to that very aggressive raccoon, there are four baby raccoons that I am obsessed with. They came in with their eyes closed and have been in an incubator for a while. Now, two of them have 1 eye open each, and are the sweetest raccoons to deal with. Surprisingly, they eat really well from a bottle and are growing fast. Other than the raccoons, things have been getting even more busy. There are now 4 separate bins of mallard ducklings, and another fawn making three total. Outside there are a couple cages of possums on the rehabilitation side and 2 avian cages with one being full of native birds and the other being full of non native birds. 

In relation to my coursework, I’m not exactly sure of what to connect for this journal. I’m reminded again about imprinting, because some of the fawns are a little too interested in humans. They have been nudging us when we go to feed them, so they really need to learn to rack feed so we don’t have to interact with them as much. It’s really been difficult to discourage the fawns from being friendly, because you can keep guiding them away from you but they just come back. This is why it’s very important to feed and clean the fawns fast, so that we are not around them as much. We also have put up sheets hanging from the inside pen so that they cannot see what we are doing when we are in the same room with them. Eventually, the fawns will be big enough to move into the outside pen where they will stay until they are all big enough to be released. Once in the big pen, they will have even less contact with us, as we will only be feeding them 3 times a day and they will all rack feed. I am really hoping none of the fawns socialize to us, because it makes the release much more difficult than the ones who just run off into the woods. 

As fast paced as the work is here at the wildlife center, I am absolutely loving it. Somehow it is fast and yet I never feel stressed doing the work. I’m only about a third into my overl time at the wildlife center, but I have already learned so much. In my first journal I had discussed animal husbandry as a possible career choice, and each day that I work at the center, I become more certain that this is what I want to do after college. I am prepared that it might be difficult finding a job like this, because preliminary searches show that there aren’t many and that the ones there are usually specialize in either reptiles, birds, or mammals. However, I like the more general feel of this wildlife center, because I enjoy working with all types of animals. 

To begin on a note still about animals, the fawns were finally released! We loaded them into a horse trailer and took them to a field by a local farm that leads into a large area of grassland. The one I predicted being to social (the shirt chewer) did have to be shooed away a couple times, but eventually it ran off with the others. It was just an amazing site to see them all run off and know that they have a good chance at survival. 

For my actual reflection, I believe I met a lot of my goals from my student learning contract. I was unfortunately not able to assist in much triage and perform exams on new admissions, but I’m not too unhappy about that. I have seen that there can be a lot of stress in that work, and I’m not sure I would be cut out for it. I did however succeed in learning how to work well in a team the care for animals. In fact, we often partnered up for cleaning and feeding all 12 raccoon cages so that no one was out in the heat for too long. I;ve learned different approaches to animal care, such as feeding techniques. For example, I found that letting a raccoon eat on its back while it clings to your arm is a good way to get even the toughest eaters to bottle feed. The downside to this is you do get scratched a lot. 

The skills I have learned I hope will carry with me to my career. I didn’t do much hands on medicine administration or dressing wounds, but I did learn how to draw up the vaccines for raccoons and watched a second year intern perform them. Because I went into this internship with very limited hands on experience, I am really proud of myself in what I accomplished. I’ve learned to safely handle animals from baby birds to large and aggressive raccoons. Personally, I feel very confidant in myself when if comes to animals now. When I started at the wildlife center I was worried I would struggle since I have only been studying animals for three years. Nonetheless, I learned quickly, and learned a lot about caring for wildlife. I do want to continue to expand my skill set, and I am considering returning to the wildlife center as a volunteer during winter break. There will be less animals during that time, and I might have a better opportunity to learn skills like reading x-rays, tubing animals, and dressing wounds. 

This internship has been the best summer I have ever had. I don’t know how to describe this without being a huge cliche, but everyday I woke up at 6:30 to get to the wildlife center at 8am, I was excited. I loved going in and seeing what was new each day. I definitely want my future career to be with wildlife rehabilitation. I would honestly think about returning to the wildlife center as an employee, but I am not sure they can offer positions at this moment. I do like to imagine where wildlife rehabilitation will take me. For instance, will I stay on the east coast, or even stay in the United States? I believe that it will all depend on where I find these rehabilitation centers, and what animals I want to work with in the future. Right now, I am just excited at the opportunities I had this summer, and eager to keep learning.

Hours Covered: 190-200

It is sort of strange writing this as my last journal because this is not my last day working at the wildlife center. I will have much more to write about in the final reflection, because by then the fawns should have been released. I have completed 200 hours at the wildlife center, and have been there for a total of 9 weeks. I am sad thinking that I only have 3 weeks left working with these animals. I am definitely going to miss this when I am back at school. 

So at the wildlife center, we only have 1 lone raccoon left into the raccoon room. All the other raccoons have been moved outside into 12 cages. The one raccoon inside must have been a late birth, because it is much smaller than the other racoons. I was worried that he wasn’t going to make it, because he was disinterested in eating, lethargic, and had diarrhea. However, a few days later, he was eating well and very active (and loud). He most likely just wasn’t feeling well. There are now about 60 raccoons outside in the 12 cages, with each cage being a different county. It now takes so long to feed and clean the raccoons in the morning, especially the cages with 6 or more raccoons in them.  The raccoons like to do this thing where you try to move the bag you are scooping poop and food scraps into, and they pull on it and tear it down the side making everything spill. I like it much better when they sleep through the cleaning. I did witness something really cool in the raccoon cages, though. I heard a really loud buzzing from a cicada, and turned around to try and locate where it was. It was in cage 12 with the raccoons, and a swear this raccoon speed-climbed up the cage wall and snagged it out of the air. The raccoon the proceeded to bite its head off, and eat the whole cicada while not sharing with another curious cage mate. It was the coolest thing I had seen in a while. 

The coyote has gotten big enough that Jane is making plans for its release, but we do not have a set date yet. I’m a bit worried about it finding food because every day we give him a whole white rat with his dish, and every day he doesn’t eat it. Hopefully he will learn so than he has to eat animals to survive. The wood ducks that were very high stress, and still are, have also gotten big enough to go outside in the small pens for the daytime. The big waterfowl pen on the rehab side is full of mallards, and Jane did not think it would be a good idea to put the wood ducks in with them. The mallards are pretty bad at being ducks right now. Every morning we open a door to let them out into a grassy area, and they never go. We actually had to chase them out there one day so they could learn to forage in the grass. I’ve found that if they see you throwing their dried mealworms into the grass, they will go out to eat too. Hopefully, they will start going out to the grassy area on their own. 

To be honest I’ve really run out of things to connect to my coursework. I have more questions than anything really, and topics I’m interested in. I want to learn more about wildlife rehabilitation, such as how you go about treating animals with open wounds and fractures. I’m curious about how the environment affects local wildlife, and the importance of conservation even on a small scale. I’ve learned about a lot of species that I didn’t even know we had native to New Jersey, such as the diamondback terrapin. 

Overall, I am still set on finding a future career in wildlife rehabilitation. I know it is hard work and you have to work constantly. (My father was hilarious he thought I didn’t have to go in on July 4th because someone else would take care of the animals). But, I know first hand how rewarding this type of work can be. Those four raccoons that came in with their eyes shut are finally outside, and doing great. The small fawns that struggled to walk are now leaping around their big pen. I think my biggest issue in the future with a career like this, is not getting attached. Sometimes animals are doing well, and then they take a turn suddenly, and you have to be prepared to do what is best for them, even if it is putting them down. But all in all, I definitely think the rewards outweigh the hardships that comes with this job. 

Hours Covered: 180-190

During these hours, one of the days was a designated education day. We were instructed to get everyone cleaned and fed by noon, and then until 2pm we would be in the conference room for education. I was really excited, and Jane and Nicole did not disappoint. Jane started by taking us on a tour of the Outdoor Education Environment. She stopped in front of each cage and told us the history of the resident inside. The American crow was raised by humans, and therefore has an imprint that prevented her from being released. I like to think this is why she is so volatile sometimes, because she remembers humans taking her from the wild. The opossum with neurological issues came in with siblings, and while the siblings progressed well, she did not. She was healthy, but not able to survive in the wild. So, her siblings were released and she stayed. Our questral was another human imprint, and our barred owl is blind. I think the turkey vulture is the saddest story of all of them. He was shot, and then later hit by a car. He is doing fine now, but he cannot use his left wing. Because he cannot fly, he was kept as an education animal. The American bald eagle we  have also does not have full use of her wings, because she fell out of the nest when she was younger. She was actually admitted to the wildlife center the same year I was born. The skunk who is blind was rescued from someone who had her as a pet illegally. She was not being cared for properly, became sick and then lost her vision in both eyes. 

After learning about our education animals, we came back inside and Nicole, another staff member, had prepared a presentation of X-rays. She handed out sheets that had information like the anatomy of a bird, the anatomy of a turtle, the general anatomy of a mammal, and the different types of fractures that an animal can have. She first showed us a couple x-rays of birds and had us locate the different bones. Then we moved onto trying to identify the different kinds of fractures. After that, she shed us the most interesting cases they had had, and we were trying to figure out what was the issue. One animal looked like it had many dots inside its abdomen. Nicole told us that it was buckshot and that the animal was shot and treated for its wounds and lead poisoning. 

The saddest things she showed us was the x-ray of a goose. It looked like it had giant nails impaled into it including on through its beak. The worst part is how it got that way. A group of construction workers saw a goose on their site, and thought it would be a fun idea to shoot at it with nail guns. Luckily someone found it and brought it in to the wildlife center. It took a lot of effort and time, but they were able to remove all the nails, and they did not pierce any vital organs. The goose eventually healed and was successfully released. It was great to hear that the goose made a successful recovery, but just terrible to think that there are people harming animals for fun. I know that not everyone is an “animal lover”, but going out of your way to harm an animal is beyond my understanding. 

Hearing about this poor goose and how it was treated just broke my heart. It really struck a chord with me that while we can sit and learn as much about animals as we could possibly find out, it is really important to share that information with others. For example, when schools come to tour our education side of the wildlife center, Jane takes out plastic rings from soda cans and mylar balloons. Before the tour is over, she emphasized proper disposal of items like these so that animals do not get stuck in them or choke on them. 

On the note about education, I have been seriously considering including public education in my career. I mean I do not particularly like public speaking, but I think it is really important for people to know how to properly coexist with the animals around them. For example, teaching children not to feed bread to waterfowl because of how sick it can make them. 

Hours Covered: 170-180

We have hit another animal milestone during these hours. All the fawns we have received are in the large outside pen. We did have 8 fawns total, and they are doing well so far. It’s really exciting to see them actually start to run and leap around in the tall grass in the pen. With 8 fawns, we are usually cutting branches daily. We found out they really like the sugar maple I bring in and the sassafras that another staff member brings in. There is some grapevine on the property that we pull down in bunches. We have also added a little kiddie pool into the pen for them so they have access to more water than just an elevated bucket. We are also trying to wean fawns off the formula slowly, so they are only getting fed 2 times a day. We feed them each 400 mL at 9 am and then at 4 or 5 pm. We did have some trouble with one of the fawns, because it kept having diarrhea, so each time we would go out to feed the fawns, we had to catch the fawn and clean it with a warm wet washcloth. Eventually the diarrhea stopped, but we still usually have to check the fawns butts daily to make sure they are clean and fly egg free. There is one fawn I am concerned about for release. It is definitely too friendly, and always chews on your shirt or pants when you enter the pen. I always try to shoo it away, but as it gets bigger, it is harder to do.  Hopefully, the fawn will stop this, but it really doesn’t seem likely. If it gets too social, it definitely won’t make it in the wild.

In addition to the fawns, we have 9 raccoon cages with raccoons in them, and it is a whole project getting them fed and cleaned each day. Usually one of us will feed and another of us will start cleaning on one end of the cages. Sometimes you end up having to do them by yourself, which can take up to two hours. This all depends on how many animals are inside that need to be cleaned and fed too. Right now we have several different animals inside in the ICU and lab including a mute swan that cannot lift its neck and head up, a fox with mange, two wounded large raccoons, and a very angry great horned owl. It’s almost funny how territorial the owl is. I walked by him to check his paperwork and see if he had been cleaned and fed already, and he immediately started hissing and making an angry clicking noise at me. I had heard baby screech owls make his noise when you go to handle them for weighing, but when it comes from a much larger raptor it is very intimidating. There are also several baby rabbits and bats in the back ICU. We usually keep rabbits out of the mammal room because the back ICU is much quieter. Rabbits are easily stressed that it can actually kill them. This is one of the reasons baby rabbits are so hard to successfully rehabilitate. The other issue is tube feeding them. Their insides are fragile like paper and one wrong move will puncture them. I believe only 3 to 5 people between the staff and volunteers will tube feed animals. 

Thinking about the rabbits and how high stress they are make me wonder about how some of these animals have become so high stress. For example, the fawns, opossums, raccoons, and woodchucks seem indifferent to a human presence, but ducks (especially wood ducks), rabbits, and foxes are easily panicked by human presence. I wonder if fawns are more indifferent because New Jersey has such a large population of deer that they are usually in residential areas searching for food. But I can’t say the same for raccoons of woodchucks. It would be interesting to see if different species are just evolutionarily more cautious than others, for the benefit of the species or individual. 

All in all, everything in terms of staff has been going well. The interns I work with during my shifts and I work really well together. We also just have a lot of fun joking in the kitchen when we are making dishes for afternoon feedings, or defrosting meats and fish for the next day. The staff too has been great. I feel really comfortable around them, which is just a great feeling. I can ask questions and know that I won’t be judged or spoken to rudely. It’s really a great environment that even as busy as the staff can be, they make time for us.  

Hours Covered: 160-170

The summer is speeding along and so is the progression of the animals. There are now five fawns in the large outside pen, and 7 cages of raccoons. We recently received five baby skunks, and they are adorable. I had forgotten how much skunks can smell though. The blind skunk we have on the education side of the center was someone’s illegal pet, and they had her destinked. The baby skunks are so little they can only dribble, but I learned a lot about skunks. The spray actually come from small holes that surround the anus. This way, when they spray you, it sprays in a parabolic shape and is designed to coat everything from the top down. The best way to handle a skunk is to use a towel, and keep it over their tail so they cannot lift it to spray you. Although I was warned by Jane that when rounding up the skunks for release, you usually get sprayed. Therefore, the interns will be drawing straws to see who will have to do that. Jane did tell us the secret to getting rid of skunk scent if you get sprayed. First, just dowse yourself and clothes in white vinegar. Let that dry on you and then wash yourself and clothes with a combination of baking soda and dawn dish soap. Hopefully, I’ll never have to see if it works. 

The bald eagle we had was released and put into the empty nest successfully, and the two great horned owls were finally big enough to release. We released them on the property, and it was way less ceremonious than expected. Another intern that had been working with them was handed them to let go, but they kept clinging to the heavy duty gloves. One ended up flopping on to the ground, taking two hops, and then flew away. The other one didn’t fall, but it did end up flying off into the opposite direction we wanted them to go. Overall, the release was great, because it was good to see that all the hard work pays off. The coyote is getting bigger too, but probably still won’t be released until the end of the summer. The four small raccoons from the incubator are still being bottle fed for all four meals, but are now in the raccoon room. They were finally big enough to start their vaccinations. We also recently received a raccoon that is the angriest and most aggressive i have ever seen. Not only does it growl and try to bite, but it actually screeches and lunges at you. Hopefully, it will go outside in one of the raccoon cages soon so it can not feel so cornered and scared. The outdoor raccoons have been making a mess. One cage actually managed to pull down the tire swing that hangs from the ceiling, and another cage escaped. Luckily we have the hallway part and second door with a padlock, but they must have undone their inner door latch. They ransacked the items in the hall, but when one of the interns found it, they were all inside their cage sleeping. We ended up putting an extra latch on that door that day. 

 I’m not sure what to connect for this journal. I am wondering about the ability skunks have to spray. Since apparently it isn’t something they can do when they are first born, is it a skill they have to learn? I know they are born with a gland which is in charge of the production of the spray, but they can’t fully spray until they are adults. This is something that I would be looking forward to finding out in Comparative Animal Physiology. Maybe the juvenile skunk does not have the muscle capabilities to produce a large spray. If that is the case, do larger skunks have a larger spray than smaller skunks?

Nothing much has changed towards my opinion of this internship. I have never had a more fun summer in my life, and I am in love with the work. Looking back to when I was applying, I wish I had done the full time internship that would be 6 days a week. Because I am only there 3 days in the beginning of the week, I miss out on the later week events like weighing days and new admissions. However, it is exhausting work, and it’s nice to have a few days to recover. I don’t think I’ve ever done more physical work in my life. From mucking out the large fawn pens to dragging hoses from cage to cage for cleaning, it took a long time for me to get used to this much activity in a day. 

Hours Covered: 150-160

One of the days during these hours has a really cool surprise intake. It was during the afternoon, and I was looking round the wildlife center to make sure everything was done before taking my lunch. In the triage room, I found the other interns and a staff member holding a glue trap. Apparently, a family had set out double sided glue traps to catch bugs and spiders, but a young rat snake crawled inside and got stuck. It was most likely attracted to it by a bug that got caught. About 3 inches behind his head was stuck in the glue on top and bottom, as well as an inch of his tail. We spent about 30 minutes watching the staff member carefully cut the glue trap, and pry it open. The glue those traps use is way stronger than I thought. Once the trap was open, she used a syringe with vegetable oil to apply it to where the snake was stuck. Eventually the snake was freed, but it was still covered in glue. So next, she got a tub of warm soapy water, and actually bathed the snake by dipping it in the water and user her hands to rub the glue off with the grain of the scales. After it was clean, she dried it and inspected it. Aside from a few scales missing, it was perfectly healthy. I found out later that it was released the very next day. 

In non animal related news, we had a bit of a disaster in the back ICU. One evening when I was leaving, the ceiling was dripping, so we set out buckets and the staff made plans to call a repairman in the morning. When we came in the next morning, the room of flooded, the buckets full, and parts of the ceiling on the floor. Luckily none of the animals in that room got wet. So before taking care of the animals, I was instructed to get the room cleaned up enough that it was safe for us to move the animals out of that room. Eventually it was fixed but it was a pretty crazy morning. 

Back to animal news, we recently received a very large and very aggressive raccoon.  We couldn’t put it outside until it was vaccinated and it’s wounds healed, but it was too big for a pet carrier. So, we placed in in a double cubicle in the lab. One night, someone must have forgotten to put the extra clips on the cages doors that keeps then super shut, and the raccoon got out. Fortunately, there are motion sensors that let the staff know something is loose. So at about 11pm one of the staff members  had to drive back to the center and wrangle this huge aggressive raccoon. Of course, it had already knocked everything over, shredded its own paperwork, and pooped everywhere. The next day I came in, the cage with that racoon was actually padlocked with a chain.

This makes me think of learning in animals. I wonder if the raccoon saw us using the latches and was able to figure it out itself, or was it just a fluke. With how curious and clever they are, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just playing with the closing mechanism, and accidently opened the cage. But, it would be much more impressive if it learned it from us. This seems doubtful because it had only been here a few days. In addition, we actually have a tool for opening the outdoor cages from the other side, because they have occasionally locked us out. It’s just a little latch that goes into an eye hook, but we have them inside the cage so they cannot get out while you are in the cage. Occasionally, the raccoons will play with it, and flip it into the eye hook. It’s both frustrating and impressive.

I’ve officially decided that the raccoons are my favorite, and writing about them only makes me more sure. I don’t know if it’s how similar they are to cats, but I just find them hilarious and fun. There are less fun ones such as the really aggressive one that bit me a couple weeks back, but most of the raccoons we handle are not like that. It can be hard handling aggressive raccoons, because you want to use the heavy gloves to protect yourself, but they make it really hard to hold onto the raccoon and open and close the pet carriers. Sometimes you have to have one had with a regular medical glove and just be very careful. Overall, it is definitely worth it. Working with the raccoons is always my favorite parts of the day, and I just can’t help but love when they wrap around your arm and lay on their back for bottle feeding

Hours Covered: 140-150

The days have been pretty repetitive lately. I come in and I feed the inside fawns, clean them and put them in the small outside pen. Then I feed and make sure the fawns outside are clean too. I also let the outside fawns into the bigger half of the pen. We keep them locked in the smaller part at night so that they don’t freak out and injure themselves on the fence. After the fawns are all done, I go help in isolation and the raccoon rom with whatever still needs to be done. We still have dozens of raccoons inside, so feeding and cleaning takes a long time. The four baby raccoons that were in the incubator have gotten big enough that they are not out of the incubator and in a carrier. Eventually once they are vaccinated they will move into the raccoon room. These four raccoons are my favorite by far. They are easy to handle and always drink all of their formula. They are gaining weight fast. Speaking of weights, I work on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays, and the raccoons are weighed on Wednesdays and Saturdays. However, when I was making up a shift from when I was sick, I came in on a Wednesday. Weigh days are hectic. In addition to cleaning and feeding, each raccoon needs to be weighed. The best way to do it is to weigh a pillowcase, zero out the scale, and then put the raccoon in the pillowcase and weigh them. I’ve used a similar technique to weigh birds and rabbits. I learned the hard way that Blue Jays are aggressive birds. I thought “oh small bird, I’ll just gently grab it like I do with the rabbits.” But the second I reached into the reptarium, the Blue Jay bit me. After that, I switched to used a pillow case and holding it like you would a dog poop bag and then turning it inside out once I have a hold of the bird. I also learned that some birds have this issue where they curl their foot up and it gets stuck that way.  When we see it starting to happen, the staff uses bandages to flatten the foot and keep it that way. 

In other animal news, we have 5 cages of raccoons now. There aren’t many outside total, but they are being separated by county, so that is why there are more cages than probably needed. Some of the raccoons are too curious for their own good. The work boots I wear to the center have a buckle on the back similar to the clip ones on backpacks. There is one raccoon in a cage of two that always runs up and starts playing with it when I am not looking or bent over scooping poop. I have to actually stomp my feed to get him to leave me alone. I feel bad startling him, but it is better than letting him get to comfortable with humans. 

In relation to the bird foot issue, I never found out why it happens. But thinking back to Comparative Animal Behavior, I wonder if it is a genetic thing, or an environmental thing. For example, because we see it when we are trying to rehabilitate them, is it related to stress? It could just be a muscle issue that happens automatically, but I would be interested to learn more. I have been running out of things to connect to my courses and coursework, but I am finding out a lot of things that I want to learn more about. I’m very interested in how some of these animals’ behaviors are affected by their disease or injury. For example, we had a great horned owl brought in with west nile virus. It was much more docile than the education great horned owl we have. Is it merely because the animal feels ill that the behavior changes, or does the virus affect the behaviors directly?

Everything has been going great at my internship. The other interns and I get along great and working together with people who are just as interested in animals as you are is so much fun. The staff is so supportive and amazing, they are never condescending to us for not knowing something. In fact, I’m pretty sure Jane really loves teaching us as part of her job supervising our interns. Recently, she taught us why goose meat is a red meat and chicken is not. It is because geese fly, and therefore need greater blood flow in their body than chickens do. It’s little facts like these that are just really fun to hear about.