Last Week

This was my final week of my internship here at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo. This week I worked Saturday through Tuesday because I could not work Wednesday as I was flying back to college then. This week was again mostly routine, more of the afternoons were routine as well. In the morning I cleaned either ruffed or ringtail exhibit and holding area, cleaned another holding area or two, fed the rats and the aye-aye, and sometimes did herps or prepare diets. In the afternoon I fed the islands ringtail and ruffed lemurs, fed rats, bats, and aye-aye. Did lemur enrichment and helped medicate the ruffed lemurs.

On Saturday the whole day was pretty much routine, so there wasn’t anything different that I did.

On Sunday in the afternoon I helped pull vines off the front fence of the fossa exhibit.

Monday was a very fun day as in the afternoon I got to do target training with the red ruffed lemurs. I also went to pick up mulch to add to the tortoise area of the ringtail exhibit.

Tuesday was my very last day. In the morning I went to go get the new crickets, then cleaned the cricket tanks and unpacked the new crickets, I watched collared lemur training, fed the collared lemurs their fruit, and then fell in the lagoon because I had to say goodbye to Howie, one of the red ruffed lemurs.

Sadly that is the end of my internship. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot. I will greatly miss everyone here especially the lemurs.

Massive Storm

The mornings this week were mostly routine again, cleaning either ruffed or ringtail exhibit or cleaning windows, as well as cleaning a couple back holding areas. Then preparing rat and aye-aye enrichment and sometimes doing herps or preparing diets. In the afternoons the bats, rats, and aye-aye are fed, lemur enrichment is done, and sometimes I get to feed the collared lemurs their fruit. On Tuesday and Wednesday the ruffed lemurs outside were starting their new medication so I got to watch the keepers giving the meds to the lemurs. This is done either just squirting it into their mouth or putting it in a piece of banana.

Collared Lemur

Diabetic Ringtail Lemur Rhea

On Sunday the only different things that I did were feeding the islands, both ringtail and ruffed, and watching fossa training.

Monday was a bit of an interesting day as there was a very massive storm the night before. There was a sinkhole washed out in the corner of the black and white ruffed exhibit which caused the exhibit to be unsafe for them so they had to stay in the holding for a few days. The road in front of our building had a lot of mulch washed out onto it so I spend post of the afternoon sweeping that up and putting it back where it belonged. Also today was the first day the new mongoose lemur pair was put back on the exhibit after the switch of pairs.

Damage to black and white ruffed lemur exhibit from storm

Mongoose Lemurs, Edwardo and Selena

Tuesday was a very interesting day. After cleaning the windows and the downstairs mongoose lemur and vasa parrot holding area, the vet came down to get blood from Rhea, our diabetic ringtail lemur. Rhea was in the back holding area by herself and the keepers went in and netted her then held her on top of the barrel for the vet to come in and take blood. After that, Ted, a black and white ruffed lemur had to go up to the vets office and get checked due to problems with his hip. I went too, so that I could watch the procedure. He was put under and then examined. He had a normal check up and the vet was moving around both his hips, and the rest of his rear legs to see if there was something wrong, then several x-rays were taken, blood was also taken. Nothing was found to be wrong with him, though they would have to wait for the blood work results to see if that showed anything, but he was put on some medication for pain. In the afternoon there was an attempt to train the fossa, but they would not come back into their holding area. I then went to rake some on ringtail island, because the island had been flooded and most of it had been underwater from the storm and was now covered in the duckweed that covers the lagoon. Today when I was watching the keepers med the ruffed lemurs, one of the black and whites escaped from its holding area and was loose in the lagoon holding building. After a few minutes of it running back and forth from one end of the building to the other it was caught and put back in its holding area.

On Wednesday the only thing I did that was different was in the afternoon I stripped the rats burrow.

Summer 2011 is over!

Hey all!

I can't believe that the summer is over for Incarnation Camp. We spent the last week getting in as much fun as possible with a few special activities. We brought in a group to take everyone scuba diving in the lake, went out to play paint ball, and traveled over to Hammonasset for beach day.

At the end of the week it was time to take camp apart. After taking down tents and moving beds all Friday morning, the kids got to take the afternoon off and get fancy for the last dinner at camp, banquet. After eating a delicious meal (which they didn't have to cook, no cooksite!), we all gathered in the rec hall to watch a slide show of all the pictures we took this session. Once we all had a good laugh at the photos, the real trouble started: the all night dance! The staff took turns supervising and sleeping so as long as the kids wanted to dance, the party would never end. We ended up watching the sun rise on the docks, and getting a couple hours of sleep before the parents came on Sunday to pick everyone up.

I was so sad to see my campers go, we had such an incredible group this summer, and I can't wait to see them again next summer!

Goodbye Upper Delaware!

Well, the summer has finally come to an end and my internship is over! My last week on the river consisted of canoe patrols, power boating with law enforcement, and my goodbye party!


On my last day, two of the law enforcement rangers took me out on the power boat to patrol the river. We didn't really catch anyone doing anything illegal, but we did find a whole watermellon floating along the shore! That evening the interpretive unit had a bbq/goodbye party for me. This summer has been a blast, and I am so grateful to have had this opportunity. I've gained so much experience from this internship, and it will definitely benefit me in my future career. I couldn't have asked for a better internship or better people to work with!



It's been a great summer!
-Lara

USDA

This was a bit of an interesting week because the USDA inspection wound up happening this week. Sunday through Tuesday the mornings were normal and routine, I cleaned the ruffed exhibit and holding area all three days, cleaned windows, then cleaned another holding area or two. Also in the morning, the aye-aye and giant jumping rat enrichment is given, I do not think I ever explained why these two animals get fed/enriched so many times a day. The rats, it is very easy for them to over groom themselves and each other so we feed them three times a day to try to prevent that. The aye-aye, in the early morning they are given their gruel, then with their second feeding they are given their vegetables, and the third one they are given their fruit. This is done this way because they like the fruit the most and if they were given that with or before the other food they would only eat the fruit and not the other food. Sometimes in the morning I will help with herps, and give the crickets new food. Then tomorrows diets are prepared and that’s the end of the morning. In the afternoon most things are different from day to day, but feeding the bats, and the aye-aye and rats again, as well as preparing lemur enrichment is done every day, most days I also get to hand feed the collared lemurs their fruit.

In the afternoon on Sunday, I went with a keep to the jungle to start laundry and try to find balloons for paper mache, then spent most of the afternoon making paper mache.

Monday was interesting too. In the morning I cleaned the downstairs mongoose lemur holding area with them in it. They were not going on exhibit because they were being moved upstairs and separated. The two mongoose lemurs upstairs were separated as well. They are switching mates in hopes that they will breed. All lemurs were put in separate cages with one empty cage in between them and their new mate. In the afternoon another intern and I stripped one of the herps exhibits.

Tuesday in the morning I cleaned the tenrec’s tank. In the afternoon I helped a keeper to fix fallen shelves and other various tidying up jobs. Then while I was feeding the collared lemurs we learned that USDA was at the gorilla area next to us. Everyone quickly ran around trying to straighten everything up and make sure things were where they were supposed to be. After we did all that we discovered that they were not actually getting to our area until the next day.

Wednesday started off a little bit crazy because we knew that the USDA was going to be there sometime that day and so had to make sure to clean everything very well, including all drains, and make sure all chemicals were put back where they belong after we used them. I started out helping one keeper get down cobwebs from the bird exhibit, but then went to help another keeper clean the giant aye-aye and bat exhibit. After that I neatened up the enrichment hallway a little, and then cleaned two of the upstairs mongoose lemur holdings. Today after the holdings were cleaned, the mongoose lemurs were put into cages right next to each other. In the afternoon I fed the ring tails on the island, watched collared lemur training and fed the red ruffed lemurs outside.

Canoe trip!

Hello everybody!

This past week has been an interesting one. I was out on a five day canoe trip! Along with my co-leader Sihao, I took fourteen campers down the Connecticut River, starting at White River Junction in Vermont, and ending seventy miles downstream on the New Hampshire side. Overall the trip was successful, but for the first three days it rained, and the kids were bummed out. We decided to end day three early and crashed at an unplanned site. Day four started bright and early so we could make up day three's mileage. Thankfully, the wind was with us and it stayed sunny until we reached Brattleboro, Vermont, where we had time to stop for a couple hours and check out the shops. It rained then, but the kids were all inside and I had gone to check on the boats to be sure that everyone's dry bags were closed. After we had all the fun we could in Brattleboro, we paddled on down to our campsite. That night camp called and told us that they couldn't get to the pick up until three in the afternoon, so we got to sleep in for the last day! We took our time on the morning of day five, and made it to the take out spot with time to spare. On the way back down to Connecticut, we indulged in a Pioneer Village trip tradition and stopped at Bub's Barbeque, a tiny spot in Massachusetts. Once we got back to camp we cleaned up and returned all of our gear, then settled in for a good night's sleep.

The best way to end a summer

So as you all well know I have been done with my required hours but that doesn't mean I was fully done with my internship. I still went back for three more days to help out, and in turn got to do some pretty cool things. The first week of August I only went in on the 5th which was cleaning day. I actually spent almost the whole day at Mary-beths. We of course went and did all of the cage cleanings first, with me mostly cleaning out the Red-tailed hawks aviary. To fully clean that aviary it takes at least 45 minutes. Buteos tend to poop on everything... Then it was off to care for the rehab birds. We had a baby Screech owl in the basement that Patricia was caring for as well as a baby Broad winged hawk. Mary-beth showed us how to put on a tail guard. Tail guards are used with rehab birds in order to help protect their tail feathers from becoming damaged during their time in care. Then we went off into the shed to take care of the crazy Red-tailed hawk and Spirit. Spirit takes no time at all, but that Red-tailed... As Jeanne held the bird Mary-beth unbandaged its wing to see how it was healing. She then told me I was going to rebandage the wing. It was pretty cool doing my first bandage job on a live bird. Then after we bandaged the wing she had me change out the tail guard.

Once we were done we put the bird in a cardboard carrier in order to take it out to one of the aviaries. We were switching birds around for observation purposes. The juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk that had the swollen ankle was being put in the shed in a padded carrier until it's ankle healed up and the other bird was being put in the aviary. The other Red-tailed eventually got its bandages removed which is a good sign. Before we put the bird out in the aviary we had to go and take out all of the perches that way the bird couldn't damage it's wing from falling. Our last task was to go and rewrap Kisra's perches. She seems to like them and is often seen on them.

I then went in again on that Wednesday to work with the Fairfield Red-tailed. When I got there Jeanne had me put a leash on Spirit and take him outside while she cleaned his carrier. He was a very good bird for me and just sat there, bobbing his head. It's good to get him outside to get some fresh air and some stimulus. We then went to rewrap the perches in the Red-tailed hawk aviary, in which he had an extra bird in there. We ended up getting a rehab bird from someone that was keeping it in his apartment. For a Red-tailed hawk this bird looks kinda funky, and really shows some signs of being imprinted a bit. Whenever we go in there now we have to completely ignore it so that we're not encouraging its behavior. While in the fixing mode we went and fixed one of Chico's perches. One of them broke so we were just replacing it with a new one. Zip ties are greatly your friend.

After our fixing period Jeanne let me jess up Oscar the Great Horned Owl. Oscar is the easiest to jess up because he just sits there, the hard part is pulling him off the perch and helping him back up when he bates. He's an awesome bird, but likes to be a plan when to go to put him back on your glove. The minute his feet touch your glove he's pushing back off. We kept him out for quite a bit, give him a break from the baby in his aviary. I'm glad I got to handle him before I left. I finished my day with the Red-tailed. She's good about people being around, but acts a little nervous. I was able to walk up to her with the glove on and touch her without her flying off. I was also able to get her to put one foot up on the glove by gently pushing against her, but I couldn't get her to put her other foot up. Though even that is a good start.

Yesterday was my last day at Horizon Wings, and probably the best. We had a bit of light cleaning to do since most of the aviaries were done the day before. I worked on the Red-taileds aviary, doing both the raking and scrubbing. Brenda was back from being in California, so I got to see her one last time. After cleaning the few aviaries we needed too we worked on the rehab shed. We were waiting for a bird that we had to release later in the day so we had a lot of time to kill. Brenda went and worked with Spirit, and I went to work with the Red-tailed hawk. I had to stop earlier than I wanted to because she got up in the corner of her nest box, and I'm a little to short to be reaching for her up there. We hung out to pass time, enjoying the absolutely gorgeous day we were having. Me and Jeanne also took out some birds to handle. She brought out Athena and I got Emyrs. He looked so sleepy the whole time and I was surprised that he didn't doze off.

12:45 came around and Mary-beth and Patricia ran off to pick up our bird. We were releasing a Peregrine Falcon that had been up at Tufts for recovery. It came from Kensington and was seen in Southington. After we acquired the bird we drove up to our release site up at UCONN. When we were in the van Mary-beth informed me that after she wrote down the band number on the bird that she was going to pass him off to me so that I could release him. I was super surprised because I thought she would want to release this one. It was so awesome releasing this bird, who almost flew into Jeanne's head. It flew off over UCONN going southwest-ish and scattered a whole crowd of Starlings. I ended the day with my good buys and final trip to the Dairy barn for ice cream.

I'm going to miss working at Horizon Wings now that it's all said and done. I not only leaving some really awesome people that I met, I leaving a new family. I feel that doing my internship over the summer instead of all in a few weeks I was able to bond with everyone a lot more. They gave me many opportunities to learn new things and strengthen things I already knew. When I left they still had about 12 birds in rehab, most of which should be able to be released soon. Mary-beth and her team does an amazing service for the state of Connecticut and I hope they continue doing such a great job.

Well it's time for me to start packing up my things and getting ready for my journey back up to Maine. For those that have been following along, I hope have inspired you to take part in something like what I have been doing this summer.

-Heather

*Some of the above pictures have been taken by Brenda Lyons and Jeanne Wadsworth*