First (Unofficial) Day

Although today was technically my day off, I thought I'd acquaint myself with the California Wildlife Center, simultaneously getting a chance to explore some of the nearby area. I arrived late last night and the darkness did not allow me to really appreciate the local environment, save for that the road leading up to the house is incredibly windy, bordering on almost frightening, especially in the pitch black :P My roommate was visiting her family today so without a means of motored transportation, I have yet to go out and furnish myself with groceries and other necessities, but I'm hoping to get to see more of Malibu soon!

The center is only about a 10 minute walk down the hill, and then up a shorter one directly across the street (you can hear and smell it almost before you see it). I didn't get a chance to meet my supervisor, Jo Joseph, but there were about a dozen other people running around already, and they wasted no time putting me to work. I barely had explained who I was and my role, before I was told to check in with the kitchen volunteers to see if they needed help preparing diets (meals for the animals). There I met a volunteer who had me help her prepare the morning food (the animals are fed roughly two to three times a day (some are fed every few hours), and the morning and afternoon meals are prepared first thing in the morning). Today, the staff was running a bit behind schedule and by the time I arrived at around 10:30, they were still finishing up the AM meals. So i rolled up my metaphorical sleeves and jumped right in, spending the morning chopping up not just fruits and veggies, but also dead mice, hard boiled eggs, and wet dog food. (Appreciation goes out to Franklin Park Zoo for pre-exposing me to dead, bloody rodents). Within the first couple of hours I was at the center, I found myself assisting one of the vets with the weighing of one of two juvenile Coopers Hawk (for a visual, see below). Then I was assigned the task of cleaning the cage of four baby ducklings, which meant taking them all out one by one and placing them into a temporary plastic holding box, before cleaning out the old, soiled newspaper. For young birds without working wings, they can move fast! I was so worried I was going to hurt them since I had to grab them firmly, lest they squirm away, but they seemed to bounce back pretty quick.

(Not my own pic - courtesy of google images)

The volunteer and I then went and delivered some of the meals, including to some mockingbirds who dive-bombed us when we entered their enclosure, and one overly curious/very hungry squirrel who tried to climb my shirt in his eagerness to get to the food in my hand.

The craziest/smelliest part of the day was when I accompanied another intern to the room that housed the rabies-vector species (RVU - to clarify, these animals did not necessarily have rabies, they were just the species identified to likely contain them and thus, only people with the rabies vaccination were allowed to care for them). This means bats, some raptors and skunks - yes skunks. I got the wonderful opportunity to hold baby skunks, while attempting to avoid getting sprayed (the trick is to tuck their tails under their butts, so if they do spray, they spray themselves). However, I have to note that upon entering the room, being sprayed was unbelievably second on my list of concerns. The smell of the room was almost noxious (imagine stale skunk spray, stale animal feeces and urine, general wild animal smell and that probably only begins to cover it). I have to admit, after a while you get used to the smell, but for at least the first few minutes I was worried about the actual ability to breathe. But I also have to say that the skunks were quite adorable. Even as juveniles they are as capable as adults of both spraying and recognizing threats (aka, us). When we went towards their cage they would back up into a corner, stomping their feet and opening their mouths (Future warning: if you see a skunk do this, run away. If you keep going towards them their next step is to turn around, lift their tails and probably let it rip). The little ones attempted to do this, and may have succeeded once or twice, but most of the time we managed to get our hands on them first, tucking their tails underneath them, like i mentioned before,

(Again, thanks google)

and wrapping them in old pillowcases to make a "skunk burrito," making sure to cover their eyes. (For some reason, almost every wild animal is calmed, at least somewhat, by covering their eyes). Anywho, our job with the little skunks was to weigh each individual, record the weights and then clean out their cages and then give them their food. Like I said, i'm not convinced I actually got sprayed, but the odor in the room was so cloying that for the rest of the day I couldn't get it out of my nose and when i got home later, i noticed my clothes completely stunk. I guess laundry days will be happening quite often :P

I also got the chance to explore other less "glamorous" parts of wildlife care, including washing what felt like 100+ dishes and changing water dishes. However I did get to help a volunteer feed some crows and ravens, which were still young enough that we needed to hand feed them. If they were hungry they would open their beaks open and we would place bits of "crow food" in their mouths. (To the best of my knowledge, crow food comprised of dry and wet dog food, mixed with bits of egg and other meat). These birds are some of the animals that have to be fed every couple of hours, so i'm sure I'll be doing this task pretty often.

Hard to believe that was all only one day (about 7 hours to be exact). I'm wiped but excited to keep seeing what new experiences await. There appears to be almost no boundary between staff and intern/volunteer, so we are included in basically every aspect of the rehabbing process and get to do everything and anything. The wifi at the place I'm staying is pretty patchy, so I don't know when my next update will be, but hopefully soon!

Peace, love and skunk-free air.