Final Words from White Oak

Name: Madison MacElrevey
Class Year: Senior
Hometown: Lewes, Delaware
Internship: White Oak Conservation Center
Location: Yulee, Florida

I am writing this blog as I begin my long road trip back to Otterbein after finishing my internship at White Oak Conservation. As I look back on my internship, I am in disbelief of all of the amazing experiences and opportunities I had in just a short seven weeks. My time flew by while at White Oak, but it is time that I will never forget, and will definitely use in my remaining time at Otterbein and throughout my career.

Mookie

Since writing my last blog, I have continued to become better familiar with all of the animals and the daily routine of the East section at White Oak, and have had more unique experiences. One experience involved one of the bongo, Mookie. All of the keepers at White Oak love her, even if they have never worked with her before. When a call came over the radio that she had been injured, keepers from the other areas came to help bring her into the corral. This experience helped me realize how closely all of the areas work together. The keepers were willing to take time out of their lunch break to help with an animal in an area that was not their own. I was also able to interact with Mookie more one-on-one after the procedure for daily medication and check-ups.

On one of my days off, I got to spend the day volunteering with the carnivore department. It was the time of year that they were doing yearly checkups on the maned wolves, so I got to help with one of the procedures. This included a teeth cleaning, ultrasound, temperature reading, and checking muscles and joints. This wolf had a bad tooth, so they also took some x-rays to be able to better determine if the tooth needed to be removed or not. Fortunately, it did not need to be removed.  

Feeding Penny was one of my favorite daily activities

 

Another opportunity I got was helping raise a kudu calf, whose mother was unable to care for it. The baby was pulled soon after it was born, and the keepers noticed that its mother was very ill and was not caring for the baby. Myself, along with two other interns, and two staff, took turns feeding the baby six times a day, with the first feeding being at 6:30am and the last feeding being at 9:30pm. We kept close observations and recorded how much she was eating, how she was acting, and what her bowel movements looked like. After some time, we moved her to an outside area. This was the first experience I had with hand raising an animal, and it was so much fun getting to be a part of helping raise this young kudu, who was named Penny. This is another example of why White Oak is such a special place. They are very well known, and successful at breeding and raising animals, and it was special to get to learn from some of the best in the field. Mother and baby are both healthy and doing great. 

When not working, I got to hang out with the other interns and some of the staff. For fourth of July, one of the keepers hosted a bonfire at her house, and had another one for a going away party for all of the interns. We were also able to take several trips to the beach, and see some movies. One of the keepers hosted a book club. The book while I was there was In the Shadow of Man, by Jane Goodall. I have always been interested in her work, so getting to read and discuss about her life with others who share a similar passion as me was a lot of fun. The times I got to spend with my coworkers outside of work were perhaps some of my greatest memories from my internship, because I was able to build lifelong friendships.  

Group photo at the 4th of July Party

One my second to last day at White Oak, there was an intern tour where we all loaded into a trolley with our parents and took a tour around White Oak. This was really fun, because we were able to learn about the areas we were not directly interning with. It was also fun to get to share with our parents about what we had been doing all summer, and why we are all so passionate about pursuing a career in zoo keeping and conservation work.  

My dad petting a rhino on our tour

Saying goodbye to one of the Okapi I had the pleasure of working with

 

This was a hard goodbye. White Oak is a special place with a lot of special people, and I hope one day I might return and get to work alongside of them once again, but until then, I head back to my second home at Otterbein to have more amazing experiences and learn how to be the best form of myself that I can be. Hopefully my senior year does not go by as fast as the previous three.   

One of the many amazing sunsets I got to experience while at White Oak

Update on red-eyed tree frog research in Gamboa, Panamá!

Emma Kimberly
Class of 2020
Zanesville, Ohio
Research Assistant
Gamboa, Panamá

My new favorite kind of toad -
South American Toad,
Rhinella margaritifera

So today marks two weeks since we first arrived in Panamá! I cannot believe how fast the time is going. Our trip here was smooth and after just a few short days we were settled into our Smithsonian Institute owned apartment. Our neighbors consist of other researchers and volunteers of varying conservation and wildlife organizations, it is so amazing to be surrounded by such interesting people who share the same love for animals (mostly frogs) and science that we do!









       During our first week, we dove right into setting up our experiment. Dr. Bouchard led the charge in how the mesocosms (giant circular tadpole tanks) needed to be set-up and Gwen and I followed. My experiment consists of 16 mesocosms, half containing 45 red-eyed tree frog tadpoles each (high density) and the other half containing 5 tadpoles each (low density). Each mesocosm needed to be cleaned, filled with water, provided a leaf litter bag, covered with a screen to prevent the water from being colonized by organisms like mosquitoes, and secured with an elastic band. Also, each mesocosm needed to have sufficient overflow holes with screen to cover them.

Agalychnis callidryas eggs are
laid on leaves overhanging a
pond so that the tadpoles drop
into the water when they
are ready to hatch!

Luckily most mesocosms already had these screens still secured, but some needed repairs. We had to make a trip to a hardware store and I enjoyed practicing my Spanish-speaking skills when asking the workers where item "X" was located.

However, my true Spanish skills were put to the test when I had to call a Spanish-speaking clinic and figure out how to get Gwen a doctor's appointment because she got sick the first week, poor girl! Shout out to Profe Escondo back at home for helping me be confident enough in my speaking abilities to use them fully while I'm here - it's so exciting to actually use my knowledge of a foreign language in real life situations!

Belo in it's predator cage,
check out Gwen's blog
for more info on them!

       So now that both my and Gwen's experiments are up and running, we have been feeding our tadpoles every 5 days and analyzing initial photos of tadpoles in each mesocosm so that we can later take more photos and discover how much and how fast they are growing and developing. OH! I forgot to mention the beautifully ferocious predators that are being used in Gwen's experiment and how fun they were to capture.

Quarry Pond catching belos!

They are called Belostomatids, nickname toe-biters, and are giant water bugs that stab their prey with their proboscis and inject a powerful saliva so they can then suck out the liquified insides of their prey. Yum. Anyways, Dr. Bouchard and I spent a total of at least 4 hours thigh deep in this smelly, murky pond with giant diving spiders. Each capture was like finding a piece of gold!

Our fancy metabolic rate measuring equipment

Once my tadpoles reach the required size, the remainder of my time here will consist of mostly analyzing photos, measuring metabolic rates, and dissecting sample tadpoles. It will be a crunch to get it all done before we go home, but we will get it done!

Emerald-eyed Gladiator Frog,
Hypsiboas crepitans

Not only am I having a great time doing field work and working on our project, but in my down time,I have been able to go on runs, see tons of exotic wildlife, go to a fish fry in the rainforest, eat authentic Panamanian fonda (food truck) food, attend weekly Frog Talks and a Gamboa Women in Science meeting, and go on a tour of the Gamboa Amphibian Research and
Conservation Center (Gamboa ARCC)!!!

Making friends with the red-eyed tree frogs

I am really overwhelmed and feeling very blessed by how amazing this experience has been and I am not even halfway through it. I cannot wait to make my next post and update on what is yet to come, stay tuned!

Final Days at Toledo Zoo

Haley Wasserman

Year: Senior

Hometown: Medina, OH

Internship: Avian care

Location: The Toledo Zoo and Aquarium

I have so many good memories to reflect on as my internship draws to a close. Since my last post, I have spent time working at the Zoo’s Avian Breeding Center. This building is home to Pink-neck Fruit Doves, Many colored Fruit Doves, Anna’s Hummingbirds and many other small bird species. My mornings consisted mostly of taking care of the brooder room. This room is home to an assortment of birds, including two Bali Mynahs, a Bird of Paradise, a House Finch and two Impeyan Pheasant chicks. Each morning I changed bedding for each bird, pulled dishes from the day before and prepared diets for that day.

Adult male Impeyan Pheasant

Once all of these birds were taken care of, I would move to the building’s back hallway and take care of several more birds, including Blue Crowned Hanging Parrots and a Yellow backed Chattering Lorikeet. Also in this hallway are an amazing collection of Many colored and Pink neck Fruit Doves and Hummingbirds which are in breeding pairs. I have to be as quiet as possible to minimize stress to these birds. The Zoo has an amazing success rate for offspring in these breeding programs. This is the only zoo in the United States to have Pink neck and Many colored Fruit Doves in captivity and it is a huge accomplishment to be so successful.

 

The zoo's display showing where in the world its in situ conservation is. Here are the Pink Necked and Many Colored Fruit Doves!

I have been lucky enough to watch the progress of a Cinereous Vulture chick as he grows under the careful care of his father. It is amazing how rapidly the chick has grown, it seems like every day when I come in he has more and more feathers! It is so fascinating to see how gentle and timid the father is with his chick. It is a tender side of vultures that people usually do not get to see.

 

For my final rotation, I am helping keepers in several exhibits around the Zoo. I start my mornings helping to clean outdoor yards for the Cassowaries. Sometimes if it is hot enough outside, I get to help give the female a good misting session with the hose. She loves it so much that she will lay down and wallow in the pool of mud and lift her wings to make sure you don’t miss any spots on her!

 

Once the Cassowaries are shifted to their outdoor yards and have their morning diets, I head over to the African Penguin exhibit, Penguin Beach. This is home to several arctic species of waterfowl and 24 African Penguins. I spend time power washing the outdoor exhibit and cleaning algae off of the viewing glass in places where it is submerged under water. Then, the penguins have a daily feeding at 10:30 a.m. each day, where they respond to the cue of a bell ringing and come to the keeper on exhibit to receive fish. The keepers stuff the fish with daily vitamins to ensure their dietary needs are met. The keeper takes a clipboard in with her and makes note of how many fish each penguin eats, and who still needs to take their vitamins. I love watching this in the mornings because all of the penguins have different personalities and it’s obvious when they are interacting with the keepers.

 

African Penguins

Some mornings, instead of staying at penguins once the exhibit is cleaned, I will head over to help another keeper with our Pheasantry exhibit. This area holds ten exhibits with various pheasants, Kiwis, Tawny Frogmouths, Kookaburras and Magpies. I help pull diets, clean dishes, get a head count on all birds and then replace food and water for the day.

Kookaburra

Tawny Frogmouths

I also help keepers with some of our seaduck and waterfowl exhibits. There is one large exhibit with American Flamingoes, White fronted Geese, Plovers, Pelicans, Mergansers and duck species. With the amazing amount of diversity in this exhibit, it is understandable that it requires a lot of daily attention. There is a large communal pool on exhibit, so some days of the week the keeper I am with has to drain or half-drain and refill the pool- which can take a long time because of how large it is!

Two posters I created for the Bird Department's keepers

The amount of variety on my final rotation is immense and it has helped me to get such a well-rounded experience. Working with so many different species has aided me in understanding how unique different types of birds are and how wildly their mannerisms can differ. I also loved getting a chance to work with all of the keepers in the bird department. Each has their own unique advice and knowledge that they were willing to share with me. I am so grateful for everything each and every person in the bird department has taught me this summer. It has solidified my decision to pursue a degree working with birds once I graduate, and it is so relieving to have validation about your career choices!

It's My Time to (c)leave(land)

Name: Holly Rundle

Class Year: 2020

Hometown: Medina, OH

Internship: Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

Location: Cleveland, OH

Hey it's me

Hello again! After spending my entire summer at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, my internship has sadly come to an end. My last month here has been full of meeting new people, testing my creativity and lots and lots of observations for my independent study.

             I was lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to meet and talk to all of the big guys here at the zoo. Including the executive zoo director, deputy zoo director, curators, veterinarians, registrar, training & enrichment specialist, zookeepers… you name them, I talked to them. During our meetings I got the chance to learn all about their jobs, their backgrounds, and get lots and lots of advice from them. Overall, it was a very eye-opening experience and also great for networking ;) I got to know one of the Curators, Tad, pretty well and he gave us a mini private tour underneath the depths of monkey island (their oldest exhibit to date at the zoo). And boy did that place seem haunted, as it's not being used anymore. However, it was cool to see how exhibit design has changed throughout the years.

My design for the display

             Working with Emily, the Conservation Engagement Specialist here at the Zoo, I have done many projects where I can bring out my creative side. Some projects entailed coming up with ideas on how to celebrate world animal days such as world giraffe day, lion day, turtle day, etc. I helped put together activities, signage and infographics for a variety of them. Another project I had was designing a display board in the public viewing area of the Steffee Center for Zoological Medicine. Here I put together messages about our 6 key conservation programs on what actions people can take to Make a Difference on their own.

A HUGE dragon lantern

The entrance to the Zoo

          The Zoo just recently opened a new exhibit called Asian Highlands, and to celebrate this new exhibit the zoo has put on a month long event called the Asian Lantern Festival. There are displays throughout the entire zoo and people can come every night from 6:30-10:00 to view them and also the animals. It has been a huge success and I went one night to experience it myself. There are shows featuring dancers, contortionists, acrobats and jugglers, and also a ton of vendors selling food and goods as well.

            Every so often we have one of our conservation field partners come to visit and I had the opportunity to meet a few of the leaders of the Education for Nature- Vietnam.  ENV’s main focus is combatting the illegal wildlife trade and also working closely with government partners to strengthen policy and legislation. I had lunch with these three leaders and I grew to appreciate all that they do, as their work there not only affects Vietnam, but the world as well.

Inside the Mandel Pavilion

            A big chunk of my time was spent doing behavioral observations for my independent study on the new Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Welcome Pavilion at the Zoo. I went out every single day at least once (sometimes twice) and did hour long observations watching how people used the pavilion. This experience really gave me a better idea on how to form a solid study, how to implement it, how to analyze the data found, and then finally how to present it. Doing this alone helped me grow and become independent, while also not being afraid to ask for help and advice from those all around me. After a month of observing the pavilion, I analyzed my thousands of data points and presented my findings to my department and some of the zoo staff as well.

            Overall, I am going to miss this place all too much. My favorite part was being able to bond with those I worked with and feeling like I was a part of the team. Every Friday we would all go out to lunch (usually to Ohio City Burrito) and would bond over stuffing our faces with burritos. This internship wasn't the typical animal keeper position that most people go for, it's more of the conservation, engagement and research side to things, which is the perfect fit for me, and it has strengthened my love for it all as well. I know I will be back for visits, as I appreciate all that they have done for me and for making this experience one where I learned and grew so much and will remember for years to come.

Nothing Com-parrot-s to You!

Names: Eileen Connon and Mallory Fox
Hometowns: Mandeville, LA and Harrison, OH
Internship: Cape Parrot Project Research Intern
Location: South Africa

Hello one last time from Eileen and Mallory! We've been back in the States for a while now but we have a few more updates that we thought you'd be interested in. Our last month in Hogsback was very busy but so, so fun. Practically every morning we were heading out to various field sites to observe parrots, and during the day we were taking turns working on call analysis and going out into the field for nest box surveys. So for instance, one morning Eileen would walk to the Arboretum, Mallory would walk to Oak Avenue, and Cassie would drive....somewhere... to count parrots flying over. Then, we would all meet up again in the office. Eileen would set up to work on the lexicon for Dr. Young's research and Mallory would pack up into the bakkie with Cassie to go survey nest boxes. The next day, we'd be at new observation sites in the morning, Mallory would work on recording analysis for Cassie, and Eileen would go out to do nest box surveys. 






 It was always fun to do morning observations but some mornings were harder than others! For instance, if we had to walk to a site in the middle of the forest, we'd have to head out super early and march through almost complete darkness. Or if it was in the negatives, we'd still have to go out and observe until our extremities were numb. Seriously, look at that photo- it SNOWED! Happy summer internship, are we right? It was still worth it though, because we got to watch these goofy parrots. Eileen sat right under a tree that they flew into one morning and got to watch them fly around and squawk. Mallory got to be witness to Cape parrot mating, something very few others have ever seen, and we all got to visit Baddaford Farm to see a flock of 50 or more juveniles playing, flying, and eating.
























One of the coolest things we got to experience was a day with students from the Claremont High School birding club in Cape Town. They were on a big birding excursion and they came to volunteer with the Cape Parrot Project after reaching out to Kate to see if they could help! With their creative eyes and hard work, we painted the whole aviary, which will hopefully be used in the future to rehabilitate injured birds for release. The students were super passionate about birding, so it was really awesome when a pair of Capes flew over and landed in a tree right above their heads. It was also a really cool experience for us to have a small cultural exchange with the kids; they were incredibly curious about America and more than willing to answer questions about South Africa. We sent them off after lots of pictures and promises to follow all of them back on Instagram!

Eventually, though, we did have to go home. It was hard to say goodbye to Hogsback, especially for Eileen, who's spent two summers in a row there, but we left with so many amazing memories, new skills, and lasting friendships.


BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

After getting back from South Africa, Eileen only had about a week at home before hopping right back on a plane to London (on purpose this time). She met Dr. Young, Dr. Esson, and Dr. Burk to head to Tring, England, to work on data collection for her honors thesis about parrot morphometics. It was a really fun week in one of the most amazing museums ever! Their ornithology collection takes up a whole additional building and we were lucky enough to meet several curators and learn about their work. We also made time to go check out the museum and its centuries-old collection. If you're ever in the area, it's definitely high recommendation from us!

Eileen, Dr. Young, and Dr. Esson at the SeaLife Aquarium
in London- thanks to Dr. Chris Andrews, Otterbein
friend, for the tickets!

The whole research crew at our usual bench at Tring!

Eileen taking measurements on a
specimen of Poicephalus gulielmi

Thanks for following our adventures this summer! We hope you enjoyed learning all about field work, and that we peaked your interest in the wonderful Otterbein Zoo and Conservation Science Program :)