The Other 70% of the World

Name: Karagan Ross
Class Year: Class of 2020
Hometown: Nashport, Ohio
Internship: Marine Research Intern
Location: Oceans Research, Mossel Bay, Western Cape, South Africa

Being a spotter for our first chumming trip!

As I'm nearing the halfway point of my time here at Oceans Research, I decided it was time for another blog post. Before I get into some of the highlights for this week, I wanted to take a minute to reflect on the past two weeks, as I am honestly in disbelief of all the amazing opportunities I've already had. During one of our first boat trips, one of the field specialists looked at us and said, "Most people never get to explore the other 70% of the world, but now you all can" and that has been stuck with me ever since. It is unbelievable to me that I have this chance to study the creatures that inhabit the majority of our planet. Before I get too tangential in this intro, I'll get into just a few of the amazing shifts I've had this week!

An amazing shot from the head field specialist, Sasha!

This week, we went on two separate chumming trips: one on Monday and another on Friday. While our Monday trip was good, our Friday trip was fantastic! We were able to collect photographic and GoPro data for 6 great whites, and saw one more right as we were about to leave our site (unfortunately, this last shark wasn't around long enough for us to collect any data). Being able to spend this amount of time watching great whites has been such an eye-opening experience. Before this internship I had never thought of sharks having distinctive personalities; however, during our 4-hour observation periods, each shark begins to show their individual traits. For example, some sharks we see are extremely predatory by nature, while others are more investigative. Sharks, especially great whites, get the reputation of big, scary monsters, so seeing these differing personalities really makes you rethink this stigma.

Releasing a leopard catshark!

We also went on two very successful tag-and-release fishing trips this week! We collected data on 10 individual benthic sharks during each trip, and were able to find some other interesting species along the way. On our second trip, I caught a fairly rare Catfaced Rockcod, which we made sure to tag before releasing. We are specifically trying to study leopard catsharks and pyjama catsharks, however we tend to find some smooth-hound sharks during our trips as well. This week, us interns got the drill of how to efficiently collect all of the data we need: put the shark into tonic immobility (to avoid injury due to sudden movement), measure the shark, collect a genetic sample, tag the shark and release it. Last week, the field specialists had to walk us through the steps for each shark, and now we are able to collect everything with little help! One of my favorite parts of this internship is how the field specialists give us the ability to try everything out and learn on our own, instead of having us just sit back and watch them do everything. It's really allowed us to learn how to function together as one unit, while giving each one of us the opportunity to learn hands-on.

Collecting a genetic sample on a pyjama catshark!

On Wednesday, we took to the beach in Hartenbos, a neighboring town, to collect shark and skate egg cases. Sharks and skates are oviparous, meaning they lay eggs, and once these eggs hatch their casings wash up on the beach. We collect these egg cases to determine the abundance of each species we find, while also determining how many of these eggs actually hatched and which were subject to predation or damage.While doing this we also participated in a beach clean, where we found an abundance of cigarette butts, bottle caps and plastic straws lying around. During our analysis, we found we had collected mostly twineyed skate egg cases, but we also had collected a few puffader shyshark cases, one biscuit skate egg case and one extremely damaged leopard catshark egg case! Using the different measurements we took to determine the species of each case turned out to be quite the challenge when we found a case that suffered damage, but in the end we were able to identify all of the 100+ cases we collected!

The last shift I want to highlight is the intertidal survey I took part of on Thursday afternoon. We made a 40m transect using a piece of rope, and every 5m we placed down a metal square to use as our quadrats. At every quadrat, we would identify any species we saw, and the abundance of each species. This got a bit difficult for species like blue coral worms, where we could see more than 200 individuals in a 1 square meter area! For these types of species, we were able to make an estimate (thankfully!) rather than having to count out every individual. Afterwards, since we finished early, one of the field specialists gave us an interesting task: go out and find an interesting species, and use your biology knowledge to tell him its niche. Between the four of us interns, we chose a sea urchin, a black-lipped topshell, a green snail, and a cuttlefish! This really got us thinking about why each individual species inhabits the area it does, and what purpose it serves to the overall ecosystem.

That's all I have for this week! Thank you so much to everyone who has been following along with my journey thus far. Make sure to check out my next blog next Sunday to see what exciting things we will be up to this week!

Orientations and Oceans!

Name: Karagan Ross
Class Year: Class of 2020
Hometown: Nashport, Ohio
Internship: Marine Research Intern
Location: Oceans Research, Mossel Bay, Western Cape, South Africa

Hanging out with Emma!

Greetings from South Africa! I have just finished the first week of my month-long internship here at Oceans Research, and I can't believe how quickly it has gone. I am one of the four Marine Research interns for the month of May, and we live together in the "intern house", which can hold up to 24 interns! The house has a beautiful ocean view and all of the shark information and pictures your heart can desire. It has quickly become home base for all of us, and when we aren't out working you can find us eating some amazing home-cooked meals from the house cook or playing with the house dog, Emma.

The sunset from the porch is breathtaking!

 Monday through Friday we work from 8am-6pm, with a 2-hour break for lunch, and every morning and afternoon each intern is assigned to a shift."Chum" has quickly become the personal favorite shift for us interns. During Chum, we load onto Oceans' research vessel, Mako, and set out with a camera and a GoPro to collect data on great white sharks. We use the GoPro to get footage of the ventral side of sharks to determine whether they are male or female by looking for claspers, the male reproductive organ. We also take pictures of the shark's dorsal fin to look for pigmentation, scarring, or other identification features. These pictures and videos, along with any other data collected during the shift, are entered into a computer after our shift and are stored in a database with all previous chumming trips. Oceans isn't just about sharks though! Some of our other shifts include tag-and-release sea fishing, dolphin surveys, tidal pool population studies, and husbandry shifts at the local aquarium. Every day is a new shift, and each shift is completely different from the last, so you never know exactly what you will be doing that day!

Our first day here was filled with orientations and lessons to prepare us for our upcoming month. We met the six field specialists who work for Oceans Research, and also learned about each of the projects we would be working on. After lunch, we went down to the harbor to activate our harbor passes, and practice some of the boat skills we had learned that morning (such as how to drop an anchor and tie-off the boat). We were even lucky enough to watch a seal predate on an octopus as we were leaving the harbor! We then headed to the local aquarium and became familiar with the species which they housed. Once we became oriented with the locations and projects, we were finally able to start our first shifts!

We were able to snap a couple of pictures after cleaning out the shark tank!

On the first day of our work, I was sent down to the aquarium with another intern to do some general husbandry. The majority of our time was spent catching sand shrimp to feed to the resident triggerfish and performing water changes to their tanks. Sand shrimp are tiny, transparent crustaceans which live in the small intertidal pools along the beach, so they are hard to spot without paying close attention. Every 15 minutes, we would stop catching shrimp in order to change out some of the triggerfish's water. Afterwards, we fed blue mussels (an invasive species!) to the starfish in the aquarium, making sure to avoid to greedy octopus Indigo while doing so. Then, we were able to clean out the windows of the smooth-hound shark tank! The aquarium offers a "swim with the sharks" encounter, so we were easily able to clean off their windows while they swam around us. The water was only 20 degrees Celsius though, so afterwards we enjoyed a coffee on the beach. We even saw a rock hyrax enjoying some grass in front of the aquarium!

Watching the puffer fish necropsy!

Our afternoon was spent learning about the proper technique to use while tag-and-release fishing. We learned how to build a trace (the way to connect a hook and sinker to your fishing line), what types of measurements we would be taking, and how to properly release any animals we had tagged. After our lesson, we got to watch a field specialist perform a necropsy on a puffer fish! The puffer fish, Tetraodon nigrivitis, belonged to Oceans' director, and had suddenly died that day in his aquarium. Fun fact: this species of puffer fish has the smallest known vertebrate genome, yet has the same number of genes as a human! After studying the fish, they noticed that the gills and heart of the fish were very white, indicating they had no blood in them. The field specialist determined that the fish had the equivalent of a heart attack, which led to its death. I had never watched a necropsy on an aquatic animal, so getting to learn the inner anatomy of the puffer fish was such an exciting experience!

Collecting data on the eagle ray!

We were finally able to get out on the boat on our second day of work. Our morning was spent chumming for great white sharks, and was just as amazing as I had hoped it would be! We only saw 2 sharks during our 3-hour trip, and were only able to collect data for one. That shark, however, was within sight of our boat for an 1 1/2 hours! Being able to see a shark that close up was absolutely mind-blowing, and reinforced my excitement for the rest of this month! After studying our GoPro videos, we determined the shark was a juvenile female. For our afternoon shift, we headed back out to Mako to try our hand at sea fishing! After practicing the traces we had learned the day before, we baited up and got to work. Unfortunately, we only had 5 catches during our 4-hour trip, and only 2 of them were species of interest. We caught a juvenile smooth-hound shark, which we took length measurements of and collected a genetic sample from before releasing. Our most exciting catch was an eagle ray with a disc width of 75cm! These rays have a large barb on their tail, so we first had to make sure we wrapped a towel around the tail to prevent any injuries to ourselves. We also collected a genetic sample from this ray, and tagged it using a small, thin tag aptly called a spaghetti tag. The ray was our final catch of the day, so we were able to end the day on a strong note!

Pumpkin pancakes from an all-vegan food stall!

After our shift Friday night we had a welcome braai, which is Afrikaans for barbecue. The house cook prepared amazing South African cuisine, which we enjoyed around a fire on the house's back porch. South Africa is currently in their winter months, but their winter is nothing like an Ohio winter. The daily temperature has stayed around 22 degrees Celsius, which makes for beautiful sunny working conditions! We have weekends free, so Saturday morning us interns headed to a farmers market about an hour away from campus. The market was full of homemade arts and crafts, and delicious homegrown produce. We were able to shop for friends and family (and ourselves too!), and enjoy some amazing food from the different vendors around the market. When we aren't going on an excursion, we take a 15-minute walk down to the beach and enjoy the beautiful weather. While the water is a little too cold to swim in, we are still able to enjoy some sunshine and the beautiful scenery. This is only the beginning of our month of adventures, so be sure to check in to my future blog posts for more updates!

What Matters the Most

Name: Rebekah Perry
Class Year: Junior
Hometown: Huntington, WV
Internship: Wildlife Rehabilitator at New Mexico Wildlife Center
Location: Espanola, New Mexico

Now that the rest of my summer has flown by extremely quick, and school is back in session, I wanted to take the time to unpack my internship experience from a completed point of view. What did I get out of being on the other side of the country for 10 weeks?

Wow. I become overwhelmed by the fullness of my time spent out west every time I start to decide what to write. Therefore, I think I might begin this post with sort of a "brain dump" of things that stick out about this summer, and then wrap them up into what I learned matters the most.

Something really interesting and very insightful that I got to do during my second half of the internship was work on a cost analysis project for some of the most common cases that came into the center. The goal of my research was to gather every cost that a patient admitted to the New Mexico Wildlife Center accumulates throughout its time there, beginning to release, and have that information to better inform the public of the astonishingly high prices of rehabilitation, so that they could then donate accordingly. Donations are the main source of funding for most wildlife centers, and many people do not realize the scope of how much each animal costs.  Did you know that the diet of just one orphaned baby bobcat, that must be kept for 7 months, is $1,172.12 ? Or that a group of six orphaned squirrels will eat $375.76 of food in 8 weeks? And who would have thought that just 5 tiny insectivorous songbirds will eat $140 worth of meal worms during their stay?

Another exciting part of the last half of my summer was getting to see many of the animals that we had worked with all summer long return home to the wild. Perhaps the most rewarding release to do was of the four stubborn and sassy barn owl siblings that had been raised successfully from abandoned hatchlings to independent adults in the time that we were there. After weeks of going from force feeding, to hand feeding, self feeding, and finally killing live prey in mouse school, the birds got to be released by all of us interns on the second to last week of our summer. We knew that when it took literally two hours to catch them all up out of their huge flight mew outside (because they were such good fliers escaping our nets and no longer dependent on our care) that they were going to do wonderfully in the wild.

But as always mentioned before, it was not all fun and games for the last five weeks. A very sobering feeling in the field of wildlife rehabilitation is when you realize that you cannot always afford to play hero all of the time. When money is tight and the patient load is full, sometimes animals come in too far gone to try and rescue. That lesson is a devastating one to learn, and every single heart in the clinic ached for the lives of those patients to live on, but great value did come from their souls passing: sometimes it takes rock hard reality to remind you why we as the human race really need to come together to defend and protect our wildlife through our actions, philanthropy, and educating others. One of our staff members had the idea to light a candle every time the life of an animal was put to rest, as a way of honoring them and acknowledging that they were missed.

So I promised that I would wrap all of this up with what I discovered matters the most. People. People are what matter the most. Now some of you might be like, "What? I thought you spent your whole entire summer saving wildlife? Shouldn't the animals matter the most?", and that is not necessarily what I am saying. Obviously the animals matter, and their conservation is the key reason that an organization like the New Mexico Wildlife Center exists. But their lives will never be conserved if people are not connected, and that connection can take many different forms. It can look like the incredible ICU staff dedicating the better half of their every single day to the critical care of animals that have been injured or orphaned in the area. It can also look like the hard working office manager answering phones for wildlife emergency calls and hosting guests. It looks like volunteers who come to take care of the animals used for public education and it looks like the education staff running kids camps and events. But it also looks like the little girl who called the center at about 7pm at night when I was working, who wasn't even old enough to know exactly what town she lived in, but knew when to realize that a baby bird had been orphaned, and informed me that she had been checking on it all day from her window to see if its parents would come back for it, and hadn't seen them. It also looks like a famous author who notices when his neighbors have shot a mother bobcat that had been caring for her two cubs in his back yard and then traps the cubs and brings them in to the center, and writes a very generous check for their funding and proceeds to use his position to tell his fan club to donate a certain sum to the NMWC in order to receive a signed copy of one of his books.

Wildlife Rehabilitation brings hope. Hope, not just for the animals that pass through, but for everyone involved. People, when banded together, can be a strong force for evil, or an invincible force for good. And in a world that sometimes looks hopeless and dark, we can band together to make a difference by conserving the lives and biodiversity of our wild neighbors, something that we all share a positive connection with. Wildlife rehabilitation can reshape the way people view the life of an animal, and their own lives as well. A second chance for all: we can make a real difference. We can choose to do good. That is what matters the most.

Introductions, Behavioral Observations and Wild Art

Name: Haley Wasserman
Class Year: Junior
Hometown: Medina, OH
Internship: Enrichment and Research
Location: Toledo Zoo, OH

A lot has happened since my first post about my internship at the Toledo Zoo! I have been working as an enrichment and research intern in the zoo's animal behavior department this summer. There have been some major changes to my daily routine since the first half of summer.

For starters, we have been introducing a new female gorilla to our troop of Western lowland gorillas. The zoo's troop now consists of four females and one silverback. The amount of information I have learned about gorilla behavior within the past few weeks from being involved in these introductions is amazing. Sufi is the newest gorilla and she is 16 years old. She arrived at the zoo in May, but went through a quarantine period to make sure she would not be bringing in any health issues that could be transmitted to the other gorillas. Once Sufi's month long quarantine had passed, she was shifted into the indoor holding for the gorillas and set up in an area across from the troop so that all of them could see each other and get used to each other. After a week, all three of the females were individually placed with Sufi one at a time so that they could become acquainted. The keepers explained to me that this way when Sufi meets Kwisha the silverback, if things get too rough with the introduction, then the females will make Kwisha back off and protect Sufi.

Silverback Kwisha investigating some sand pile enrichment.

I have been able to witness some gorilla behavior in person through observations for these introductions that have taught me so much. I have seen interesting displays such as chest beating by our females, charging, and when the gorillas are feeling tense I can see how their gait changes to become stiff and flexed.

Female gorilla Nia Lewa likes to cover herself in browse!

I have also been doing research on exhibit usage and behavior in our juvenile Galapagos tortoises. There are three juveniles who are growing rapidly and will soon be in need of larger exhibits. I began doing focal sampling to create an activity budget for each individual to see what they spent their days doing and in which areas of the exhibit they spent their time. This will help Zoo staff determine the tortoises’ needs in their new exhibit.

Two of the juvenile Galapagos tortoises.

Why go all the way around a conspecific to get where you're going if you can just crawl over top of them?

As an intern in the behavior department, I have also been asked to aid in some behavioral observations in some departments around the zoo. I have been doing observations on our female African elephants during introductions. The first step, which I have been observing, is to allow 6-year-old Lucas to go back and forth between two exhibits with different female elephants. We observe to make sure his mother, Renee, is comfortable with him spending time with the other female. I take shifts with the other interns to keep an eye on her for the elephant keepers. I have also been collecting data on the behavior of the zoo's two brown bears and Kodiak bear. They are all juveniles and live together and have begun to show signs of what could eventually lead to stereotypic behavior. Stereotypic behaviors are those that occur in an invariant pattern and do not appear to have a true function. We have begun to monitor the bears’ behavior in an effort to determine behavioral triggers and see what we can do to modify this.

I have also been spending time preparing some special enrichment for an event we had the first weekend of August called Wild About Art. This event brought in artists from all over the country to set up tents and sell their work. The animal behavior department ran a booth, so I worked with the other interns to create some “artsy” enrichment to have on display. This list included a box zebra, a paper mache "artist's palette", polar bear "sushi", gelatin bird treats, grapevine wreaths filled with nesting material, and even a giant, plastic pool pickle! I had a great time helping out with the event and meeting some of the very talented artists who had come up for the event.

A box zebra I made out of cardboard tubes, boxes, and a mache paste made of flour and water.. The paint on top is non toxic and a keeper can fill the box animal with meat to give to one of the carnivores to "hunt"!

A grapevine wreath which I weaved nesting materials in to for bird enrichment. Pictured is twine, shredded paper and some reindeer fur!

We typically give these PVC feeders to monkeys, but this one is filled with candy for children to use and see if they can get food out as well as a monkey can!

A "pool pickle", which has been chewed up quite a bit by the tigers.

As my final week of my internship comes to a close, I can't help but think of all of the amazing one-of-a-kind experiences I have had at the Toledo Zoo this summer. I have met so many fabulous people and learned so much information, and can even make enrichment items from start to finish now. My favorite thing about my position was how much I was able to work with a variety of areas of the zoo instead of one specific region. This helped me learn more about zoo keeping for animals that I had no idea I would grow to love working with so much, and being able to speak to so many zoo keepers. Each has taught me more about the world of zoology and has given me amazing advice for the future. Beth has been an amazing supervisor and has given me an opportunity to branch out and utilize everything I could this summer at the zoo. Her encouragement and optimism has helped me immensely this summer and has made it one of the best summers of my life. I will never forget my summer as a behavior intern at the Toledo Zoo.

Enrichment at the Tembo Trails

Name: Amber Pitsenberger

Class Year: 2019

Hometown: Danville, OH

Internship: Animal Behavior and Large Mammal

Location: Toledo, OH

In my last post, I talked about how I spend my mornings at the Toledo Zoo. For this post, I am going to explain how I spend my afternoons. In the afternoons, I return to the Museum of Science and work with the Animal Behavior Department. One of the things I do is make enrichment for all of the animals that I work with in the mornings. I explained in my last post that enrichment is any item or activity used to enhance the quality of life of the animals living at the Toledo Zoo. Enrichment is used to help keep the animals fit and encourages natural behaviors.  When designing enrichment, we look at the animal's natural history. An animal's natural history provides information the animal's diet, social structure, behavior, and habitat in the wild. This makes it easier to create enrichment items that will encourage natural behaviors and allows the public to see how an animal in the wild might spend it's time. 

Holding the hammock that I made for the meerkats.

I mentioned in my last post that sloth bears eat insects like ants and termites. This means that they use their long claws to dig up the insects. To encourage this behavior, some of the enrichment items given to Kara, the sloth bear, are pieces of wood with food stuck inside holes that she has to work to get out with her claws and tongue. There are also large hollow logs placed inside her enclosure that allow her keepers to place parts of her diet inside. This not only encourages Kara to dig at the logs but it also encourages her to investigate her enclosure more to make sure that she has found all of her hidden treats. Making enrichment for all of the animals I work with can keep me pretty busy but it is really rewarding to watch an animal use the enrichment you made for them. Sometimes we reuse materials to make enrichment items. Recently, I made a hammock for the meerkats using PVC, grommets, and an old vinyl banner we found. We put it into their enclosure and they seemed to enjoy using it.

Meerkats using the hammock.

The behavior department also helps to educate the public about enrichment and why it is important for the animals at the zoo. In June, the zoo was celebrating one of the elephant's sixth birthday. Haley and I attended the event and stood beside a poster that had pictures of some of the enrichment that is made for the elephants at the zoo. This gave guests at the zoo a chance to see some of the enrichment items that we make. We were able to talk to the guests and explain what the behavior department does with enrichment and we had a game that the kids could play. It was a lot of fun. On Father's Day, we made signs and placed them on the enclosures of the animals that were fathers. The sign helped explain if the male of a species spends a lot of time, some time, or no time helping rear young. We then provided enrichment items to these animal dads.

Haley and me talking to zoo guests about the Animal Behavior Department.

My latest project with the behavior department is to help conduct a welfare assessment on the dingoes at the Toledo Zoo. Welfare assessments take into account physical health, mental stimulation and behavioral diversity and help the zoo understand how an animal spends its day at the zoo and what helps it to thrive. It also helps the zoo see if any changes need to be made to help increase the welfare of the animals.

That is what I do for most of my afternoons at the Toledo Zoo. I enjoy making enrichment for the animals that are on the Tembo Trail. It's hard to believe that the summer is almost over.

The tigers' keeper placed shampoo in the tiger pool to create bubbles.

A Summer in Scottsbluff

Name: Troy Kravig
Class Year: Senior
Hometown: Fort Wayne, IN
Internship: Zookeeper Intern
Location: Riverside Discovery Center, Scottsbluff, NE

          Instead of posting several, shorter, blogs over the course of the summer, I decided to give you the entire Scottsbluff experience all at once. It was truly a memorable summer in every way possible. From the animals to the people (and of course all the poop!), I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend my last summer as a student at Otterbein.

          Before I dive into all the dirty details, here’s some quick background information about where I spent the last two and a half months. Scottsbluff is a small rural town of about 15,000 people situated in the western panhandle of Nebraska. The weather is extremely unpredictable and can change in an instant (it snowed several inches the day before I arrived). There was also a stretch of about three weeks where it was hotter than 90 degrees every day (lots of ice treats for the animals!). Throw in a few severe storms with hail and tornadoes and that about sums up the weather in Scottsbluff. The facility I was at is called the Riverside Discovery Center (RDC). It is a small zoo that houses around 200 animals on 22 acres. The zoo is located in Riverside Park nestled along the North Platte River. As well as the animals, the zoo is home to a countless number of cottonwood trees. Thanks to those trees, we literally had cotton flying up our nose for most of the summer. In fact, it looked like there were snow drifts laying all around the zoo (it gave new meaning the phrase “Christmas in July”). All in all, I wouldn’t have changed any of it for the world.

    I specifically chose a smaller zoo when I was searching for my internship. As an intern, we got to work in all areas of the zoo compared to just a single area in a larger zoo. And with only 12 staff members and 5 other interns, all of us formed a close bond with each other rather quickly. All of us went out for a weekly dinner that just solidified our relationship even more (I can give you some good restaurant suggestions if you ever find yourself in the area!). I have always heard about the close connections in zoos, but it didn’t really hit me until this summer when I experienced it first hand. Out of us 6 interns, three of us go to school in Ohio (the other two both go to Ohio Wesleyan). Also, the head keeper just transferred to Scottsbluff after six years of working at the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo (my hometown). Talk about a small world.

          The zoo itself was broken up into three areas (Area 1-3). Each intern started in Area 1 and moved their way up once the staff felt comfortable that we’ve learned enough to move on. Area 1 consisted of the petting zoo, Discovery Center, Bobcat, Raccoon, Crow, and Zebra Circle (Zebra, Muntjac, Slither-Inn and Swift Fox). Area 2 included Cats (Lion, Tiger, Leopard, and Lynx) and Raptor Row. And Area 3 had Primates (Colobus and Spider monkeys) and Chimps. Each day started at the petting zoo while the staff went around and checked all areas of the zoo. Following the barn, each intern went with their respective staff member for the remainder of the day. During the morning routine we went around and cleaned all exhibits and fed the animals in our respective area. The time after lunch was spent doing weekly projects such as extra cleaning, mowing, painting, etc. Needless to say, there was always something to do. At 2:45 every day, we all met in the kitchen to make enrichment for the following day. By 3:30, we were beginning to feed evening diets and locking everyone up for the night.

          Things got really busy around the first week of June as the zoo was preparing for its AZA inspection. It was a really cool process to be a part of and a good learning experience to see what all is required to pass the inspection. I think we painted every square inch of the zoo that month! It was quite a bonding experience as the paint we used was so strong, our eyes began watering immediately after we opened the lid. Those fumes went straight to your head and let’s just say we had a good time painting several of the holding dens! Each of the interns also had to complete an intern project. Our projects could be a wide variety of things ranging from giving a talk, doing an ethogram, or anything else that would improve the zoo. For my project, I planted a pollinator garden. I also designed a sign that could accompany the garden to educate people about pollinator gardens and animal habitats.

        

  As the summer winded down, I reflected on all the things I had accomplished over the summer. This was the first summer that the RDC had interns, and I think they really appreciated all of our help. It was a great experience that taught me a lot about animal husbandry and working in a zoo environment. I even got a souvenir beer mug that I helped the Chimps paint. It was also a fun time for me to do some exploring out west and make friends for a lifetime. At the end of our internship, each of the interns got dunked in the dunk tank. A fitting way to end an amazing summer in Scottsbluff.

          

Missing Those Striped Butts

Name: Taryn Chudo
Class Year: Class of 2018
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Internship: Upper Wilds of Africa Intern
Location: Dallas, Texas

It seems hard to believe that this summer is already over and I am no longer in Dallas. It was quite possibly the best summer I have had and I wish I could have made it last a little longer. 

The ever so handsome Niko. Probably my favorite okapi, don't tell the others though!

Quite a lot happened since I last posted. I started giving the hippo keeper chats and I feel that I got pretty good at them. It definitely was a hard thing to start, but it got easier the more I did them. I was most nervous about the questions visitors would ask after, but they were not bad at all. Many people asked very similar questions, so I started to include those in my chat. My favorite question though was asked by a little girl and she wanted to know how to tell if the hippos were married.

Keeper chats may have even become fun!

I also started to venture outside of the okapi barn and follow keepers on the other routes in our section. I really enjoyed helping with the hippo route. Cleaning was fun especially because male hippos, and Adhama was no exception, fling their feces with their tails to mark their territory. I have never had to scrape the walls of a stall before and it was quite an interesting task. Aside from cleaning, I got to watch the keepers train both hippos. Since they are new animals they focus mostly on target training and building confidence.  Adhama is very comfortable with the keepers and likes to show off. Boipelo, on the other hand, is more reserved and takes a little longer to learn things. I even got to help target train the hippos during the afternoon keeper chat/training demo during the last week of my internship.

When a California girl nose boops a California hippo.

Since the Dallas Zoo has not had hippos in the last 16 years it is important that the keepers know how the hippos are spending their time and using the habitat. Toward the end of my internship I helped the behavioral science department collect observations on the hippos. I focused on watching overnight footage before Adhama and Boipelo were introduced. Since hippos are considered nocturnal, they were extremely active during the sessions that I watched.
The last route in our section that I helped with is the most diverse route. This includes bongo, yellow-backed duiker, caracal, spur-winged geese, and dik-dik. I have thought for a while that I only wanted to work with hoofstock, but working with our two caracals made me realize that I really enjoy working with carnivores.
Another exciting thing that happened during the last part of my time in Dallas, was that I was able to get a new car since mine was totaled after week one. This meant that I could explore on my weekends! I made sure to go to other zoos in the area; Cameron Park Zoo and Fort Worth Zoo. I also visited a friend and Otterbein alumna, Eliza Hanes, at her internship at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. It was so great to see her and to see the animals she works with! She even took Abbey and I for a tour around the pastures! Fossil Rim is located in Glen Rose, Texas which is also known for its fossils and dinosaurs! Most people that know me know that I love dinosaurs. Eliza took me to Dinosaur Valley State Park where I got to see fossilized dinosaur tracks!

Bet you never would have guessed that I was excited, right? 

Coming home from Dallas was bitter sweet. I was ready to be home with my friends, but I also loved my time in Dallas, the keepers and the animals I worked with. I do wish that I could stay forever, but my internship was over. I usually miss the animals more when I leave, but I will miss the keepers at Dallas so much more. They taught me so much and I hope that I get the chance to work with a group just as awesome and amazing sometime in my career. They are a group that truly care about not only the animals under their care, but also about the interns that they take. As the curator of our section told me, it is their job to train the next generation of keepers. In my opinion the Upper Wilds keepers went above and beyond to make sure that we learned and saw as much as possible. I can not thank them enough for all that they did for my during my time there.
I would also like to thank everyone at Otterbein who helped make this summer happen for me. It truly showed me that I want to become a zoo keeper.