Sneak Attack Post

Hey y'all,

I know I said I wouldn't be going back to Red Wolf for a while due to a vet-shadowing commitment this Saturday and then vacation the next two weeks, but I ended up going out today anyways. My little friend from last week snuck a box turtle into his bag when I wasn't looking. We talked about why it is important to leave these turtles in the wild, and how it is actually illegal to take turtles from the wild in Indiana. With this new knowledge, my buddy gave me the turtle back and so I made a special trip to return him to his home. I named the turtle Nascar for fun. He was very happy to be returned to his home in the wild.

Before I go on to the rest of today, let me quickly recap yesterday. I shadowed a veterinarian at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. His name is Dr. Greg Levens. I just followed him around on his morning rounds and then talked to him a bit about what it is like to be involved in zoo medicine. The morning wasn't too busy - we stopped by to check on a new antelope that wasn't walking very well, then on to a zebra who had bruised himself banging on his door whilst trying to get at a female zebra in heat, and then some sort of mongoose-looking creature that I can't remember the name of but had some serious hair loss and skin irritation.

After rounds, we talked about how competitive it is to get into zoo medicine. Dr. Levens is concerned that the residency programs in zoo medicine, while really nice, may be flooding the market with zoo vets when there aren't enough zoo jobs. This was good information to know. I really enjoyed shadowing him, but I still think I would prefer doing wildlife veterinary medicine. He discussed some pros and cons with me about this particular field. For instance, with the human population growing as it is, he fears that conservation biologists/veterinarians often feel like they are banging their heads against a wall as they try to conserve species on continually shrinking lands. He gave me a lot to think about, but luckily I still have some time to sort through all of that. 

Back to today. I took my mother out with me today, and we had a grand old time. The morning started with puppy time, as always. 

The pups are fighting off a touch of the GI bug, plus it was super hot and muggy today, so they were pretty lazy. All they really wanted to do was nap or cuddle, and I can't complain. 

After spending time with the wolfies, we visited with Otro. He's the Barred Owl that RWS has been working to get socialized to be an ambassador bird. Both my mom and I held him for a while and he just sat there as chill as could be. 

After some lunch, we said hello to Rosie. She wasn't terribly excited to come out of her tunnel with the weather being as hot and disgusting as it was. So I took a few pictures of her and even snapped a picture of her shy enclosure-mate Axel and then left her alone to nap away the afternoon.

The next order of business was to see if we could find the fawns and say hello. They had already been fed that morning, and they can be hard to coax out of hiding without the promise of milk. Luckily, Wallace can't resist coming out to just make sure that we didn't have any bottles hidden away, so we got to say hello to him.

 That was pretty much it for the day. I gave Paul the portrait of Yuma I'd been working on for the last week or so, and then off we went to go home, shower, and watch the final match of the World Cup!

It's a frog-catchin' sort of day

Hello again,

Today I took my next door neighbor/friend/budding herpetologist Alex out to Red Wolf Sanctuary with me. He just finished a week of zoo camp, but was still ready to go see some more animals and I was happy to oblige. I was glad I brought along some extra help - it would have been very tricky to feed three fawns on my own. Wallace the boy fawn is a little piggie and can be a little bit of a bully since he is so much bigger than the girls. Dixie the littlest girl will only drink out of one specific bottle, and Joey has a short attention span and tends to get distracted by the other fawns' bottles even though she has her own. Needless to say, Alex was a big help with managing these hooligans. The good news is that they are starting to eat solids, including grass and grains. Hopefully we will be able to start weaning them off of their bottles...they went through a grand total of eight bottles this morning, and that was just breakfast!

Dixie

Dixie (front) and Wallace (back)

After feeding the pigs-disguised-as-deer, we said hello to the wolf pups. They are just as friendly as last time, but bigger. Kiowa was having a grand old time trying to pull my hair out of its bun, and nearly succeeded in pulling my scalp out along with it. Their puppy fur is nearly all gone, and being replaced by the denser, more wiry adult fur. The other thing that has really changed is their eye color. Sioux's eyes have changed to a soft honey color, which suits her gentle personality quite nicely. Crioux's are fading from the green-blue to the more classic wolf-yellow color. Kiowa is the only one who has managed to hang on to the striking green color, which contrasts sharply with her black pelt.

After we hung out with the wolf pups, we went to visit with Rosie. She surprised me by being extra friendly today, even allowing Alex to pet her a bit. She was also extra ornery...she tried stealing my entire camera no less than seven times. When that didn't work out, she tried fishing my phone out of my pocket, and almost got away with it too. She must be Swiper the fox's long-lost sister or something.

Next was a visit to the raptors. We fed them today - mice to the owls and hawks and chicken to the turkey buzzards. The hawk was quite hungry today, pouncing on every mouse we threw in and slurping them right up. I even managed to take some pictures today:

Great Horned Owl 

Red Tailed Hawk

We visited the bears on our way back to lunch, and they were chowing down as bears are wont to do.

Tecumseh the male Black Bear

After lunch, Alex and I went frog huntin'. This was strictly catch-and-release hunting, but hunting nonetheless. We caught numerous small frogs along the creek and got our boots stuck in deep mud for our troubles. Alex managed to catch four good-sized frogs who had taken up residence in one of the horses' old water troughs. My catch of the day was a frog who I dubbed Freddie (or he could be a toad- I actually think he's a toad, but don't know my amphibians well enough to say for certain). Observe my fine specimen of a frog/toad (as held by Alex):

Freddie the fine frog (or maybe a toad - my herpetology is not up to par)

Thus ends another Saturday at Red Wolf. Next weekend my Saturday will be spent at the Cincinnati Zoo shadowing a vet, which promises to be exciting but also lacking in wolf puppies. The following weeks I am with family in North Carolina, but I should be able to get back to Red Wolf at least one more time before the summer is out (I hope!).

Thanks for reading
T