So, as promised yesterday, I returned to Red Wolf today. It was a good day because I did not have to shovel bear poo first thing in the morning. Paul had a small tour coming in, so he assigned me to making up the bear food and cleaning out the mouse cages. Paul keeps a bunch of live mice for feeding purposes. He instructed me that there should be one male mouse per cage, and that all extra males should be put in a separate bachelor pad. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, it turns out that I am not very good at telling the males apart from the females. Also, I had three escapees that I managed to re-capture. I am actually pretty proud of myself for this feat. Mice are slippery little buggers. I didn't even get bitten!
Paul Returning from a Tour
The mouse mission pretty much took all morning because of the whole "Is this a male or a female?" dilemma. When I finally finished that task up, I took a quick break to photograph the rain clouds. Indiana is experiencing a pretty bad drought right now, so the rain is a big deal. All the flowers were very happy. The weather was still hot and muggy, but at least the place wasn't a dust bowl any longer.
After sightseeing briefly, I realized that I was hungry and that the bears were probably hungry too. So, I took the bear food down to the bears. It was so strange to put bear food into the cages without having to actually clean anything. I liked it.
After lunch (yes, PB&J), I hung out with Rosie. She was very calm today, probably because there wasn't a whole bunch of people there to get her all excited.
By the third time that Rosie ninja-attacked my camera lens, I was ready to move on with the day. Paul was still not back from his afternoon outing (he was trying to get someone to print more business cards for him), and he had given me permission to use one of the ATVs to go exploring. So I set forth with my camera and took some photos.
One must take time to stop and smell the flowers
One wink...
Two winks...
All of the winking going on above makes me think that these two wolves have some sort of conspiracy going on. I think they did a Rain Dance and made it rain, but that is just my personal theory. I tried to make them howl with some recordings of howling that I have on my phone, but they weren't impressed. By the time I was finished with taking a bunch of photos and bothering wolves with sound recordings, Paul was back and it was time to process a roadkill deer.
Paul let me do this one mostly on my own. It was a little more than gross, since it had been hit by a car and all of its organs were displaced and a couple of bones were broken. Also, it was turning green because of bruising, and it didn't smell so hot because it had been sitting out for a day or two. But I'll stop the details there, because I'm nice.
And that's it. My last day at Red Wolf until August.
P.S. I forgot to write about this yesterday - When I helped guide the tour on Tuesday, I learned that the bear Pocahontas was originally owned by a lady who really wanted a baby but couldn't have one. Instead, she opted to buy a baby bear. She proceeded to take hundreds of photos of this bear in little outfits. She was kept on cement outside for all of her life, so her feet rotted. That's why Pocahontas can't walk very well. And that's why she hates people so much (as evidenced when she charges the bars whenever someone walks by).
Since I didn't post yesterday, I bet you might have thought that I slacked off again this week. It is a reasonable conclusion, considering my past track record. However, this is not the case. You see, I did not even get home from Red Wolf until 10 P.M yesterday evening. I decided to stay late to help Paul with a big tour. But I'll get into details about all that later. Many things occurred before this late-evening tour, and I want to cover them first.
The morning was not the typical bears-first morning. When I arrived, Paul was in the office with two new volunteers. Upon walking into the office, Paul says "Look, new meat!". I'm sure that made them feel good. Anyways, once the two other regular volunteers arrived, we set upon the first task of the morning, which was releasing that red-shouldered hawk back into the wild. I took a video of it and spent two hours uploading it onto YouTube, so I am going to take this opportunity to shamelessly insert it here:
You may have noticed that at the very end of the video, one of the newbies said that the release was anti-climactic. I disagree. I thought it was incredible to witness such a beautiful bird returned to the wild, where it belongs. Also, did you hear the bird calling in the beginning of the film? Isn't it beautiful? It makes me think of mountains and big sky country. The hawk did not go too far away at first; it just landed in a nearby tree. Its presence greatly upset the mockingbirds, as seen in the photo below.
After releasing the hawk and disturbing the mockingbirds, we took care of the bears. Imagine, if you will, that it is 93º F outside with 50% humidity. If you live in the Cincinnati tri-state area, this will not take a whole bunch of imagination. Now, imagine that you are inside big cement cells with no real air movement. Next, add in some shoveling of stinky bear poo and hauling of cleaning supplies and you get yesterday morning. It was not so much fun. Also, the bears are shedding like crazy and gunking up their water tubs so that we have to drain and refill all of them, which takes FOREVER. Also, we had two volunteers who had never done bears before. Long story short, yesterday morning was a very slow, hot process.
Eventually we did escape the bear oven in time for some lunch. I broke down and stored my lunch and water in Paul's office refrigerator, which I haven't done before because sometimes things like dead mice and rats get put in there before (animal) feeding time. You'd think that someone who shovels bear poo and processes meat could care less, but it still kind of grosses me out. However, it was so hot that I had fears of even my carrots melting, so into the questionable frige my lunch went. At lunch time, my cold water and lunch was divine, and I regretted absolutely nothing.
Of course, after lunch was Rosie time. Rosie was literally bouncing off the walls despite the heat. I think the new volunteers got her all riled up. But she did pause to be photogenic a few times.
After Rosie, we had to process an elk. Paul picked up this elk from an elk farm in Indiana. Apparently it had gotten its antlers stuck in the fence, and in the process of breaking free he tore off not only his antler, but part of his skull as well. The animal was still alive and left to his own devices (with an exposed brain??!) for two weeks before finally being put out of its misery and then donated to Paul. I won't go into details, since it was pretty much the same process as the cow. I did get to use the bone saw again, though...
The next task after the elk was vaccinating Paul's horses. I don't know if I've ever described how crazy his horses are, but to put it shortly, they are definitely not riding horses. Paul often describes them as his big dogs. Well, vaccinating these "big dogs" required a bucket of grains and a bucket of chopped up apples and being surrounded by four horses who were torn between eating the food from your hands or spooking from the vaccinations. Not my favorite of situations, but we all came out of it okay. No harm, no foul, right?
The next chore was easy: cleaning and refilling the raptors' water bowls. Paul asked me to take some photos for him, so I have lots of bird photos for your enjoyment.
Red Tailed Hawk
Great Horned Owl
Barred Owl
Following birds, we went back to the barn. One of the newbies had to leave, but we took the other on a tour of the property. One of the senior volunteers (I won't name names...) overheated the 4x4 and caused it to spew smoke and anti-freeze, which we quickly diluted with water to keep any animals from ingesting it.
After the tour, everybody headed home except for me. I stuck around to help Paul water the wolves and later give a tour. The tour started at 7 PM and had a total of 7 people from 3 different groups in it. I was in charge of driving a cart with two people in it. The tour lasted two hours, which is incredible because most sanctuary tours are short and not incredibly informative. Paul takes the time to talke about the animals in a way that relates specifically to the group he is showing around. For example, there were three children in the group yesterday, and he talked to them as much as he talked to the adults. It was really neat to see him talk about the animals he knows and cares so much about.
By the time the tours was finished, it was 9:15 and time for me to go home. I was too tired to write when I got home, so sorry for the late update. I go out again tomorrow, but it should be a much shorter day. So hopefully I will write again tomorrow!
As you may have noticed, I was unable to post last week. This was because I was not able to go to Red Wolf Sanctuary last week due to an unexpected babysitting engagement. It was probably a good day to miss, considering I would have been repairing fences and shoveling bear poo in sunny 105º F weather. Oddly enough, I was still a little bummed about missing out on my weekly Red Wolf fix.
This week, no babysitting came between me and bear poo. I know that I have already explained poo duty, but I don't think that I have explained what exactly we feed to the bears. The basic ingredients include: peanuts, sunflower seeds, dog food, bear dietary supplement, some form of meat, and raisins. Often time we will also include apricots, carrots, and/or prunes. BUT, the bears' favorite special summertime treat are peaches. They just really love peaches. Paul bought four large crates of peaches, so we treated the bears this morning. This year, peaches are rather pricey due to a late frost that killed off a great deal of the crop (apples were also hit rather hard by the frost), so they have a rather pricey diet this summer. They certainly enjoyed it, though. Peach juice was running from many a bear's mouth.
We were short a volunteer this week, so bears took a little longer than normal. Plus, shedding season just hit full force, so bear hair is EVERYWHERE. It clogs drains, it makes their water tubs disgusting, it mats poo to the floor. In short, it significantly extends the amount of time it takes to clean the pens. Needless to say, after all this hard work I was very ready for my sophisticated PB&J lunch. Rosie was oh-so photogenic today. She's a diva, that's all there is to it. The fact that it was very hot and very inductive of nap attacks also helped add to the photo opportunities. Here are some photos to prove my point:
In other news, Paul has recently rescued a little adolescent red-shouldered hawk that was blown out of its nest in one of the recent storms. So, after Rosie time, we went and fed the hawk. Before I go into details about what exactly we fed, I want to mention that Paul has every intention of releasing this hawk back into the wild. This means that it has to know how and what to hunt. So when I tell you that we fed the hawk live brown mice for its lunch, hopefully you will not be too appalled. Even if you are a little upset about it, at least you know why it is necessary.
Then it was off to the cat barn to feed frozen guinea pigs. Due to the scorching heat, all of the non-frozen meat we have been feeding to the cats has been turning to writhing maggot masses within 24 hours. To combat the heat and the maggots, Paul decided to feed frozen guinea pigs. The cats seem to really like them and it has helped a great deal with the smell, flies, mess, and maggots. Yuma took her frozen treat outside to enjoy in the sun!
Due to the heat, water runs low very quickly for the animals. This means that today we had to set forth in the water 4x4 and refill water bowls for every coyote and wolf and cat on the premises. One of the male wolves was feeling very friendly today and Paul allowed the other volunteer and I to come in and greet him. It is always amazing to meet such an intrinsically wild animal like the wolf. On the way home, Paul spotted this monster:
The other volunteer had one last duty left for the day by the time 3 rolled around. We had to collect grasshoppers to feed to the Red-Shouldered hawk. This is not simple task. Armed with a butterfly net and a PB jar, we managed to capture four of them. I was in charge of the PB jar. I was very importantly watching Justin (the other volunteer), run around while wildly swinging a butterfly net. Our technique was so bad that I think it's pretty safe to say we caught the four slowest, dumbest grasshoppers out there. In fact, I'm kind of surprised that Natural Selection didn't get to them before we did. Lucky for us, I suppose.
You were probably thinking that I slacked off yesterday and didn't write about Red Wolf Sanctuary like I always do on Tuesdays. The thing is, I wasn't slacking. I was babysitting, which is paid employment and very important to a college student. So I had to move my Red Wolf Sanctuary Day to today. But besides the change in weekday, everything else was very routine. We started the morning off by feeding the bears and cleaning their enclosures. As per normal, this chore lasted all morning. Next was the normal lunch - PB&J, applesauce, and a cheesestick. I believe this is the same packed lunch I have been having since I was in fourth grade. It is still delicious, in case you were wondering.
After lunch, there was Rosie time. Rosie has officially moved out into the outdoor enclosure, which is a big change for everyone. She can make a mess and run through tubes and dig as much as she want, and we can use the bathroom without having to worry about a fox slipping out or jumping on us while using the facilities. She was showing off her new home for the camera, which was very sweet of her. If you can't tell by these photos, she really loves her new tunnel.
Keys prove to be even more alluring than the tunnel
When Rosie time finally had to end, it was off to go do battle with the weeds. Weeds like to grow up all around the fences, where they constantly short out the electric fence line. So, our mission was to spray the weeds with a rain of death. I was driving the 4x4 while my friend was in charge of raining death upon the culprits. It sounds simple enough, but add in the fact that the weeds are thorny and that the ground is not level most of the time, and you have two girls who are either hanging on for dear life to a precariously tilted 4x4 or trying to dodge prickly weeds or both. It was an interesting experience. I was sure I was going to tip the 4x4. I emerged with only a few minor flesh wounds (I ran over the offending weeds) and no traumatizing flipped-vehicle experiences. Also, I had a lot of pine needles down my back because I kind of sorta ran into/under a pine branch. Oh well.
So, that's it for the day. Hope you enjoy the photos as much as I do.
Hello All!
This weekend I was lucky enough to attend a 3-day Wolf Intensive Weekend at Wolf Park in Battle Ground Indiana. It was pretty cool, but before I go into details I will provide a brief overview. So, here is wolf park:
I believe Wolf Park is approximately 75 Acres in total. The large red enclosure is where the main pack lives. Right now, the main pack consists of three males (Wolfgang, Reudi, Wotan) and one female (Dharma). Darma and Wolfgang are the parents of six puppies that were just born at the beginning of April. These puppies live in the enclosure that is highlighted in yellow. The enclosures highlighted in orange is jokingly referred to as the "retirement community", which is where older wolves go once they get too old to endure the rigors of the pack. Two coyotes (Twister and Willow) reside in the pink-highlighted enclosure, while two foxes (Ember and Devon) live in the enclosure highlighted in indigo. The empty circle is the location of the new education center which must have been added so recently that google earth isn't aware of it. They also have a few resident bison that live around the perimeter of the park.
Wolf Park was started in the 1970s by a Dr. Klinghammer with the goal of studying wolf ethology and educating the public about wolves. Ethology is the scientific study of animal behavior. Wolf Farm started out with just two wolves. Nowadays, it is called Wolf Park and is home to 20 wolves. Besides hosting various researchers and their wolf-centered projects, Wolf Park also hosts seminars, howl nights, and many public wolf demonstrations.
The seminar I attended had a total of twenty attendees, ranging from people who simply loved wolves to dog trainers who were trying to gain a better understanding of wolf (and by extension, dog) behavior. There were several lectures a day, with breaks that included interacting with the adult wolves and even the wolf pups! The lectures covered things such as wolf physiology, ethology, mythology, safety, and recovery. I don't want to recap everything I learned, because it would be rather long and probably more than a little dry. So, I think I will just limit myself to three facts:
1) The presence of wolves can effect the trees in the ecosystem. This is not because wolves eat trees. In fact, the presence of wolves actually helps the trees due to a phenomenon known as a trophic cascade. Think about it for a moment. When you remove wolves from an ecosystem, the population of ungulates grows rapidly and noms all plant life in sight. Trees do not benefit from this over-nomming. Put wolves back into the system, and the population of elk is controlled. The young trees get a break from being pruned to death by elk teeth. This doesn't only pertain to trees. The whole ecosystem is thrown out of balance when any animal (but especially a predator like the wolf) is removed from an ecosystem. Here is a lovely little illustration demonstrating how reintroducing the wolf to Yellowstone changed (healed) the ecosystem:
2)Wolf heads are 30% larger than dog heads. This is basically because dogs don't need the large brains like wolves do. A brain is really expensive in terms of energy requirements, so if an organism doesn't need a big brain it doesn't have one. Dogs are fed by humans, with no need to hunt or take down prey. Wolves, on the other hand, need a big brain for hunting behavior and a big skull for taking down large prey.
3) Wolves will stop howling if they lose their hearing, but will continue to howl if blind or mute.
As interesting as these lectures were, my favorite part was going out and actually observing and interacting with the animals. I have a few photos, but the on-site photographer Monty Sloan took a whole bunch of photos and is sending a CD packed full of them to the participants. Also, wolves liked to nom cameras, and I didn't want to put Nick Canon (my camera) in danger. I will post a few of my photos now and then Monty's once I get the CD.
Dharma and Reudi
Wotan showing off "upsy pupsy"
PUPPIES!
Kiri, who is 19 years old
Woton posing
I came to an important realization while at Wolf Park. I was very conflicted about our interaction time with the wolves. Of course, I loved being able to go into an enclosure and touch a real wolf. It was absolutely amazing. But I also felt a little bit sad that they weren't wild wolves. After all, that's why we have dogs to pet and not wolves. If I did decide to go into wildlife biology, I'd like to study wild animals and then come home and pet my dog. I don't think I could work at a research facility, even one as nice as Wolf Park, because fences make me sad. In their defense, studying wolf behavior in wild wolves is incredibly difficult. These socialized wolves at Wolf Park provide researchers with the valuable opportunity to study wolf behavior up-close and personal. Hopefully this research will help uncover a better understanding of wolves that will in turn help the wild wolves.
So this is what happens when you let your camera get too close to an over-inquisitive little fox. Now I have a nose-shaped smoodge on my camera lens. But that's okay, because cuddle time with Rosie is always worth the mess.
In other news, it was a gorgeous day at Red Wolf Sanctuary today, and a very productive one besides that. We fed all of the animals, cleaned the bears, played with Rosie, cleaned the big cats' enclosures, and built a new fox pen for Miss Rosie. Paul was giving a tour this morning, so he left the division of meat to us Junior volunteers. Let me tell you all about Paul's method for feeding - there is none. Most of it is guess work and judging the weight of the food buckets by "feel". I am good at neither of these processes. To make matters worse, the meat that was donated included quite a bit of pork sausage and links that can actually harm the animals because of all of the spices and salt. Through in the added factor that I was the most experienced volunteer present at the moment (I had been to Red Wolf a total of 6 times, and only fed once before...), and you have one very confusing morning.
Once we got too confused and fed up to continue trying to figure out meat rations, we retreated to the bears. At least shoveling poo is relatively straightforward. Taking care of bears effectively took up the rest of the morning. Tuck and Pokey decided that they thought it would be really fun to lunge at me every time I passed by their cages. Also, the other volunteers thought it was a hoot to stop the hose every time I went into an enclosure to rinse. So that was fun.
Bears took up the rest of the morning, and then it was Rosie time. I took quite a few photos, and Rosie was being very photogenic, as usual.
Rosie running the office!
After we wore Rosie out, we ate lunch outside at the picnic table because it was so pretty and breezy outside. We gobbled our lunches down and then split up. The boys went to feed the animals (we found out later that they lost a ham...it escaped down a steep hillside) and Indre and I went to take care of the cats. Taking care of the cats involved disposing of maggot-infested carcasses, cleaning blood stains, and sweeping up large quantities of maggot pupae (it looks like brown rice, if you are curious).
Midway through cleaning the cat enclosures, Paul pulls up with a Fox 19 New guy in tow. As Paul likes to say, nothing is every planned at Red Wolf Sanctuary...Paul told Indre and I to go collect some extra fence from the fox pens down the hill and then went to be interviewed by the news man. Now we get to the entertaining part.
Part one is that there was some confusion on exactly which fences pieces we needed. Naturally, I go running down the lane, waving my hands and trying to get Paul's attention so I can ask my question. What I did not realize is that the Chanel 19 News guy is filming the very same lane that I am frolicking down, waving my arms like a goon. So that was fun (In the end, they decided to retake the shot. Can't imagine why).
On to part two. Now we know which fence sections we need. So the two guy volunteers, Justin and Kirk, drove Paul's big truck to the fox enclosures so that we could drive the extra fencing back to where we are building Rosie's temporary home. The fence is longer than the bed, so the plan was to drive backwards up the hill with the fences in the bed of the truck. Otherwise, we risked the fence sliding right off the bed and back down the hill. It was a good idea, in theory. However, add in some sandy soil and two guys trying to give each other directions on how to drive out of being stuck down a hill, and you get one very funny situation. Indre and I considered trying to offer help, and then decided against it. We had a very good view of their misadventures and I was feeling a little vindictive from the whole hose situation earlier today. So about fifteen minutes of struggling later, the boys end up in the exact same spot they started in, but they looked very pleased with themselves none the less. To make a long story short, we got the fence where it needed to go and built the pen. It is not quite ready for Rosie yet, as it still needs to be escape-proofed and get some soil put down on the floor, but we're almost ready to free Paul's bathroom from the clutches of the fox!
I was on the news, though. You could see me walking away in the background. I checked, and got really excited when I saw my blurry self walking away looking relatively normal.
