Hi, I'm Claire Grosvenor, welcome to Animal Wonders
I'm filling in for Jessi today because I'm the intern here
Alright so I know some of you folks out there are wondering how
you become an intern at Animal Wonders
So for me it was something I kind of just stumbled upon
I go to scho-- college here at the University of Montana
And this summer I was doing an internship in Washington working with wildlife
and I loved it so much I knew that when I came back for school
I was gonna have to continue working with wildlife
So I kinda came across it on the internet when I was doing some research
and I didn't know how I had never heard of it before cause
it's just an awesome place that is very unique to Montana
So once I figured it out I decided to apply
Well, firstly I just emailed Jessi and said "hey I want to volunteer, I want to intern"
and it happened to be the exact weekend that she was setting up interviews with
other possible candidates, it just was awesome timing
I guess, so then I came out for an interview after filling out an application,
signing an agreement and everything like that so, I came out
did my interview, fell in love with the place, and then waited a couple days anxiously
and finally Jessi called me and said I got the internship so I was really excited.
Mainly I thought that I would just be involved in feeding the animals, just
their general care, which for me was great because that's something I'm really interested in
it's just the husbandry side of things.
But there's also so many other sides to this internship
Another big one is public speaking so we get to do presentations, birthday parties,
shows, things like that where we go out to the public and we bring the animals
and we get to teach a wide variety of ages about
the wildlife we have, conservation, like, general pet care even
So that's been really good practice for me cause I have an interest in becoming a teacher as well
There's also training, something I knew absolutely nothing about
I mean, I train my dog how to sit and that's as far as I've gotten and life
But Jessi has been teaching me all about training and not only
how to go about it but also all of the terms that go with it
Sometimes when I'm here it does feel a little bit like school but I'm learning a lot
It's very applicable and other than that there's also, you know, a little bit of veterinary work
that goes into it, we have to give medication and understand how it's affecting the animal
and know how to alter the diet so, ya like I said I thought I would just be
feeding and cleaning but there's a lot more to it than that.
So one of the really neat things about being an intern here at Animal Wonders is
it's not focused on just one species, there are so many animals here
that I have never-- some of them I've never heard of honestly
and other ones I definitely haven't worked with so being here has been an
awesome opportunity because if I ever want to work in a zoo or something
I'll be able to say I have experience of working with...
I have hawks, there's snakes of all kinds, lizards, many different kinds of tropical birds,
foxes, it's just amazing the amount of species that I have gotten to learn to care for here
and so I understand how to prep a diet for each and every one of those
I understand what their behavior is like and what adjustments we need to make
certain animals, we don't just put their food in a dish, we're going to hide it throughout
their enclosure so they get that behavioral enrichment and they can
not be so bored, because an animal in the wild would be foraging or hunting all day long
so it's really been a blessing
to get the opportunity to work with so many types of species
and understand how they all work
So a typical morning here at Animal Wonders kinda starts out with some opening rounds
So we go through the four L's
so we have lights, look, live, and liquid
basically you have to turn the lights on when you first get here,
and for some reptiles that's a little bit more extensive
other than just flipping the switch, you have to
make sure all their heats lamps are on and everything
and you're going through each enclosure making sure,
you're looking at them, making sure their behavior's normal
making sure they're alive which obviously very important
and then lastly you make a note of if their water is less than halfway full
and then you'll go back and fill that later
After you kind of go through the opening rounds I normally start out with
feeding the birds first, I prep their diet and a lot of it is dry diet but
there's also some fruit chopping involved, and some vegetables
I usually then move onto the reptiles which involves misting
and then feeding out things like cockroaches and mice
so it's a little bit unique but I don't mind it, I'm sure some people would
but the reptiles love it so that's what's important
Next I usually move onto the mammals which, in the morning time you only
feed about half of them because some of them are nocturnal so
we don't need to feed them til the evening time cause we don't want to throw off their
natural schedule or anything like that
And next I go out and feed the dogs and cats and all the other domestic animals running around here
I'd have to say that one of my favorite parts about working here
is the presentations, or you know, we go and do birthday parties
and for me that's really fun because I get to combine my
passion of animals and teaching and really get the kids excited
about what I'm excited about and it's fun to see their faces light up
and, you know, it's not only like we're just showing these animals for fun
we also teach them things and teach them, hopefully, some valuable lessons
Their parents will get involved, and it's really fun for me
to, you know, have a little girl birthday party and she's the one who wants to hold the snake first
or she wants to get up close with a scorpion and I like that cause I'm the same way too
I think that we should appreciate all the animals and I really like
being able to share that message with kids
So that's what it's like for me to be an intern here
thanks for letting me share my experience with you guys
That's it for me this week but tune in next week, Jessi will be back
to share some more amazing facts about her animals here
Thanks