During the past month, I have learned so much about what it really means to be on the outreach team here at the Wildlife Center.
Because the Center is a teaching hospital, the outreach department (comprised of staff members, students, and volunteers) offers educational activities and programs to the public about wildlife, current events at the Center, and wildlife conservation efforts.
The start of any new experience is always very exciting, but also nerve-wracking. For the few weeks leading to my start at the Center I was so impatient – I was ready to arrive and begin learning! It also didn’t help that it was -30 degrees outside with nearly four feet of snow in northern New York!
I didn’t know what it was going to be like working at the Center … but I knew that it was going to be life-changing.
Many people don’t like bats. They think they are creepy, gross, or disease carriers. In my opinion, quite the opposite is true. Bats are amazing little mammals and are an invaluable component of our ecosystems. Bats are the primary predators of night-time insects like flying beetles and mosquitoes. A single bat can eat about one thousand insects every hour that they feed, which is usually three to six hours every night. By controlling insect populations, bats are critical to human health – for example, West Nile virus is spread by mosquitoes.
They say that “time flies when you are having fun,” but the same can also be said when you are busy. At the Wildlife Center of Virginia, both are true. I came to the Wildlife Center for the fall rehabilitation externship program, and it has had me doing a lot of different things. Every day was a different experience, despite having some things set as a weekly routine: weighing patients, cleaning filters in the reptile room, and hosing down different enclosures and flight pens. And I have enjoyed every single bit of it!
Ever since I can remember, I have had a love for all types of birds.
Check out this blog post from Ed Felker in "Dispatches from the Potomac". Ed was at the December release of Bald Eagle #13-2422.
Tucked away in the old deciduous woods of the Shenandoah Valley sits the Wildlife Center of Virginia. Focusing on two main medical aspects -- individual patient treatment and disease-spread prevention -- the Center provides Virginia with a state-of-the-art wildlife recovery facility. The prevention of disease-spread is dependent on the interspecies and intraspecies interactions. Due to the interaction of employees and animals at the Center, disease prevention must be considered on a human level.
It’s now a tradition at the Wildlife Center for the staff, students, and volunteers to recount their most memorable moments of the year. A variety of stories and memories of 2013 from the staff and volunteers of the Wildlife Center are posted on the Center's blog; here is a complete list for 2013, just so you don't miss any posts!
Before we say goodbye to 2013, it is appropriate to look back on the year, and reflect on what we have done, how we have done it, and what difference it makes.
For me, and probably for many of you who support WCV, 2013 is the year of the bear.
See who is currently featured on the Center's Critter Cams!