Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge, Medford, NJ Animal ... · •Became the “groundhog...
Transcript of Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge, Medford, NJ Animal ... · •Became the “groundhog...
Cedar Run Internship New Experiences For Me
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Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge, Medford, NJ
Animal Care Intern
Avery Berkowitz, Stanford Class of 2016
Interesting Cases Challenges Takeaways
*Funded in part by Dr. Donna Bouley’s Bass Fellows Award
• Rehabilitates all native wildlife
• Located ~25 minutes from Medford, NJ
• Has a nature/education center that
helps fund rehab center
• Non-profit that receives no state/federal
funding
• 3 month internship in wildlife rehab
center
• Lived in staff/intern house
• Raised rescue kittens in house
• Came in middle of “baby season”
• Participated in all aspects of
rehabilitation
• Trained volunteers/other interns
• I was one of only a few rabies vaccinated
workers – long hours with raccoons,
skunks, and groundhogs!
• I was the last intern to leave, about a
month as the only intern – therefore lots of
extra work
• My previous experience allowed me to do
more than other interns
• Worked with groundhogs
• Worked with fawns – fawn
release
• Worked with an osprey
• Held a bald eagle
• Practiced IM injections
• Learned to tube-feed bunnies
• Tube fed raptors – emaciation
protocol
• New ways of doing things – idea
exchange
• Lived at workplace
• Raptor releases
• Squirrel, bunny, groundhog releases
• Became the “groundhog whisperer”
• Longer raccoon, opossum, skunk
releases
• Fawn release
• Botfly larvae in bunny
• Albino mockingbird/cardinal
• Hatchling crow
• LOTS of West Nile – vaccinated
raptors and crows
• Lots of ticks/tick related disease – in
staff/interns too!
• I had to personally euthanize many animals for
the first time
• Reasons for euthanasia
• non-native animals (e.g. starlings)
• Minimum weight cutoffs
• Major trauma, inability to survive in wild
• People who bring animals very upset with
euthanasia
• In more of a management position than before –
challenging!
• Living only with the people I worked with in an
isolated setting
• There are new ways of doing old things
• I gained experience with new species
• I gained more independence and
experience directing/managing people
• I realized I don’t ever want to live at my
workplace!
• I made valuable contacts in the
northeast
• I may have potential partners in starting
a future center of my own
Staff/Intern House
House Cat
“Abby”
Lake Near House
House Kittens
House KItten
Fawn
Opossums
Screech Owl Squirrel
Skunk Raccoons
Fawn Black Skimmer
Bald Eagle
Osprey
Deer
Clapper Rail Bald Eagle Cottontail Rabbit
Red Tail Hawk
Release
Red Tail Hawk
Red Tail Hawk
Rat Snake
Eastern Kingbird Eastern
Screech Owl
Chimney Swifts
Squirrel
Botfly Larvae Albino Mockingbird
Hatchling Crow Leucistic Cardinal Barn Owl Oriole Skunk
Baby Turtle
Opossums
Raccoons
the
shoe is
on the
other
foot...
Wood Ducks Great Horned
Owl