Q: How long was your sabbatical?
Polly: It started in term 5 last year (2022), and lasted for three terms.
Q: Where did you go for the program?
Polly: Mercer County Wildlife Center (MCWC) in New Jersey, in addition to doing a workshop in Mexico about coral reefs and visiting a number of wildlife refuges, nature centers, aquariums, botanical gardens, and parks in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, California, and Mexico.
Q: Were there any prerequisites for participating in the program?
Polly: The participants at MCWC should be at least 18 years old.
Q: Was this considered as a volunteering project?
Polly: MCWC offers a volunteering program and an intern program; I did a combination of both. The internship is specifically open to college students or graduates who want to pursue a major in wildlife conservation. The volunteering program expects the person to do a four hour shift once a week. The internship is more like a part-time job, which requires three 8-hour days every week.
Q: What was your mission?
Polly: My mission was to learn as much as possible about local wildlife.
Q: What kind of animals did your group focus on?
Polly: I worked with two red fox kits, screech owls, hawks, baby squirrels, baby rabbits, baby raccoons, baby opossums, white-tailed deer fawns, song birds, mallard ducklings, diamond-backed terrapins, among others.
Q: Would you like to introduce details of one specific kind of animal that you find interesting?
Polly: Foxes are curious, smart, and beautiful. They are all around us in suburban neighborhoods. I can hear them at night and during Covid they had a den near my house, so I would see the male coming to catch squirrels in my backyard every morning. Foxes can carry rabies, so at the center I wasn’t allowed to touch the kits, but I prepared their food and cleaned their pen almost every day. Mange is also a problem for foxes and there was one adult fox at the center being treated. I really wanted to get close and observe him, but to keep him wild for release, we were expected to have minimal interaction.
Follow up: What specific things did you do to care for the animals?
Polly: At a wildlife center, 90% of the work is about the food that goes into the animals and the waste that comes out, basically food preparation and clean up. Each animal had a specific outlined diet that might include specific amounts of fruit, chopped veggies, ground meat, a whole animal, like a dead mouse, or squiggly worms. The baby mammals often needed several feedings per day. The fawns, for example, were bottle fed 3-4 times per day. Really young mammals were kept in incubators to maintain their body temperature since they couldn’t yet thermoregulate. Raccoons are super messy, so I often assisted the feedings during the day as the clean-up crew. It might sound unpleasant, but baby raccoons are so vocal and cute, I always enjoyed that job.
Q: Did you work with any endangered species?
Polly: No, but there was an outdoor public exhibition of 15 different birds, including a bald eagle, several different owl species, and several raptors which are protected species. Every morning when I arrived at the center the bald eagle would vocalize. I wasn’t sure if she was “saying” hello or sounding a distress call that something was too close to her enclosure!
Q: Did you encounter any difficulties?
Polly: There really weren't any difficulties for me; it was physically demanding in a satisfying way. I enjoyed all the tasks from cleaning terrapin bins to gutting mice for the raptors. It was also interesting to set-up protocols to handle waterfowl which might carry avian flu. The people I worked with were professional and worked hard to provide the best care for the animals. The program was an enriching and satisfying opportunity for me to learn a lot about wildlife.
Q: What was the most interesting part of the project?
Polly: It is hard to pick one thing, but a veterinarian from University of Pennsylvania is associated with the center and she would come every Saturday morning with her vet students. When new animals (found in the wild) arrived at the center, she would examine them and outline their treatment. I enjoyed learning the method that she used to diagnose and determine treatment. She also allowed me to observe her doing a necropsy of a cougar!
Q: Where were the animals from: Usually from New Jersey, but occasionally from Pennsylvania. Once the animals are healthy, they are released to the location where they were captured. For example, I released an adult squirrel back to Solebury and a Cooper’s hawk to Flemington.
Q: I know that you had a conference on Friday (Dec 1st).What was the conference about?
Polly: Wildlife Rehabilitation. There were different workshops opened to wildlife center employees, volunteers, and veterinarians. On Friday, I learned about wildlife capture and transport. When the public finds an injured animal they can call authorities to have someone come capture and transport the animal to a facility to be cared for. There are important techniques to protect the animal, the public, and the person doing the capturing. Stress from the capture can cause capture myopathy and can kill an animal.
The other workshops I attended included handling various reptiles, like snakes and snapping turtles, the challenges of caring for raccoons and capturing foxes, everything about bats, and urban human-wildlife conflict.
Q: Anything else you would like to share with our community?
Polly: Some animals, like fawns or rabbits, might seem abandoned in the wild. However, it is possible that their parents only come to visit them twice a day. Before a juvenile is taken from the area, it is important to be sure the parent is not tending to them. This can demand patience and keen observation. Or a baby bird can be returned to the nest. I recommend that others make donations or even consider volunteering at the center or at the AARK in Doylestown. If someone wants to go into animal science it is a valuable and rewarding experience!