Interns are
a vital part of the operations at IEAS. We assist the keepers here with a lot
of their tasks, and gain valuable animal care experience. There are currently seven of us
from different parts of the United States. Our days are full of food preparation,
habitat cleaning, animal sitting and currently, a habitat construction project.
Each day
starts at 5:45 a.m. when Interns work together on food preparation for the feline residents. It takes about an hour to prepare the day’s food for all of
the cats, which make up about half of the animals at the Sanctuary. Most of the
cats are served regular meat (15% fat content), while some are given lean meat
(5% fat content). The meat, Triple A, comes from a special facility in
Colorado, and has all the nutrients the cats need. Supplements, calcium and
medications are then added specific to each resident. Once the food is
prepared and the medications are all mixed in, it is loaded into keeper vehicles to be delivered to the different sections. Each Keeper, along with two Interns, will take the prepared food to
their section and begin the feeding process around 7:00 a.m. They will lock the
animals out of their housing, place the prepared food, and then allow the
animals to return to eat. While they are eating, the animals can be locked into
their housing to allow time for the habitat areas to be cleaned. Once the
animals are finished and their habitats are clean, the past day’s dishes are
collected. This process takes anywhere from one to two hours, followed by up to
an hour of dish washing (Fun!)
Each afternoon
the food preparation process is repeated for the bears. Food for the bears
consists mainly of produce, which is donated from grocery stores such as
Walmart, Costco, Lowes Food Market and Brookshires. (Thank you!) Prepared food
is divided between the bear sections and delivered in the same manner as to the
felines. And again, the end result is another round of dishes. In total, approximately
285 pounds of meat AND around 350 pounds of produce is prepared and fed to the residents, both felines and
bears, of the Sanctuary each day.
Another
important role of the Interns is time spent Animal Sitting, as part of our Emotional Enrichment Program. Each Intern selects a couple animals to spend time with for emotional enrichment. This time spent
daily with the same Intern provides consistent friendship for the residents. The
process entails sitting somewhere around the habitat and simply watching for
the animal(s) to initiate contact. The desired outcome is that the animal(s)
to be comfortable enough to fall asleep while we are visiting them. If an animal were to go
into their house or start to pace, the Intern will leave so as to not encourage
this undesirable behavior. Sits will last as long as the animal allows, ideally
close to an hour.
I have personally
selected to sit with Allie and Rausl, two of our White Bengal Tigers. My time
sitting with them began about three weeks ago and the time averages about 30
minutes. Rausl seems to be taking a liking to me. He will come close to me when
I first sit down, rub against the fence and begin chuffing (the tiger version
of purring) as a sign of affection or acceptance. He typically ends up laying
nearby. While Allie appears to recognize my presence, but does not usually
relax nearby.
In addition
to food preparation and animal sitting, the interns are currently
reconstructing a vacant habitat to bring in back up to par and make it ready for a new resident in the future. Plants and grasses have been trimmed, housing structures have been refinished,
perches have been repainted and new ramps have been constructed. We have also placed
tree limbs for climbing and reinforced the perimeter of the habitat.
No comments:
Post a Comment