Saturday, August 15, 2009
See you in exactly one week
I think it's just hit me how much work I've done this entire summer and I need a looooonnnnggg nap. I'm still sad to leave Vancouver, but I'm pretty excited it's my last week of work.
Left to do here: I have to analyze my Milo data and prepare a presentation for work by Tuesday, clean my sublet really well, do like 4 loads of laundry, eat all the food I have left, PACK, take lots of pictures, and be really sad saying goodbye to all the people/animals I have come to love.
This summer has been amazing, thanks to everyone who read and kept in touch. I'll probably post one or two more times with some final adventures, and then it's back to good ole Pomona for me (the 30th). I hope I'll see you all before then! If not then I guess it will be...Merry Christmas?
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
AH! Only 10 days left!
So obviously, I'm a little torn. But honestly I think this is the perfect time for me to leave, I'm definitely ready for some home-time even though I'm going to miss so many people and things here. And my last two weeks here have been and should continue to be a lot of fun, and it's always great to end on a high note.
Part of the reason the last couple weeks are fun instead of a countdown is getting to visit other departments! We're doing 4 'exchanges' in our last two weeks: Stellars, MMR, Open water and team switch. Translation: we have a research team that trains and uses stellar sea lions and Northern fur seals to try and determine why wild populations have taken a sudden dive. Part of this team is located in the 'back' of the aquarium, and this is our day with the 'Stellars'. The other part of the work is done at 'open water', which is just that- a site at Reed Point Marina where 5 trained stellars are released into the open ocean for dives etc. to help collect important data/participate in scientific trials. MMR is Marine Mammal Rescue, which is an off site aquarium-owned rehab center for injured wild animals (mostly Harbour seal pups) with re-release intention for all animals. And finally 'team switch' just means that I'll spend a day with Dolphin/Seal team and their interns (Sheri and Jenny) will spend a day with the Beluga/otter team!
Open water and Stellar day were SO fun. We basically hung out with sea lions all day and got great pictures with them. It was really cool to work with animals on land, something that I had never done at the aquarium, especially such huge animals- a couple are over 200 kilos! I hugged the same sea lion, Yasha, that Jennifer Aniston has hugged. In summation I loved it and had a great two days.
And in other news I got my bridge today!!! with only 10 days left...but still. This is really dorkily exciting for me because I didn't think I was going to be at the point where I got one this summer. A bridge is a whistle that you blow to terminate a behavior and let an animal know they've performed a behavior correctly. Up to this point I've been using a 'tap bridge' which means I tap the whale twice in row to let it know it's done something right. Obviously this limits what you can do with your animal because it has to be within arms reach to tap. So basically you need a bridge to train and getting one is pretty great!
More later if I think of anything, see you all in 10 days!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019061&id=1322040101&l=1e635f40db
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
1. You have to keep track of what and how much your feeding both animals at one time
2. you have to check each fish for quality as you feed it (we always do this but X 2 it gets hard)
3. you have to give both animals equal attention so as to not accidently ignore (we call this"LRS"ing) an animal and cause it to start 'offering' behaviors to get your attention
4. you have to know which animal is dominate and monitor it for signs of aggression or even subtle displacement (like turning its back to the other animal its next to)
5. you have to make sure you don't accidently reinforce (feed) an animal as it's aggressing on another animal/doing something bad
6. you have to end both animals at the same time even if they have very different amounts of food that need to be fed out (like for Kavna and Imaq 1.8 kg vs 3.5kg)
phew a lot trickier than it sounds isn't it? I got to try it once with the belugas Kavna and Imaq and while it was fun because it was challenging, I did accidently LRS Imaq and then reinforced him for something wrong. Whoops. I definitely realized that there is a LOT about training that I don't know yet. I've also been joint feeding the otters prety regularly and that's been going much better! Well it is a lot easier with them because you aren't asking them for any behaviors while you're feeding, and you aren't touching them which takes away one of the hands you could be using to feed. It was a really nice surprise today when the trainers asked me to go up to the otter exhibit by myself and joint feed 'Tanu' and 'Elfin'! Again, it's kind of sad to have to leave right when you're finally starting to feel like you can work independently and be helpful.
Well I also gave my otter talk- which is just one of the trainers giving a 5-10 minute talk about sea otters while all 3 otters are either fed or trained (depending on the time). It's essentially a 3 page spiel with a bunch of info and some corny transitions. There are 4 shows a day and I'll probably do one of them from now on. It's a little nervewracking at times, I know all the information, but sometimes you lose your place and have to skip ahead like an idiot. Also I hate hearing myself on microphone. But it is fun answering the crowd's questions because the kids get so excited.
My two new behaviors I was approved on were 'ventral' and 'pec present.' Basically these are when the whale rolls over on its belly or its side. They may seem boring, but they are some of the most important behaviors to keep strong with the animals because we really need them to do medical procedures, they are called 'husbandry behaviors'.
Hmm what else, oh yes, I led an encounter for the sea otters. Basically guests pay extra money to get a tour of some of the aquarium facilites and to feed an otter. I led a tour of three people as they fed our oldest otter Milo. As the trainer you just have to monitor everything the guests do and make sure they are feeding correctly and answer any questions. The group was really nice and didn't want to ask questions or hear much info, they just wanted to look at the otter, which was fine by me! So in conclusion, that was easy.
Oh and of course Daisy! Daisy is a rescued Harbour porpoise, aka the cutest thing I have even seen in my entire life. Seriously. She is declared unreleasable to the wild because she has been dependent on human care since she was about 6 weeks old (she is now a year). She has been in recovery and then just living at the aquarium's rescue facility, MMR (Marine Mammal Rescue) for the past year- but now she is at the aquarium and beginning training! I really hope to get at least a couple of pictures of her so that I can put them up here.
Wellllll other than that my weekend was awesome- the Chinese fireworks were amazing, they even had waterproof ones. And I laid out at English Bay with Sheri all afternoon Sunday and then went back to Lynn Canyone park by myself Monday. I went hiking and swimming and saw lots of cute dogs there, it was sooo pretty and fun and I even remembered my camera for pcitures but then forgot the battery...so no photos of that adventure- but I did see some bear tracks!
Woohooo see you all in less than 3 weeks!
Saturday, August 1, 2009
As far as work goes it was an awesome time too. There was one sad thing; our other Beluga intern quit (for numerous reasons); and although I miss him a lot because we had a really fun time together at work, I am really busy now and probably doing more than I would have had the chance to otherwise. So I guess I'm sad for him, but at least the change isn't really hurting the internship (except for more days in FH).
Well to go back to the 'awesome time' part of work- This week I got to joint feed two whales and two otters, I finally gave my ‘otter talk’ in front of the public on mic (twice), I was approved on two new behaviors w/ whales, I lead a sea otter encounter, got to play with the only Harbour porpoise in captivity in North America, watched some world-class fireworks, and I had an amazing amazing last day of my 10th week here. (told you I was busy) Today was just one of those great days you can’t explain- nothing big and perfect happened, it was just a good day.
I woke up at 5:30am to go to work by 6:30 and had extra time so I grabbed a coffee and some ‘timbits’ (donut holes) for my early morning co-workers and myself. Walking to the bus stop/work it was just a perfect morning, a lot like Midwest summer mornings before the humidity hits. I was the first one at work- which was pretty fun, and when the other trainers got there we did some super-fast bucket making and fed a bunch of animals with lots of down time in between to eat our timbits. Basically it was just a nice day and really good ending to a busy week. Well Ice Cube knows what I’m talking about anyway.
And I still have the fireworks left to complete my week! Tonight is China and I’m really excited…although it is already 8pm and I haven’t gotten a call from the friend I’m going w/ to see them…but hopefully it’ll work out!
I’ll write more about what everything I did at work means later, I just wanted to get at least a short post out so that Auntie Di-Di would have something to read at work on Monday!
See you all three weeks from today!
Love,
Your favorite whatever relation I am to you