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ANIMAL CARE (60% of time)

As an intern at NWC, you’ll get to experience situations that will allow you to interact with many mammals, birds, and other animals native to Wisconsin.  The first week you will find yourself undergoing intense training, absorbing the knowledge needed to properly care for orphaned, injured, and sick animals.  Training does not end there.  Throughout your internship you will expand your knowledge and perfect your new found skills.

Frustrations as with any job happen in this internship.  You will find that you will have to deal with the disappointment of death in some cases.  Staff is always available if something hits particularly hard.  However, there are rewards and benefits for the long hours and frustrations.  The joy of releases and successful turnarounds will always outweigh the sadness of loss.

Hours can get long at times, answering the same questions again and again can get tiresome, living with up to 9 other people can be hard, but as quoted from a former intern “…This internship is anything, but dull.And where else will you be able to tell the story of how you help examined a great horned owl or bottled fed a fawn.

Click on pictures below, taken by a former intern, to see what the animal care portion is like.

(Click images below to view full size)

Interns practicing an exam on dead quail

Interns' examination training with dead quail.

Intern learning how to hold an eagle properlyI

Intern handling an eagle during an examination.

Plates of fish for meals

Types of food you will find yourself preparing.

Two fawns being bottled fed

Summer of 2003 we had 15 of these guys to feed.

Intern feeding Northern flickers

Some of the baby birds we often get in.

Intern climbing tree to get to a Great Horned owl orphan

At times you may be the one to go out and capture the patient.

Removing pin from injuried fawn

Removing the pin from the healed leg of a fawn.

Transferring Great Horned owl chick to larger cage

Intern being shown how to properly handle a great horned owl.

Feeding baby red squirrel

Red squirrel being fed formula.

eaglerelease1.jpg (35435 bytes)  eaglerelease2.jpg (22766 bytes)

Release day....why this job is worth it.

 

Bottle feeding a baby porcupine

 

Lately we have been getting one baby porcupine a year.

 

Baby Merlins

 

We rehab many different animals including birds of prey.  Above are a couple of merlins.

 

Interns feeding squirrels

 

Feeding time line up.

 Baby snapping turtle

No animal is too small for our care especially this little snapper.

 

Tube feeding a bald eagle

 

Tube feeding a sick eagle.

Click here to see a few more pictures from our patient photo album.

 

 

Pictures taken by interns and staff

With questions or comments about this website send mail to comments@northwoodswildlifecenter.com  
Last modified: June 8, 2010
All pictures own and taken by NWC unless otherwise stated.  Copying prohibited without prior permission.

 

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