A Final Goodbye

This Colored Owl Drawing is by John Pusateri. I stumbled
upon it and thought it was beautiful and perfect for my final
post.

The end of this senior research project has come and I have learned a great deal. I would like to thank my school advisor Mr. Nishan, my school counselor Mrs. McConaghy, the people and resources I have consulted, and finally and most importantly the staff at Liberty Wildlife for being so gracious in letting me take pictures, ask questions, and simply taking a chance on me two years ago, when I first sent in my volunteer application, underage with no experience. I have met nothing, but wonderful and kind people through this organization that completely runs on the goodness of peoples’ hearts. While this blog may finish today, I will continue to keep my shifts until I go to University in the fall. And of course, I will come back for peak summer seasons each year! It has been a joy to share my experiences in medical services to anyone willing to read this little blog. Thank you again and goodbye.

CG

You can find more of John Pusateri's work at:

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/11/colored-owl-drawings-by-john-pusateri/

Presenting my Project: PowerPoint Presentation and Abstract

The final steps of this project include writing a short abstract summarizing what my project was about, its purpose and its findings for a school program and presenting a PowerPoint presentation to the BASIS community. My presentation was yesterday and I feel that I performed to the best of my abilities and all went well. For those who could not be present, here are the conclusions I drew from my experience over these past months.

I set out to answer a few questions. Namely, what meaning feathers had to Native Americans today, if Native Americans and Native wildlife needs were met by current laws and finally, my main question was whether or not repositories could improve.

I found that as spiritual revivals of old customs and ceremonies grew in popularity, the demand for feathers dramatically rose. High demands resulted in longer waiting list times for repositories, leaving Native Americans without necessary feathers for months or even years. My research into ceremonies that use feathers has shown that home blessing ceremonies, coming of age celebrations, marriage ceremonies and graduation ceremonies all require feathers at a fixed point in time. Couple this with successful pesticide bans like DDT, many bird populations are currently flourishing. This results in anger directed at repositories.

Solutions to this problem are simple. Open more repositories in different geographical areas to lessen waiting lists and develop more lenient laws regarding found feathers. Also, start a very limited hunting permit program for Native American tribesmen. Finally, be patient. As bird populations increase, more feathers will come available.

CG  

Inside the Repository

Most repository feathers come from rehab, foster and education birds, that live at the wildlife sanctuary, when they naturally molt once a year in the summer. There are containers in the front of each cage where volunteers can place feathers for the repository. Other sources are ICU birds that come to Liberty deceased or die despite treatment. Liberty Wildlife's participation in the feather repository program is ultimately to save birds lives. If Native Americans have the necessary feathers, they have no need to hunt healthy birds.

Why are you in our enclosure taking our feathers?

The feathers are then organized and their exact location is documented.

Whole birds are kept frozen until their feathers can be taken or if someone requests a whole bird.

The repository workbench

Labeled feathers

CG 

This Week in the ICU part 2

We also had a Canadian goose egg hatch (this picture is of the baby weeks after he hatched)

A ladderback woodpecker came in with conjuntivitis 

A tiny says phoebe hatched

We have three types of baby squirrels in our care right now

Rock squirrel

Round tailed ground squirrel

Antelope squirrel

Here’s a flicker getting his daily medication

And a baby love bird about to be tube fed

Finally this is a baby jack rabbit (yes, jack rabbit eyes should look bug eyed J)

   

CG

This Week in the ICU part 1

This week in the ICU on my shift, we had plenty of interesting furry and feathery friends come in.

We had a baby great horned owl (top) and three baby barn owls (bottom).

A baby sparrow with a mite problem (probably why he looks so grumpy)

And two juvenile finches that just need to grow some bigger flight muscles

A black crowned night heron that broke his leg

A harris hawk that had his leg surgically pinned back together

And a baby anna’s hummingbird

CG

Highlights of Liberty Wildlife’s Annual Report

One source I have used throughout this project has been Liberty Wildlife’s Annual Report. Here are some highlights!

Liberty Wildlife’s Annual Budget

2011 Operating Income

2011 Operating Expense

In 2011, Liberty Wildlife assisted 3,709 native animals. That’s 131 different species! 1,378 of those animals were babies. Who did this? Well the 237 volunteers that are part of Liberty that work 3,122 volunteer hours every month!

CG

The Non-Eagle Repository Perspective

I was lucky enough to interview those involved in the Liberty feather repository operation and gain more insight on what problems these young pilot repositories face.

The first topic discussed was waiting periods and lists at Liberty. Online research can give estimates for Bald and Golden eagles but not any migratory birds. At Liberty, the longest waiting list is for the red tailed hawk which averages eleven months. The second most requested bird is the anhinga. Rarely any one put on this waiting list gets off simply due to the fact that anhingas do not live in Arizona and Liberty has none in its care. Therefore, the only way to get those particular feathers is through networking and asking other sanctuaries to donate and send them. Liberty has cormorant feathers which are very similar, but participants rarely accept substitutes.

When asked about relations with the Native American community, the head of the repository quickly directed me to a wall of thank you notes, letters and other gifts, handmade or bought, from happy participants. Many are grateful for this free service. However, with the good there is always the bad. The Scottsdale repository gets 20 to 30 new requests each day. Some of these requests can be filled, but pickiness can prevent it. Some participants refuse to take feathers with any blood or debris on them or refuse to take feathers unless they are part of a full tail set. Additionally, Liberty has a surplus of owl feathers, yet very few request them because to Navajo tribe members an owl is an omen of death. Liberty never brings any owls to educational presentations on reservations because it can offend and anger tribes.

I also learned that the government requires Liberty to document the exact location the feather was found before it can enter the repository.

Liberty has a good relationship with SRP in Arizona, so they call whenever they find nests or birds with exact locations for the repository and when alive for the med services.

Interestingly, the repository is often contacting and coordinating with prison wardens on whether or not Native American prisoners are entitled to any more feathers when they request them. Many requests come from prisoners reconnecting with their religion and culture.

Finally, when asked what could make this system better, I heard again and again the same thing. More repositories in different geographical regions so requests like the anhinga can be met and more grants and money to help pay for the shipping and handling of the feathers themselves.

CG