Thursday, February 28, 2013

A Peek into Daily life at Liberty Part 1

As I said earlier, I have been volunteering at Liberty Wildlife for several years now, first in the orphan care department (only open during baby season April to September) and then in Medical Services. In Medical Services, we receive the new patients and write an assessment of their condition and what medications they will need to be on and how long. Treatments can be as simple as WDQ, a warm dark quiet area to recuperate, and as difficult as removing fishing hooks or recommending surgery and/or x-rays.



This week, we have plenty of cottontails that simply need to grow up! This little guy had to be fed bunny formula three times a day supplemented with lettuce, hay and pellets.

Also located in the ICU are old friends and some new ones. Frodo, the burrowing owl on the left, was at one point an education animal. Education animals are trained to sit on the gloves of educators and attend programs to teach the public about Liberty and Arizona wildlife in general. Frodo, however, is retired. She has lost her eyesight and is at the end of her long life, but you will always hear her chirping happily away, safe inside her hut. She is hand fed as much as she will take throughout the day. Other birds are in the ICU because they must grow more accustom to people as they will in future become education animals. They are taken out every day by handlers to eat on a glove, in order to associate being on the glove as a good thing. 



To Be Continued…

CG






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