Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

I can't believe I've only got 2 more days left to work here! I've really enjoyed it - I don't really want to leave. Not that I don't want to go home, I just wish I could come back and work some more.

I've taken pictures of some of the animals I talked about in my last post. First off, the coot. Hopefully you can tell from the picture how ridiculous his feet look. He's really good at jumping, though, so those feet are obviously good for something!! He's only about 5 inches tall, but he can just about jump right out of a large tote bin, with sides about 2 feet tall.

As mentioned previously, we have a new otter pup (kit? I'm a little unsure which is the correct term for an infant otter, as I've heard both used). He's done very well since we got him; he eats well (and who wouldn't when they finally got something they would naturally eat?), he recently got moved to an outside enclosure from a kennel inside, and he gets a tub of water to play and swim in every day that he really enjoys. Hopefully he'll get big enough to join the other two and have some playmates.

As always, there's a ton of news about seals! I've got pictures of our three newest, Ocelot (whom I mentioned in my last post), Concho (who has become something of a celebrity!), and Wolf.

This is Ocelot, just after she came in. She had several wounds on her front flippers (which have since healed); I'm not sure what might have caused them. She was really skinny when she came in, and we've had problems for a little bit because she can get chilled extremely easily. She threw up in her baths several times because she got too cold. To combat this, we keep her heat lamp as close to the top of her tub as possible. She's also been rather bloated and gassy recently, so she gets hot compresses under her belly all the time and she gets her stomach massaged whenever we feed her. We've also tried a couple different things in her food, initially, simethecone drops, and most recently papaya enzyme. She's definitely more perky now than when she came in, though, which is a good sign!

This is Concho, the local celebrity seal. She was picked up by a woman (who was purportedly drunk at the time) and kept on a boat, with the woman allegedly showing her off to friends. About 36 hours after she was taken from the water, Concho was found in a backpack in the woman's car at a "routine traffic stop" - the woman ran a red light. (Note how dumb criminals are. It's illegal under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to capture marine mammals, and yet the woman decided to run a red light with a federally protected species in the back of her car.)
Now, of course, the woman faces up to a $10,000 fine and possible jail time for violating the MMPA. Several local news organizations (including a television station in Seattle) ran stories on Concho. The interns were informed to refer reporters' questions to staff members - after all, we don't create treatment plans or even know the full, detailed history of the seals, we're just involved in implementation of treatment plans! We also got several calls from federal officials who are conducting the investigation that will (almost definitely) lead to punishment of this woman. It was an exciting few days right after she arrived! (Here is what was published on the Seattle Fox subsidiary's website.) I was pretty psyched when we got her, too, since I got to help with her initial exam.

This is Wolf, our tenth seal. He's a sweet little pup! I'm not sure what his back story is, but like most of the seals we get he was dehydrated when we got him. (I think the only seal we've gotten who hasn't been seriously dehydrated was Nukupu'u...) Fortunately, we haven't had any problems with him yet. (*Knock on wood!*)

Our four oldest seals are all getting nice and fat and healthy. Coho and O'o have been able to stay outside in the big pools all the time for several days, and Stilt just joined them. Palila is healthy enough that she'll get an 8-hour swim with those three tomorrow and hopefully start staying out overnight soon after that. It shouldn't be too long before O'o and Coho are ready to be released! We had some confusion yesterday, though, with three gray seals in the same pool. Palila was supposed to come in at 4 pm, except Stilt got pulled out instead and put in her tub. Fortunately, Palila was mistaken for Stilt at 8 pm and got pulled out and put in his tub for the night (although Coho was almost put in the tub instead, but that's a whole other story)!! To lessen the confusion, Palila and Stilt got marked with grease paint sticks this afternoon, but I think everyone who was working today made sure to find some distinguishing mark on both of them anyway. (Stilt has a lightning bolt/hourglass shaped spot under his right eye. To tell Palila apart from Coho, Palila has a large dark spot right behind her left eye and Coho does not.)

We've been having serious issues with Shrike's digestive system. She seems to have a very sensitive gag reflex and tends to bring up some of whatever you've just put in her stomach whenever she gets tubed. She's also been really bloated and gassy, like Ocelot, so she gets hot compresses, massages, and special things in her food (like simethecone drops or papaya enzyme).

Nukupu'u and Eskimo, on the other hand, seem to be doing great!! I found out today that Nukupu'u will escape from her tub if you leave the lid up during her bath - that's my feisty little baby!! She turned out not to be a real brat, as well, which is great. She's usually very good about being tubed.

After having several crows, we finally got a raven in the other day - it had run into a wall. I'd never really been clear about the difference between crows and ravens, but the most obvious one is easy to see - ravens are enormous!! The crows are small enough that I'm never too concerned about one of them biting me, but the raven is another story! His beak is not only much bigger than a crow's, it looks stronger and more painful.

I hope to have plenty more to say before I leave, even though that's only 2 days from now!