Working at Wild Wonders for the past 4 weeks has helped open my eyes to the numerous paths I can take for a career in wildlife. I spoke to few interns about their degrees and many of them were biology related but they all differed in some aspect. One intern Jeremiah had told me he only applied to two colleges, UC Davis and Cal Poly Pamona, because they were the only campuses that offered what he looked for in a major/ classes. He got accepted into both and went to ultimately went to Davis, but he gave me some good advice while speaking with him. From speaking to Jackie, I learned that even if you major in one field, you can always switch fields out of college if something isn't what you were looking for. I've made friends with two interns who are seniors at High Tech High Point Loma and High Tech High International and they're each going into some type of biology major at Humboldt State University and UC Davis respectively.
While I really love this line of work, I'm not too sure I would want to sacrifice so much of my life to my job. From what I've seen, keepers and many people who work with animals have to move around constantly looking for the right job for them. They also struggle with pay and benefits. A keeper at Wild Wonders told me that those who work at San Diego Zoo make about 20-22 dollars an hour for 5 days a week. That's around 41 thousand a year. She told me she makes half that at Wild Wonders. She told me she can't complain much though because no matter how tired she is in the morning and how much she doesn't want to come to work, she still will. And no matter how much she has to budget she puts up with it because she loves what she does. That's hard to find. There has to be a way to find work that I genuinely enjoy that doesn't cause me to make sacrifices so important such as pay and stability.
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During my time at Wild Wonders, Linnea and I were tasked with creating a project that would benefit the organization even after we were long gone. One of Wild Wonders main needs is attracting business. While this organization's main purpose is to care for exotic animals that for one reason or another ended up in captivity, all of their revenue to pay for the food, supplies, and staff needed to carry this out come from private tours or show bookings. Along with gaining revenue, these also fulfill part of their mission statement which is to educate the public about the wildlife they have. We met with our mentor Jackie Navarro and discussed how we could do this while using our own skill sets. She had asked us what our strong-suits were, mine being photography and Linnea's being editing, Jackie told us that Wild Wonders really needed to remake their brochure, she felt it was outdated. She tasked me with photographing the animals and Linnea with putting together the design. Here is our (almost) finished product.
Part 1:
How did you make a meaningful contribution to your workplace? I have made a meaningful contribution to my workplace by coming ready to do any task put in front of me. At and organization like this, any work is important when it comes to animal care. If I can do anything to take the weight off my mentors and the staff's shoulders so they can properly care for the animals, then I'll do it. I have gone on multiple shows with staff to help them with the presentations as well as transporting animals and making sure the audience is behaving. If a staff member were to go on a show alone they would not be able to conduct a meaningful and educational experience for those attending, and would struggle to even get to and from the show. I believe Wild Wonders would have a very difficult time running of it weren't for the help of the numerous interns and volunteers. There's just way too much work to be done by the limited amount of actual staff members. How was your work as an intern meaningful to your education? I believe I would like to pursue a career in animal care. This internship has taught me some of the ins and outs of animal care as well as the sacrifices you have to make in order to follow this path. I have learned a lot about animal behavior and care as well as what it takes for this specific organization to thrive from a business perspective. Part 2: What new appreciations did you develop while working as an intern? Why? Through this internship I've seen first hand how hard it really is to work with live animals. They require care day in and day out. They don't care about holidays or weekends. They don't care about weather, they need to be cared for every single day. There is also an incredible amount of sacrifice done by people who want to work with animals. There is not much monetary gain and you do demanding physical labor every day. I was having a conversation with one of the staff members Tegan about her past jobs. She told me in this career you have to look for a job all over the country and apply wherever you can, then when you get a job you move there. She had moved from Michigan to Florida to Oregon then to California. I realized how passionate people who work in this profession are and how much some of them must give up to follow their career choice. What qualities or characteristics did you see in the people around you that you want to develop in yourself? Why? I saw an abundance of compassion for animals as well as determination. Like I said above, these people are incredibly driven to provide animals with the best quality of life they can have in captivity. These animals are only in captivity because they need to be. Many of them are on medications and need round the clock care and check ins. No one there ever blames an animal for anything and never gets tired of doing their job because they love what they do and they love the animals. This is my photo essay taken during my time at Wild Wonders, Inc. so far. I feel I have been advocating for myself everyday. I try not to waste time and if I'm ever without a job to do I ask around if anyone needs help. If no one needs help I start on side work if I have already gone through the list of things that need to be done. I usually check the block schedule to see if everything has been signed off. All the animals are in different blocks and there is a white board that people sign off on when they have completed a block. If you see there's a block that isn't signed off on then you start that block. If I don't understand something everyone around is more than happy to help when I ask, or to teach, considering this whole organization is education based. I know that any job is helpful from sweeping the floor to handling an animal and I get on any job that needs to be done. I hope I'm doing a good enough job that they remember me, but overall there are always so many volunteers and interns that come through that I mainly work to gain experience and knowledge for myself, and to benefit the company, not necessarily to be remembered. The advice given to us to be an intern that gets remembered isn't practical for my internship. There's the advice to dress more professionally than everyone else. There is no right way to dress professionally at my internship seeing as it's working hands on with animals. Everyone dresses comfortably in clothes they don't mind getting dirty. I see people wear everything from jeans to khakis and it all works fine. I take my notes in my phone because it's small and compact unlike a huge notebook. Essentially I'm being the best intern I can be in my environment. For my internship project, Jackie asked Linnea and I to recreate the brochure for Wild Wonders because the current one is out of date. Linnea is taking over the design of the brochure itself and I will be in charge of the photography of the animals and the services we provide. I spoke with Jackie about what she needs for photos and she said that they can set up a mock brunch with the cheetah setting so I can take photos of it, as well as maybe some mock events. Brunch with the cheetahs is when a table is set up in a bamboo area right in front of the cheetah enclosure and you're served brunch. It's actually a unique experience considering how close you get to be to the cheetahs. What's really cool is the other interns and I get to eat lunch there everyday on our break. As far as photos of the animals go, Jackie would like photos of animals outside of their enclosure, looking happy and healthy. Photos of the enclosures are something she wants to avoid as much as possible in general because there will always be people who focus on the enclosure and not the care for the animal. I think this is a great project for me because I do portrait photography and this is aimed perfectly at my skills. I'm really excited because these animals are a super unique subject for me to photograph and I can't wait to capture them. I'm going to work with Linnea as well because she is in charge of design and we can help each other to create a great final product. Jackie has also given us the contact information of the woman who created their website to help us if we have any questions. Mentor InterviewMy mentor's name is Jackie Navarro, and she is a co-founder of Wild Wonders, Inc. What should I know about you before I start working here? "About Wild Wonders? That this is not a regular job, it's a culture it really is. It's physically demanding, it's emotionally demanding, it's hard work. There are no financial rewards to working at a place like this, or any zoological park for that matter. You have to get your rewards in different ways besides financial, whether it's making a breakthrough with an animal that has finaclly accepted you, or having that one kid who you did a program for that calls you year after year and says 'I just adopted another acre of rainforest!' Rewards come in different ways." What skills and training are necessary for your position? "A degree is important but practical expericance is every bit as important as a degree is. When we're looking for a candidate we're not only looking for if they have a biology or zoology degree, but also how many internships they have done and volunteering posistions they have done before they've come here, because at least I know they have a basis of what it is to work with exotic animals. Practical experience is invaluable." How is this organization structured? "We're tiny. We don't have a construction matienence department, we don't have a nutrition department like you would see at a big AZA accredited zoo, everybody here wears many hats, I wear the most hats. Everybody here is not only a zoo keeper, but they're also an educator, they're also the nutritionist, they're also the marketing department, they're admin and office work. We wear a million hats here. There are 2 directors, there is 1 lead, and then the keepers and educators and volunteers and interns." What other advice do you have about working here? "Have a tough skin, let things roll off your back. Sometimes it gets very stressful in a small, busy wildlife organization, especially if an animal is sick. The stress level goes up exponentially. Sometimes its busy and people are barking orders, or we have another problem that has arisen and needs to be addressed right away. So have a tough skin, but also have a true passion for the animals. Be in it for the right reasons." How did you get started here? "I've loved animals my whole life and I knew since I was 5 that I wanted to work with animals. i was one of the lucky ones that knew right away what they wanted to do. I didn't know how I wanted to do it but I knew I wanted to do it. I found a school, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, that matched my degree perfectly on what I wanted to do which was environmental systematic biology. I really thought I would be out in Alaska studying wolves or in Africa studying cheetahs. My first job I got offered out of graduation was at the Safari Park so I kinda took a look around and instead detoured into captive animal management and decided I loved working with the animals as opposed to just afar and studying them, and making their lives better. Once I quit the park we started Wild Wonders. There was a huge grass-root need for educating the public at that point and that's still always our goal and a main part of our mission. We are rescue, educate, and conserve." JournalRight now at my internship we have two baby animals that are in training to be "ambassador animals" which are animals that go on shows to educate people or the animals that are shown during tours. These two animals are a baby fennec fox and a baby serval. They get exercised often but when they get exercised they need people to be with them to watch them and interact with them. They're absolutely adorable and I have been watching them since I got to Wild Wonders. So far the most exciting thing that has happened to me at this internship has been finally being allowed to sit in the play pen with the baby fennec fox and play with him. He runs around through his play tunnel and has toys, but he also liked to jump into my lap and cuddle. It's so cool and I never thought I would be doing anything like this when I started this internship and I consider myself really lucky. I have photos that aren't approved to post yet but I should be able to post them in my photo journal.
My first impression of Wild Wonders is the fact that there are countless people around at all times. This is to the point where jobs being done are kept track on charts and book logs. The one flaw with this is sometimes people don't sign off on things they have done. But I've seen multiple times that staff will double check if a job they think has been done but isn't signed off is actually done with the person who should have done it. Most everything is written down on boards or cards, ranging from what to do per block of animals to who has done which task and which animals get which medicines and behavioral enrichment.
I find it striking that any photos I take have to be run by Jackie, the boss, and approved. This is done out of fear that animal rights activists will see the animals in enclosures and want to shut down the organization. Apparently there have been many recent activist backlash related incidents with organizations like this, and even with zoo's like the Los Angeles Zoo. It is stressed any time I take a photo. I also find it interesting that many of the staff have different ways of thinking and therefore have to run a lot of things by one of the higher ups, Jackie, Kim, or Candace. I would probably say the best thing that has surprised me about those I'm working with is the fact that aside from Linnea and I, there are two other interns from High Tech High Point Loma, and High Tech High International. They definitely make the work go by faster and we keep each other occupied during off time. I honestly didn't expect to be able to handle any animals, especially being only a high school intern, but we've been told that we'll be trained on the handling of a lot of animals as time goes on and will help handle animals when they go on shows as well. This is the most exciting factor of this internship for me. The amount of amazing animals they have makes it such a unique experience I wouldn't be able to have the opportunity to do if I hadn't had this internship. I'm really not worried about much other than the possibility of an animal injuring me or me accidentally harming an animal, both of which I plan to avoid by abiding to the safety procedures and paying attention at all times, be it training or working with an animal. May 2nd
I will be interning at Wild Wonders, Inc. This is a company that rescues animals and educates the public through the use of ambassador animals and tours. They aim to inspire people to care about wildlife preservation. My mentor is Jackie Navarro. Contact info is [email protected] . Courtney King is my first period teacher. Email: [email protected] My first impression of Wild Wonders was a little unexpected. The site is smaller than I pictured but it's spread out really well. Being in a place with so many exotic animals was really cool. There are sections for the cheetahs, birds of prey, armadillos, a reptile room, an Australian area with wallaby's and a kookaburra, and plenty more. My favorite part is where they keep the little monkeys and opossums. A typical work day involves checking into the work log to see what other employees have done since you've been gone. You read back to the last day you were there. Basically everything is logged and you have to log your actions to keep everything running smoothly. Since it's working with animals the clothes are just casual attire that you can work in. There's about 5 employees and a handful of volunteers. There's one intern at the moment in college but she's leaving the day I start. On a daily basis I will work with my mentor Jackie, and I will report to her as well, and I will report to any other employees I need to depending on what I'm doing that day. I'm not too sure how they feel about tardiness but I'm sure they don't want it to happen if possible. Same goes with absence, I'm sure I can let them know in advance and it would be fine but of course I will try to avoid it. Dress code for Wild Wonders is casual clothes you can easily work in. I saw people wearing normal clothes like T-shirts but they will give me a uniform shirt. Khakis are what most of them wear for pants but I was never told specifically what to wear, and hair up is preferred. I really loved my career day experience. The environment is very relaxed, even when you're doing hard work. Everyone working there is really enjoyable and the jobs I will be doing are really cool. I'll eventually interact hands on with the majority of the animals and engage them in behavior enrichment. Apparently everyday I will be able to have "animal time" which is where you get 5 mins to play with an animal of your choice (realistically), like one of the monkeys. I expect the professional world to be about the same, relaxed but task oriented, and also enjoyable. In what ways do you expect your high school classes and the skills you have learned to apply to this profession? I expect my Humanities class will apply to this internship. I feel as though humanities class has taught me time management and it's importance. Seeing as my internship runs on a tight schedule revolving around the animals needs, time management is a must for successfully working here. |
Leah MaxwellHi, this is my blog where I will be keeping log of my internship experience. Enjoy. ArchivesCategories |