I can’t believe that this internship is over! I have met and worked with so many wonderful people and gotten to work on so many amazing projects. My last day at the zoo was incredibly bittersweet. It was just Eden and me working and it felt a little like the beginning of the summer when she trained me. We did every task together, and while we did not cry, it made us both sad and grateful that we were able to work together.
After our final time going into the Wolf Yard, we asked one of the keepers, Amanda, if we could feed Birch, one of the Zoo’s black bears, and she said yes! It might have been the highlight of my day. We fed him peanuts and peanut butter, and we also got to watch Amanda do some training with him and she let us give him some scratches through the bars of his indoor enclosure. He is a big ole puppy and I love him.
The high school interns finished their internship last week, and we were so proud of them. They gave a talk and created posters about the work they had done. We went to their talk and they threw us a shout-out for working with them all summer. It was a weird group where not all of their personalities meshed well, but they all did fantastic work. After going to their talk, I felt like a real leader. I am so glad this internship gave me the opportunity to be put in that position and that I was able to succeed at it. I feel more confident now that I’ve had this experience and that it went well.
This week we did small mammal trapping at Nature Boardwalk. We mostly caught deer mice, which isn't too thrilling. Granted, there were some wild captures. We caught the first rat since 2011, which we then processed and released. We also got a red winged black bird and green frog in some traps.
I was able to finish my bat project and I gave a small talk on it. That was maybe the most aggravating set of data I’ve ever had to work with, but another intern, Cecilia, was able to help me with the code for it. She spent time with me every day to make sure I was understanding the R code and helping me troubleshoot when my data never loaded into R correctly. I am endlessly grateful that she took the time out of her day to help me. With her help, I was able to produce a few graphs and perform a solid amount of analysis for my project. We found out that the SM2 (stationary monitor that was out for two weeks) collected the fewest calls and bat species, while the stationary Echo Meter (set up for one hour directly next to the SM2) collected almost double the amount of calls and an additional species. The mobile Echo Meter collected the most calls and both Echo Meters collected 4 species, granted only three of the same. So we heard 5 different types of bat species over the course of the three bat walks. This was pretty neat because there are eight known species of bat in Chicago alone which means we have a majority of them here in Lincoln Park. Additionally, we looked at the SM2 data to see if there was a better time to go out and collect bat calls, but due to technical errors, we only have two nights of data to look at. It didn’t help that the two nights and wildly different amounts of bat calls.
I presented my project with two other interns, Eden and Nora. Eden gave her presentation on Black Crown Night Heron distribution in the city of Chicago, and Nora, a masters in public health candidate, talked about urban rats and zoonotic diseases. I am so proud of my fellow interns who accomplished so much in their time here. I went first and talked about bats and detection methods. Jazmin made decorated oreos for the talk which looked liked the herons and bats. They might have been the cutest thing I’ve ever eaten. She also sent the invitation for our talks to the email list for the whole zoo. Eden and I guessed there would be 10-20 people there, but there were around 40. We ran out of chairs. Everyone in UWI came to our presentation which made me feel so supported.
After work the day we presented, UWI had a happy hour event at a nearby bar called Gaslight. It was a celebration of everything we accomplished and our stay at the Urban Wildlife Institute. It was a lovely note to end on, and while I did not accomplish my goal of liking tomatoes by the end of summer, I did get a pizza with tomatoes. (I ate one and picked the rest off)
I’m so sad to be leaving such a supportive work environment. I’m going to miss everyone I met and worked with. I have learned and grown so much this summer. I can’t say I’ve ever wanted to work in a zoo. Or with animals. Or with high schoolers. But now, I don’t know if I can see myself working anywhere else. I have loved every minute of this internship. Even the times where we were so busy I barely had time to collect my own thoughts. I have never felt so supported or even been in a position where I had so many responsibilities.
Thank you. To the Urban Wildlife Institute. To Jazmin and Eden. To Cecilia, Mason, Liza. To everyone who listened to me when I needed it and who supported me this summer. Thank you also to Jennifer Salazar and the DePaul Dean’s Undergraduate Fellowship for supporting my position this summer. I am so glad this is what I got to do. I’ve never felt more proud and accomplished in my life.
Finally, the song of the week. The last one for this summer! Hasta Mañana by ABBA. (Let’s be honest here, this wouldn’t be a CG summer if I didn’t talk about ABBA.) It’s a song that talks about a goodbye for now. I’m just getting started with my career and I have a feeling I’ll be doing more urban wildlife research soon. This has not been a brief stop in my path to whatever I end up doing, it’s just the beginning.
Thank you for sticking with me this summer. Here’s a link to my playlist, as always.
Hasta Mañana, ‘till we meet again.
Row 1, Left to Right:
1, 2 - We had to get creative when carrying the boat for our last week of turtle trapping. At one point, we were offered a ride attached to the back of a 2x4. We found that it works to put one person (pictured, me) in the boat on top of the cart and have the other person pull the boat. As we did this, I got a disapproving look from a bus driver.
3 - We started helping Maureen Murray with a goose behavioral project where we had to go out and find one of four specific geese. This is one of said geese.
Row 2, L to R:
1 - I didn't realize it was going to rain when I went out to count herons on a Saturday morning.
2 - We were small mammal trapping at Nature Boardwalk, and this is Jazmin holding the first rat found there since 2011.
3 - Eden holding the trap with the Rat while I pose as we wait for Jazmin to come back with thick handling gloves.
Row 3, L to R:
1 - Eden and I being incredibly fashionable for mammal trapping. We're in boots and rain pants to prevent from the possibility of ticks and to keep our clothes dry as we walk through tall grasses.
2 - The oreos Jazmin made for our presentation. :'-)
3 - Me presenting my project on the slide where I show what it looks like when I run into a tree vs an actual bat call.
Row 4, L to R:
1 - The back of the envelopes for Eden, Jazmin, and Arjun.
2 - Jazmin, current interns, and two past interns on the carousel after Eden, Nora and my presentations.
Row 5:
L to R: Myself, Nora, Evynn, Eden, and Cecilia at the end of summer happy hour for UWI.
A slow motion video of Eden releasing a red winged black bird from one of our small mammal traps.
Jazmin releasing the rat.