It has been a busy two weeks at the zoo! Last week our four high school interns started and this week we quite literally had herons falling out of the sky. The heat on Wednesday caused the herons to act up on Thursday. It’s been busy. Most notably, I’ve started my research project! I’m working on the bat project, and this is the first year UWI has done this project with an intern. I’m going to be comparing data actively collected as a part of the Citizen Science Bat Monitoring Program using the Echo Meter Touch Pro with iPad with data collected passively using the Wildlife Acoustic SM2BAT monitors used at Nature Boardwalk. I’m looking to test how comparable these methods are at capturing bat diversity using data from 2018-2019. On Wednesday, we had a small meeting where Eden and I gave brief overviews of our projects and got feedback and suggestions for them. After this meeting, I felt a lot better on what direction I wanted to take the project and what possibilities I had with it. UWI has such a supportive environment with people who are so engaged with research, learning, and helping. It feels like they want me to be successful and they’re willing to help. After this meeting, I learned how to set up and use both data collection devices with Liza Lehrer, who is leading this project. We set up the stationary monitor in Nature Boardwalk, and she taught me how to use the iPad program. I start the active data collection next week, and for it, I am going to walk around with the Bat-pack (a backpack with a seven-ish foot pole attached to a high frequency microphone) for an hour after sunset and see what bat calls the Echo Meter Touch Pro picks up. Right now, I have plans to go out Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, to get some initial data. This first set of data is important because if we get enough, then this might be the only time I have to go out and collect for this season. Because I’m the first intern to be on this project, everything is pretty flexible and I can really tailor this to what I want to do and what I think I’m able to do.
Now, to the most thrilling parts of the past two weeks.
So there’s a single koi in the pond at Nature Boardwalk. Someone ditched it over six years ago and UWI has been trying to get it out ever since. We were at the end a tour of Nature Boardwalk for the ZIPs, the zoo’s younger high school interns, and someone calls over the radio, “Eden, the koi is in the north part of the pond!” The ZIPs head out, and we start Koi Hunt 2019. I’m standing on the bridge watching Eden and our RAPs try and corner this massive fish in this pond. We have nets and a bucket. I’m shouting where I see it, Eden is in the water waist deep, Hadrian is on one shore with a net, ready to go, and Nino is on the other, ready for action. The fish taunts us by getting close and then swimming away and after 45 minutes of trying, the koi finally swims to a part of the pond too deep for us to walk in. We gave up. We’re currently in the process of scheduling time to continue the Koi Hunt 2019 and formulating a plan to catch it. I’ll provide future updates, but we’re incredibly determined as a group to catch this fish.
Thursday afternoon, we were getting multiple calls about herons on the ground in Pritzker Family Children’s Zoo (PFCZ). The first came in around 1:30, about an injured heron in PFCZ that was causing some concern. Eden and I go to check it out, and when we get there, there is this tiny little baby heron with a weird bend in its neck. It’s mostly fine, and so we’re thinking it swallowed a stick. I take it to the vet, and one of the vet techs, Ashley, checks it out. The bird starts to sort of hack, and Ashley sees it is a stick, so she gets the bird’s mouth open, and because it is so small, she can push the stick up and pull it out at the same it. I was just watching this happen, and it was one of the grosser things I’ve seen. The stick was almost as big as this baby and everyone was baffled that it was actually able to swallow it. After some deliberation, it is decided that we can put the baby back into the nursery, and hope it makes it through the night. I unofficially named this little trooper “Mr. Stick”.
About an hour later, we get another call that there are a few live heron juveniles walking around PFCZ. We have our high school interns, the RAPs, so all six of us head to PFCZ to check this out. When we get there, we find four herons milling about. We catch two fairly easily. They were already cornered, and one had a slight limp. We catch them, and because of their size and feist, we just plop them back in the nursery. At this point, Eden and I had to head off to a meeting, so we leave the RAPs to finish their sampling project and hopefully wrangle the other herons. The final two herons are in the garden area to the right of the Children’s Zoo entrance and left of the West Gate of the zoo. Two of the RAPs head in to catch these birds, and they manage to get one, but not the other. By the time Eden and I arrived back in PFCZ, the RAPs were about to leave and we learn there is still one bird on the loose. I spot it by the back fence of the garden area, heading towards the entrance. I swing around to come at it from behind and Eden goes in from the side. We’re slowly walking towards it. We have eyes on it. Eden takes a step forward, and the bird vanishes. We blinked, and it was just gone. We search the area for another 15 minutes and eventually give up on finding it. This bird wasn’t old enough to fly, and we think it was too big to fit through the fence, so we have no idea how it could have escaped us when we had it cornered. I finally understand how Javert feels about Jean Valjean in Les Miserables. We have dubbed this bird Feathers Houdini: The Invisibird Extraordinaire, because magic and tricks are the only way it could’ve escaped.
We think the koi and Feathers Houdini: The Invisibird Extraordinaire are working together.
Finally, this week’s song is “Too Much” by Carly Rae Jepsen. I’m choosing this song for two reasons. The first is that I love CRJ. I saw her live on July 9th, and she’s a musical genius. The second is that this song is reminds me that even if I’m too much for some people, I’m enough for myself and that’s what matters.
As always, here’s link to the playlist, and thanks for reading! Enjoy the pictures below.
1 - A Snapping Turtle we caught one morning while counting BCNH.
2 - Not relevant to my internship, but Carly Rae Jepsen live. She had two confetti cannons.
3 - We got a call about a turtle one morning, and while we couldn't find it, the Nature Boardwalk is gorgeous in the morning.
4 - Now that we have the RAPs, I've had to carry and row the boat less, which means I get to enjoy short little boat rides.
5 - A juvenile BCNH near the Couch Memorial, nearly fully fledged.
6 - Putting a small BCNH into an artificial nest so it is off the public walk way.
7, 8 - Koi Hunt 2019
9, 10, 11 - The Wildlife Acoustic SM2BAT monitor set up.
12, 13 - The stick and Mr. Stick the bird.
14 - Mr. Stick in an artificial basket nest.
15 - missing due to a computer issue.
16- Taken Friday morning, the small fluff is Mr. Stick, and the slightly larger baby BCNH is one we put in the nursery Thursday afternoon. Both made it through the night, but Mr. Stick had passed by 11:30.