Day Fourteen

Expectations vs Reality
Have you ever seen a cool product on TV or at Brookstone? You wanted it for months. Maybe you saved money until you had enough to buy it, or someone got it for you as a gift. However, once you got it and the novelty faded, you wondered why you got it. Why you wanted it so much. Why it wasn't as perfect as you expected.

Or, you went to a highly acclaimed (whatever you like) show. The news anchors were raving about it, there were color full-page ads splashed across the newspapers and magazines, and the TV ran two-minute commercials about the show. You went. It was great, but some elements were missing, or it wasn't quite up to your expectations.

Everything has some great things and some things that aren't as great. I've been talking about how great my internship is, and how much I love everything, even the gross aspects. However, I thought it might be useful to present some not-so-great things. Some, should I say, disappointments. I hope with this post, the Center will gain insight and adjust its internship program for future interns, or adjust the description of the program.

I think one of my biggest disappointments is with the wolves. It sounds so strange, but it's true. At the zoo, interns weren't allowed to interact with the wolves. The wolves were under the administration of a division of the US government and interactions had to be very limited. The wolves couldn't get used to humans because they could be released into the wild any time. The most I did was prep their diets. I couldn't go see the wolves be fed, or clean their exhibits. The closest I was allowed to the wolves behind the exhibit was the hyenas' enclosure, which was next to the wolves but separated by a line of trees. While the wolves were being fed, I had to stay at the hyenas' toy closet, which was out of sight of the wolves. That was a little disappointing.

I was excited when I found out that the Center had wolves. While I didn't imagine that I'd be running with the wolves, stalking and taking down prey with the wolves, or cuddling with them, I thought I'd be doing more than waiting for them to be shifted, walking in, cleaning up, and changing their food bowls and water (if needed). I'm thrilled with what I have because it's definitely more than I did at the zoo, but I would have liked to work closer with them. I barely know anything about the wolves. I know their backstories. I know where they came from. I know the story of Amadeus and Hopa. I know how to care for them. That is pretty much it. So much of the focus is on the large cats and smaller cats, such as the servals, that the wolves are barely a passing mention. However, I have learned in recent days that there are some members at the Center who are "wolf professionals." They have spent thousands of hours with the wolves, training them to show their bellies and to allow people to touch their bodies for any bumps or anything out of place. However, these individuals typically come to the Center on Saturdays, one of the days I have off.

Relating to that, I wish we were able to do more with the binturongs. Some of the animals, I understand why we cannot work with them (such as the foxes and lemurs or the nocturnal ones), but the binturongs are darlings. They seem a little shy, but I can see them warming up to us if we were allowed to interact with them beyond making their diets and watching them do their binturong thing.

If the keepers or someone working at the Center said, "You can't do much with the wolves because they don't like people and aren't target trained" or "The binturongs are not easy to work with. We don't want you in with them because they could bite" then I would understand.

Another thing I would have liked to experience were seminars on how the Center is run. Not animal care, but the administrative side of it. I can only speculate at how much work it takes to run an operation like this. We had a chat with Julia, our senior director of administration, but I'm still curious. While I understand that many things are private, if we had a day where we worked on mock-ups of actual documents, I feel that it would give us a better appreciation of the people who work here. I feel this could potentially be important. The interns are here to learn about animal care, and many will hopefully continue on to become caretakers themselves. However, some may end up working in administration for a nonprofit. Case in point: Julia. She used to work with the animals, but found that her skills were better primed for administrative work. While interns may end up not working for the Conservators' Center, they could be staffed by another nonprofit organization, where the administrative knowledge gleaned from the Center may come in useful.

These are just two of my very few unmet expectations here. As we are now halfway through this internship experience, it is possible that we will get to experience either of these, but I don't know how likely it will be. Again, the Center has been a very positive experience and I'm so glad I decided to take the leap and apply. A place like this is priceless.

After speaking with Mandy, I have learned that my blog is already having some positive impact! The Center is evaluating its internship program partially based on my feedback on this blog. Because I'm so honest, they consider it a valuable resource for identifying what is going well and what may need to change.