As of July 25th, I finished my first ever internship. After 10 weeks of turtle tracking, raptor training, spiderwebs to the face, and mosquito bites, I am happy to have gained many relevant skills toward my career and to have expanded my professional network.

I'd like to give a huge shout out and thank-you to the following people, who donated their hard-earned money to help support me through my unpaid internship. Your contribution was truly appreciated and helped me greatly!

Evelyn Parker
Jason Hubert
Jill Nichols
Laurie Ard
The Biology Awards Committee at NCSU and the Harkema Fund

Check out some of the photos below from the internship.


Kellogg the Corn Snake and I. 

Nessie, the Bearded Dragon.

Otus the Eastern Screech Owl. He was having a small
retreat inside the cabin while his blood feathers grew out. 

An outreach event at the Nature Research Center.

Myself with Jade, the Greenish Rat Snake, at the
outreach event. The Greenish Rat Snake is a mix
between a Black Rat Snake found in the triad and the Yellow Rat Snake found on the coast.

Myself with Pigwidgeon, our newest Eastern
Screech Owl. As you can see, his is missing
his left eye, which was removed at the Blue
Ridge Wildlife Institute (part of Lees McRae college) after being hit by a car.

A large part of my internship was marking box
 turtles and recording their information as part
of the Box Turtle Connection. To find out how to
 become a citizen scientist and to help with the
Box Turtle Connection, click here. This turtle
is likely a female, because of its muted colors,
brown arms (versus yellow on males) and brown eyes
(versus red on males). Also, based on the number
of annuli (grooves in one scute), she is around 11 years old!
Overall, my internship was very rewarding and I'm very glad I was able to have such a great experience. I plan to continue raptor training so I can progress to the other Barred Owl Lily, our Red-Tailed Hawk Ivan and our Kestrel Artemis.



Some of the staff witnessed one of our transmitter turtles laying eggs. They saw her lay two.

Just laid the eggs.
Covering the nest.
To protect her eggs from predators, one of the conservation interns and myself built her a nest cage.

We used left over chicken wire, zip ties and sticks to build it. Check out the pictures below. I also laminated a sign that reads: BOX TURTLE NEST - DO NOT DISTURB.


View from the top, with the sign.
Side view. 


And in other internship related news, the Raptor Team traveled to Charlotte last Friday to visit the Carolina Raptor Center, where we got a behind-the-scenes tour of the rehabilitation hospital and picked up our newest raptors: a female Kestrel, whom we've named Artemis and an Eastern Screech Owl (gender still unknown) whom we are debating on naming Loki (Marvel's Avengers) or Pigwidgeon (Ron's owl from Harry Potter). These birds are both flighted and are not used to human contact so we will be working with them to get them familiar so we can use them as education animals. They were both injured and those injuries resulted in them not being fit for relief. The owl is missing one eye and has damage to the other, and the kestrel is blind in one eye. We hope to be able to take care of them and give them a happy, comfortable life. :)
 
 

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Hello!

Hello!

About me

I am a graduate of NC State University with a Bachelors of Science in Zoology and a minor in Nonprofit Studies.

I am currently a Master's Student at NC State studying Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology. Part of my thesis will focus on how state action plans and policies look at and incorporate climate change and land use change. I am highly interested in habitat use, movement ecology and behavior, and hope to study these during my Master's and, later, my PhD.

I am currently working on my North Carolina Environmental Education Certification.

My skills include: Radio telemetry, Camera Trap Installation and Calibration, Animal Handling, Data Entry and Management, Animal Husbandry, Animal Behavior, Wildlife Rehabilitation, Raptor Handling, Project Planning, Fundraising, Public Speaking, Time Management and Organization

Classes I'm Currently Taking

-Conservation Biology
-Quantitative Methods in Education
-Wildlife Seminar
-Resource Selection Functions

Current Projects

-Evaluating Efficacy of Conservation Planning in the Southeast
-Evaluating the Household Dynamics of Wildlife Value Orientations

Honors, Awards, and Certifications

-Bachelor of Science in Zoology, 2015
-Minor in Nonprofit Studies
-Dean's List, Spring 2012, Fall 2013
-Roots and Shoots Founders' Award, $100, 2012-2013
-Basic Wildlife Rehabilitation Certification, March 2013
-Visionary Leader Certificate, Spring 2012

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