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The moment I open up this blog and click "new post", I am typically left staring at the screen with my arms crossed and back against the chair in deep thought. So much has occurred within the last week or so that it is actually hard to boil it all down to a few paragraphs of words. Perhaps I should have sat down sooner and wrote up this new post earlier. Problem with that possibility was the fact it was not a true possibility at all without staying up super late and nearly falling asleep on the keyboard. For the first time ever it appears I have hit a brick wall - in a different context than ever before. Normally when a wall approaches, it presents a problem that takes some time to accomplish, but this particular wall is not entirely bare with the bricks lining the surface in a disorderly fashion but just the opposite. This wall is one coated in various paints that define a mural; an art feature that defines the possibilities of my future with ever stroke of the brush. A wall that should not be destroyed or climbed but instead one that should be admired and further discovered. Sometimes, walls aren't meant to stop you in your tracks for all the wrong reasons. Sometimes the walls are dedicated to make you stop and think of all that you have accomplished beforehand while allowing you to admire the presence without worry about the future. This is the type of wall I have hit; and I am truly satisfied that I have. Over the last few weeks I have basked in an ambiance that can only be defined as "spectacular". In other words, I absolutely love it here and I wish I did not have to leave in August!


As I had mentioned before, a Wolf Ethology class was offered to each of the interns and the public on the center's behalf. The flood gates opened for what it takes to truly observe an animal's behavior as noted by the ethogram (which consists of a list of codes with behaviors labeled). We discussed the ethogram during training but I was actually able to sit back and point out certain behaviors/codes while watching out Ambassador wolves; other students alongside me. I was not able to participate in the final discussion, where all behaviors were pieced together and analyzed, but there's always a chance in the future. Lately, when I watch the wolves from the windows while talking to others or free, I try to watch out for their behaviors and mentally label them as they come. Some behaviors are reoccurring and therefore make sense based on the scenario occurring; but it's all still practice. All apart of the observation game, in case staff needs to be alerted of anything and for personal learning.

Aside from studying the ethogram and doing observations, we also watched a movie or two and studied the behaviors we noticed in the movies as well. The best part of the class, in my personal opinion, was when we hit the field in two ways. One being a sled dog yard; where we got to compare dog behaviors to wolf behaviors while also getting to hang out with the dogs in the process. They had some puppies that were fun to hold and play with. I think one age group was a few weeks old and the other was a few months but cannot recall. Of course my baby magic worked again because when I held a younger pup it instantly stopped whimpering and fell asleep in my arms (works on human babies and young birds too, if only it worked with kids to teens). The other two pups were older and more lively. It was pretty neat to see their difference in personality and watching them play. Of course I want a young pup now.

The second time we hit the field was when we went out to radiotrack wild wolves. We first practiced with a dummy dog collar, that was hidden, and we used a Yagi antennae. Just like Dave Swanson taught us in class, we practiced triangulation and later honed in on the transmitter/collar. Just like in class, I was able to help hone in on the collar within a few minutes. We walked straight to the area before a girl asked me if she could see the antennae. I handed it over due to being a team player; not because I doubted my skills. Not trying to sound over confident but radiotelemetry has been one of my favorite field methods since Swanson introduced the concept to us in class. I have not had much of a problem finding transmitters before and truly I think I am quite good at it. Now, if I could just impress the right people, maybe I could stick my foot into some research positions. Anyway, we later used these skills on actual wild wolves. We tried three different locations nearby but did not pick up a single "blip" from the transmitters. Of course the wolves were out there but the antennae was not picking up their signal. At one sight the group I was in found a pile of scat and thanks to my instructor, Joe Letsche, for teaching a Tracking course at Hocking - I was able to locate three separate wolf tracks! How cool is that? Thanks again Joe for opening up my "tracker eyes" because they truly have paid off since! I inserted two of the pics I took of the tracks. One thing I never mastered was photographing the tracks I found so please bare with the quality!

Later on that night, the group went out with a few staff members to a few of the same locations we were previously that day. (Locations are disclosed due to various reasons, do not even ask me). We proceeded to howl at each location to see if we could get a response back. I took a few tips from a staff member and was able to howl that night. Although my hearing is questionable, I was able to pick up and hear the faintest of howls in the distance. It truly surprised me. We received some feed back from our howling trip. A wolf or two howled at a few locations and I am proud to say my howl was noted as "really good" by not only fellow group members but a staff member as well. Some friends have mentioned my howl was spot on in previous years but to hear it from those who worked with wolves before gives you a warm feeling inside. The fact the wolves howled back in response makes it 10x better.

Bear Cubs (Poor quality)

I had two days off with the class and truly appreciated that fact! Both days were SO MUCH fun. I'll never forget the good times we had when traveling. The games we played (never have I ever), the moose we saw, the sled dogs and wolves, and everything. One of the days I worked but was able to take the last hour and a half off so I could go with the class and a few staff members to Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary in Orr, Minnesota. In the past, wild bears were fed in order to keep them away from Vince's house. The bears are still fed after his passing and an education facility was established. We were able to watch the bears from an observation deck located up above the meadows. It was pretty neat to see these bears; including three cubs and a yearling cinnamon bear. Cinnamon is just a different color of coat for all bears were American Black Bear (Ursus americanus). A staff member drove us to the facility in the Howler (the bus in my previous posts) but I picked up the slack on the way back by offering the drive home. It was an excellent way to gain experience. Thanks to Hocking's winding back roads, the curvy drive was rather easy. My braking does need some work though. I will admit this.

When the clock finally ticked to the final minute and it was time to say good bye to the class members, a few hugs were exchanged and they went on about their way while I remained at work for the remainder of the day. Speaking to people and giving programs have gradually been getting better. It's easier to give a program to a group of 50+ people than a group of 5 or less but I am still learning how to adjust. That's the point of this internship after all. I am struggling with two particular presentations and am trying to take the time to look through them more. Some things just cannot be learned over night so hopefully I can dish out the two programs very soon without hesitation. My biggest challenge is making one of the two programs interesting; people were dozing off all three times during the program. Then again...there's always that one person that dozes off anyway; even if you get the whole crowd laughing.

The ethology class officially ended on thursday and the following night, friday, one of our board members gave a presentation on Porcupines. This board member, Dick Thiel, had researched wolves for years but also had the opportunity to work with porkies! His efforts, alongside some high school students, helped define porcupine research since not many people work with these individuals. Blame the quills. During this time the interns and I got the chance to meet a few new faces, board members of not, and I had the chance to sit down and talk to Dick one on one for the last time. We had talked during training but now that time has progressed, I had more to say and bought one of his books for him to sign. He wrote a message alongside his "special signature". More importantly, his words ignited a flame within my being. I have always been one who has always tried to search after their passion while continuing to rely on hope as a guide. I have had many discussions about "being passionate" with people but it was truly nice to hear someone within my field area of study say, for once, that they could tell I was passionate about what I was doing. I had to stop for a second and review my life; whom I was once was and where I currently stood. So much had passed by me these last few years, so many new doors opening while others closed, that I failed to see the fact I had been passionate about my field the entire time. I was searching for something I already had and therefore drowned out the idea that I possessed passion altogether.

As days go by, I always feel that people neglect to remember me due to always being out of state or far away from home. I was blinded by these thoughts and feelings that I never realized there were actually a lot of people out there reading my blogs, posts, and trying to keep up with my constant adventures. I have thanked those last year for reading my blogs but now I want to thank everyone for simply being a part of my life. If you take five seconds out of your day simply to read a post from me, then thank you. It truly means a lot. Having passion is one thing, sharing it with others is so much more exhilarating and truly rewarding. So again, thank you.

The last day I have not truly mentioned yet is Saturday. My programs went well, once again, and I practically feel like the "master wolf-print castor" now. My objective is to make sure no one leaves our "create a wolf print cast out of plaster" program unhappy. So far I haven't failed yet; knock on wood. Aside from programs, I was able to leave for about an hour with a staff member and volunteer. We loaded up a few picnic tables onto a trailer and took them to a nearby dump. Afterwards we pit stopped at the "Front Porch" for some addictive root beer (I seriously love this stuff) and Subway for lunch. Saw a Bald Eagle along the way! Also, it's not too often that I run into someone who is capable of reading my thoughts and saying them aloud the second after thinking them, but well what do you know, I found another person like this. That makes three people total that have showed they are capable of doing this; excluding my mother. This also includes speaking the same word at the same time, perfectly, and saying what the other person is going to say after they've thought it as well. Two way street here. If none of you have experienced this before, I hope you do one day, because it's somewhat weird but rather cool when two people can do this after being around each other for a short period of time. Josh and I are experts at doing this because we do this mind reading business despite the fact we are states away.

Image from IWC website.
Located in Little Wolf.

After the dump adventure, yes I considered it an adventure, we all went back to work and I gave another program. I believe it went rather well, of course there was the one napper, and afterwards the rest of the day was spent doing the usual stuff - talking to guests, constantly keeping an eye on things to restock (brochures, papers, cards, etc), restarting Wolf Quest, and cleaning up the kids corner. It very rare that I sit down, but when I do there's always a staff member that notices. Literally, every time. Right after sitting. Hope they don't think I sit down all the time because I truly try to stay as busy as possible. Something somewhere needs restocked, looked into, or fixed and I try to do my best to find it. I hope to start tackling one of three projects I signed up for here soon: organizing/cleaning the library, organizing/cleaning the storage room under the auditorium, or designing a fun area for kids in the kids corner associated with aurora lights. I had the chance to talk to Heidi, the reason behind the Aurora Lights Exhibit at the center this year, and we discussed coloring pages from her works. She was able to bring them in recently so I am super excited that she was able to do this! I'm sure she is thrilled too based on her smile and quick acting to bring the pages in. Now we just need to find a place to set up the aurora area in the 'Little Wolf' (kids corner).

Later on, after work, I went with a volunteer to pick up dinner for a staff member and ourselves. We picked it up from the Grand Ely Lodge and it was delicious. I had salmon, volunteer had walleye, and staff member had spaghetti. We watched the "What's for Dinner?" program that occurs every Saturday at 7pm. The staff member and volunteer orchestrated the feeding of course. We gave the wolves five beavers but they did not eat at first. They ran around a bit but later started to bite at the food. Luna showed some food possession later in the feeding. Aiden tried caching, or digging and hiding, his food in random places. Denali was the first to interact with the food, he dragged a piece and walked away, before returning later. Boltz tried to take Luna's food and later did when she left. This particular program is always my personal favorite due to the interactions between the wolves with food. The center has noon enrichment programs, where they play sounds or do something to enrich the wolves via food, and they are truly interesting but 'Whats for Dinner' is always one I will highly recommend attending.

Finally arriving to the events of the day. First of all, I was off so nothing about programs truly. I went into the center for a little while, to ask a question and exchange a $10 for ten $1s for laundry, but left shortly after to do said laundry. While waiting for laundry I also went geocaching. I only found two today. The other two were missing, or I did not search hard enough, and one had too many people around so I let it go for now. Picked up two trackable items; a travel bug and a geocoin. I intend on holding on to these until I move back to Ohio this August. When I do, I will disperse them around the Dayton area so they have a chance to get picked up by the many Dayton cachers and so the items can travel to a new stay. The travel bug spent a lot of time in Austria before it came to Minnesota. Now it will get the chance to see a new state in August! It's goal it to go to Japan so I hope that someone from Dayton will take it from there (or just to multiple states first). If you are ever interested in geocaching please visit: geocaching.com
I would love to join up with others and cache with them when I am home. If you have a GPS that would be 100x better than my phone app! Just facebook me and let me know :)!

The remainder of the day will be spent possibly caching, grocery shopping, maybe reading a book, and later on tonight there's talk of the retail staff, interns, and an education/wolf care staff member going to a nearby bar to spend some quality time together. I absolutely love the fact we all hang out all the time! The staff here and interns have truly been some of the BEST!!!

I am off again tomorrow and so far I do not have any plans. My days are left unwritten for the possibility of something exciting. Sorry this blog post took so long and expect the next one to take a while as well. I'm sure ya'll understand and hope you enjoyed reading this!