First impressions

Diary entry, 29.01.2012, Laura Huber-Eustachi

Pictures of the day (2 images)   

Hello, I am Laura and I am doing an internship at the WSC for about 5 months. I come from Germany. There I have studied Geography and Conservation. The specialization “wildlife ecology” was always interesting me and that’s part of the reason I am here now…
I am excited about the nice area the Wolf Science Center is situated in. The sites around the castle, the old woods, hidden sculptures and benches with wide views.
A lot of animals are living in the Wildpark, as donkeys ins all sizes, sheep with and without horns, goats; wild, pot-bellied or huge pigs with names as “Schinken”, ferrets and a lot more…
The most interesting animals for me are, of course, the dogs and the wolves. While my first direct meeting with a pack (“pack meeting”), Wapi licked my face- including my glasses- that I couldn’t see anymore. It’s a great feeling to have those intensive experiences with the animals.
Sometimes I am just observing everything that happens around me. The newest discovery I made was while observing the nuthatches: I saw one twice robbing us some dog food (which is sometimes outside near the testcenter while we use it). He just comes, takes the much too big piece of food and hides it somewhere in the old oak trees in Nanuk’s, Yukon’s and Wapi’s encloser.
While I am staying here I will also do a scientific project. I will analyze standard-situation that trainers are facing in their interaction with the animals. I am filming them and examining the material. The results will be interesting as one aim in the WSC is to treat all animals the same, although they are all individual and every trainer has his own relationship to each of the animals. But there is the idea of a kind of standard way of treating the animals. I want to analyze and compare this. But first, I have to film, and that means following the trainers everywhere! And they really walk a lot, half of it uphill…