I bring with me lots of experience in caring for farm animals (including domesticated birds like chickens, ducks and geese). I also have experience being around wildlife and observing their behavior, but I have never been close enough to birds of prey specifically to learn too much about their behavior, instincts, and how to treat injures.
I already know how to take care of certain injuries in certain animals, but my scope of knowledge doesn’t extend very far. I can treat minor injured in chickens, sheep, and llamas. I also know that a lot of things (mostly relating to the pandemic), have impacted wildlife this past year, and the Ravensbeard Wildlife Center has seen a huge surge in injured birds. Interning at this wildlife center is really important to me because the tools/techniques I learn will be able to help so many other animals (as well as myself in exploring this field more), and learning about why owls and other birds of prey are now more prone to injury since the pandemic hit, will expand my knowledge in this area as well.
I have looked at a lot of different websites, and have started reading a book about animal behavior which has all informed my understanding about my essential questions. I have been able to see facebook pages as well, in which the posts describe different injured birds that have been found and brought to wildlife centers that can help in their recovery process.
What don’t you know?
It’s really important for me to find out more about my essential questions because caring for animals has interested me for a long time, and I was never able to have the experience of an internship before so this opportunity is the first time I’ll get to see if caring for injured/sick wildlife specifically birds, is what I want to pursue in college and later on. I also really want to be able to have this hands on experience because it’s so valuable to learning the told needed to care for these animals, and I know I’m going to take away so much useful information from this experience.
The areas of inquiry that are needed to be explored in my senior project are effective treatment (species specific), observation of behavior, documentation of behavior, other observations, treatment, results of that treatment etc.
Questions that are lurking just beneath the surface of your guiding essential question:
Why is there a huge increase over this past year in injured birds of prey, specifically head injures in male barred owls?
Why and how has the pandemic affected these wild birds of prey, and does this mean there will be long term consequences for the population of these bird species? What are those long term consequences?