Presentations, Prom, and Polar Bears

Hey People,

Hope life is treating you well. My life is awesome. I am nearing the end of my high school years. WHOAAAAH! So, I needed to update you all. First I will begin with some awesome news. I won two scholarships. One is from the Illinois Conservation Foundation, and the second one I won from the Women's Board at Brookfield Zoo/ The Chicago Zoological Society! I am really excited! I also went to the senior awards banquet at my high school and won the Science Academic Achievement award! So that was an awesome surprise! I had my presentation on Wombats with Science Track Year 2. It went well. I actually had prom the same day as my wombat presentation. So I went to the zoo in my dress, then went to prom right afterwards. It was ok though because my dress fit the zoo theme. Yes, I put a polar bear on my dress. Why? Because the zoo has been a huge part of my life. Each day I remember my expedition to Canada to study the bears and I remember that I am a conservation leader. The polar bear resembles everything during my high school years. I spend more time at the zoo than any friend's house. Another reason why I had a polar bear painted on my dress is so that I could continue to educate. People at the dance would notice the bear and ask about it, or be reminded about protecting this species. Anyway thats a basic sum of what has been going on. Prom was an awesome night and my presentation was fun. I will catch up again later when I don't have senior banquets all week! CAIO! ~Wildlife Katie

Great Bear Wilderness

(Image from Brookfield Zoo/ Chicago Zoological Society)
Hey family, friends, and fans!

Great Bear Wilderness finally opened May 8th! It was amazing. There were Native American dancers, flute players, and story tellers available to participate in the grand ceremony. Robert Buchanan of Polar Bears International was there, as well as Bill Watkins from Manitoba Conservation. Stuart Strahl the CEO of Brookfield Zoo/ Chicago Zoological Society gave a grand opening speech. I have never seen so many excited guests. I was very excited as well. I had already seen the exhibit, but this time I was able to see the reactions of the guests which to me was the most important thing. Now finally I can see the people get connected to the polar bears in the underwater viewing area. The children would put their hands up on the glass and the polar bears would swim to them and put up their paws. It was beautiful watching these connections between humans and wildlife. In the corner of the exhibit I found my rock. The rock was my tundra rock that I picked up while on my adventures in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada with Polar Bears International's leadership camp back in 2008. I risked my life for that rock. I was amazed that it was in the exhibit. Now the bears can be connected back to the wild through my representation of the tundra rock. I hope all of you can have to chance to visitBrookfield Zoo to see Great Bear Wilderness. The bison, bald eagles, polar bears, brown bears, and wolves are a part of this amazing exhibit. If you do happen to check it out, let me know about your experiences. I really care about the bear. I really care about your connections to nature and becoming conservation leaders. You all make the biggest difference. I will talk again soon~ Wildlife Katie

Update from the hectic life

So much has happened and I haven't had time to update my blogs! I know I previously mentioned I was going to put my old blogs on here. I don't think I have time for that. Instead I will be writing about what is currently happening in life. Much more interesting right:? I am currently enjoying the company of my new addition to my life, Chuck. He is my pet hermit crab. Such a fun creature. I give him daily enrichment but I do know that I should be finding him a companion soon. (Her name will be Cindy). So then I can have my cute hermit crab couple. As for zoo life, I am working on my power point presentation on my wombat research. I have not been able to write blogs or do many zoo things because of my current intervention with the musical at my high school. Rehearsals are taking over my life. Anyways, the project sadly is coming to a close and I am going to miss my marsupial friends dearly. But on a good note, I am coming back to work in Zoo Camp again so I am really excited for my new boss Erin and seeing the new team they put together this year. I also recently applied for some scholarships from the women's board at the zoo. I DID receive a youth achievement scholarship from the Illinois Conservation Foundation, so that is exciting. Along the lines of school, I am getting my stuff figured out with Community College. I can't wait because then I will have time to do more volunteering in the Batavia Community. Our community garden project is starting up this weekend and I am excited. Well, I have to go grab some grub! I will let you know about my latest adventures when I have the chance. ~Wildlife Katie

A message I admire

Buggy Bears Fighting Picture

Robert and Carolyn Buchanan: My heroes

Robert and Carolyn Buchanan are my heroes. Robert is the current president of Polar Bears International. He recently won the George B. Rabb Conservation Medal from The Chicago Zoological Society/ Brookfield Zoo. I had the privilege to attend the Conservation Dinner where they awarded Mr. Buchanan for all of his conservation efforts. The dinner was hosted by the Brookfield Zoo Women's Board and it was held at the Art Institute of Chicago in the Modern Art Wing. I was the youngest person there but I met so many new outstanding people. The dinner was delicious and I really had some good conversations about polar bears and the climate change. I got some recognition at the event which really made the night special for me. I watched a presentation about polar bears and one new thing I heard about was a radio collared bear that had swam 400 miles. This is incredible that such a majestic animal is capable of so much power. The biggest bear on earth with so much power can still be so helpless due to the climate change. That is a reason why Mr. & Mrs. Buchanan are so special to me, it is because they have so much passion for these bears, they speak with such intensity that makes you want to change everything around you. It was really great for me to see them again it had been a whole year since my Canada trip and I cried myself to sleep tears of happiness because I was once again reunited with my real life heroes. ~Wildlife Katie

(photos by Jim Schulz of the Chicago Zoological Society/Brookfield Zoo)

Lesson of the day: DON'T DIE BY POOP

AFTERNOON my blog reader minions! I hope you are enjoying life as I am. I thought today I would share with you my day at the zoo. First I need to inform you that the things I do at Brookfield Zoo are very special and that I can do them because I am involved in special programs and am a staff member of the zoo. I am a very responsible staff member and nobody of the common public gets to do what I do without the proper Zookeeping staff on duty and without paying. So don't go thinking you can just go and do what you want. The Chicago Zoological Society (Brookfield Zoo) Is a well maintained and very enforced zoo so please follow the rules. Thank You!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ABOVE WAS IMPORTANT TO READ! I HOPE YOU DID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now I shall continue on with my day! Science Track Year 1 went on two tours today! First we went to seven seas and pinniped point. These are our locations in the zoo featuring the dolphins and seals. I learned that working as a dolphin trainer, communication is important. Communication is important because you need to know the daily routines and if anything switches. You also need to pay attention to any changes within animal behavior and social environmental changes. If you actually are looking into being a dolphin trainer you will need a batchelors degree in biology, zoology or something of the like. You also need to be scuba certified and a strong swimmer and speaker. Experience is most important when getting a job so be sure you get involved in some internship programs. Psychology is also encouraged when looking into dolphin training. I thought it was amazing when I learned all these things because I never knew it took so much knowledge to become a trainer. Its because animals are always learning. We were listening to our keeper give some speeches about dolphins while that was happening I had my hands up against the glass and the dolphin was touching his nose to my hands. It was a really memorable experience knowing I could see her and she could see me. Moments like that make working at the zoo be worth it. After being with the dolphins we went to see the Seals and Sealions. We have Grey Seals, California Sea Lions, and Harbor Seals. I got to watch some trainings. It was really cute to watch them do tricks like waving and spinning around in the water. Each animal is trained using target training. That is where they have to touch their nose or paw to a target and they get rewarded(it teaches them tricks and they have positive and negative reinforcement). After my tours of the dolphins and seals/sealions I had a tour of 31st street. This is the street with Bison, Zebra, Camel, and Addax. I was able to feed the animals carrots(minus the Addax), it was loads of fun. I would hold the carrot to the gate and the camels would be moving their lips all funny trying to get a hold of the delicious snack. When we moved down the street to the bison and our keeper in charge Bill said we could feed Ron (he is our big male) I was flabbergasted because he is such a huge beast. His big purple tongue slurped up my carrot. He is very friendly and sweet for such a huge animal. We moved along and fed Patches our last Grants zebra. He was great for picture taking. I learned lots of male zebras become aggressive with age and I found that very interesting. Next Bill brought us to the Aardvark house. We got to go in with the aardvark and pet her. Her skin is really coarse. I learned that people are actually allergic to aardvarks( but I am not allergic to anything as I know of so I was alright). We went and saw some peafowl that will be released into the park next year and we saw Abby the ostridge up close and the warthogs Michelle and Siri. Bill told us that the worst way to die would be by poop. If he was cleaning the Camel exhibit and the animal decided to step on him or knock into him it would be a bad way to die. It would be pretty humiliating to read the obituary or grave stone and see, "Here lies Bill, He was just an ordinary keeper picking up poop when it happened." So yeah those of you going into the Zoo keeping world that is your lesson of the day. It made me laugh. He was a great keeper and cool mentor. Maybe if I do science track year 2 he will be my mentor. We will see, I'm crossing my fingers to work in the Australia House. Well that is all for today! ~Wildlife Katie

P.S: For those of you interested in getting some hands on experience with some animals and with Zoo Keepers at Brookfield Zoo- check out our Wild Encounters
http://www.czs.org/czs/Brookfield/Plan-Your-Day/Things-to-Do/Wild-Encounters
Or become a Science Track Member after completing a year of Youth Volunteering
http://www.czs.org:80/czs/Educational-Programs/Career-Ladder/Youth-Volunteer-Corp