So my internship is officially over as of yesterday. It has been an absolutely amazing experience - which is precisely why I am staying in Clearwater to continue volunteering there on a regular basis. :) I guess my plan for the future is just to finish my degree at USF while volunteering at CMA, and then attempt to land a job as an actual trainer somewhere!
I'm talking for both the dolphin and otter shows all of the time now. My fear of the mic is completely gone - in fact, I really LOVE talking for the shows! I'm also learning more about training and doing new behaviors with the animals as time goes on. It's nice to be expanding my knowledge in that area, this way I'm very prepared when it comes time to get a job. Aaaand I'm STILL doing food prep and scrubbing buckets; as I said from the very beginning, it's a job that never goes away. But I don't mind it really, I just grin and bear it.
Last week, I did a really good dolphin presentation. So the head trainer decided to give me some "reinforcement" for a job well done: I was to be able to get in the water by myself with Winter for a play session! I got to rub her and play with her, and give HER some rides around the pool! She would actually lay down on top of me like a mat, letting me hold her while I swam backwards around the pool. It was very cute, actually. And despite her attitudinal nature, she is still very tactile with you when you're in the water with her, which surprised me. She really is a princess dolphin - or at least she thinks so! And I will love her forever for that.
I also finished all of my write-ups, reviews and tests. All of that, combined with the hands-on experience I've obtained... makes me feel incredibly lucky to have been given the opportunity to participate in this internship. I would like to be able to say that it was a "once in a lifetime experience", but that wouldn't be very accurate, now would it? There isn't a doubt in my mind that I will be doing exactly this for the rest of my life. :)
So two more very long weeks have passed and a lot of change has taken place for me. For starters, I've decided that I'm not leaving! Even though my internship will have officially ended at the end of this month, I will continue to volunteer every week on a regular basis. I'm transferring colleges in order to stay here - so I'll be going to USF in Tampa and finishing up my bachelor's degree in marine biology! I've also obtained a different part time job that makes a little more money, so that I won't be suffering financially. I'm super stoked that I no longer have to leave this wonderful place that I'm so very glad to be able to call my home now!
At the aquarium, I've gotten much more hands-on experience with training with the dolphins and river otters. I've been staying after hours to help the trainers out with the PM dolphin feedings, and they've been teaching me new behaviors to do with them one by one. I have been working on remote pec presents, husbandry pec presents, dorsal presents, fluke presents, sends, and hand stations. I've gotten to practice some of these behaviors as a "volunteer trainer" during the dolphin shows, too! It's very exciting to do this on a regular basis because the dolphins seem to be responding better to me as time goes on and they're learning to recognize me. For instance, when I was working with Nicholas last week, he actually rolled over backward in the water in a really cute manner after accepting fish from me, and then he let me rub his tummy. :D When Indy does a behavior correctly and he is particularly excited about it, he makes a lot of the "I did it right, yay!" type of vocalizations at me. It's moments like those ones - being able to build a relationship with the animals themselves - that are incredibly reinforcing for ME as a future trainer.
I'm also talking on the microphone a lot more for the dolphin shows. I have successfully spoken for both the interim speeches and conclusions. My biggest obstacle has been the introduction speech because it is so much longer, but I'm tackling that currently. :) It's weird, because most people get very flustered in front of crowds. But not me. It's the practicing that really gets to me. I find that once I'm actually in front of a group of people, I feel like I've been put on the spot... so the words just seem to flow a little more easily out of my mouth than during practice. I'm very proud to be able to get up in front of the crowd on the mic (albeit nervously) and get them excited for our dolphins!
With the river otters, I am now allowed to do stick targeting with Cooper by myself during the presentations. I am able to free-feed all of the otters, but I actually get to go inside the on-exhibit with Cooper and Billy to do it. (Since Webster and Garth can be a little more aggressive, I just free-feed them through their feeding windows.) From what I have heard, this is pretty neat because we are one of very few facilities that actually work in an unprotected contact setting with wild river otters. In the off-exhibit (depending on which otter I'm working with) I have been cleared to use specific Sd's to ask for behaviors like stand, wave, follow, basic fist target, target hold, and tumble.
My bridging is getting better and better with practice, and I'm amazed at how far I've come in all of the things that I've learned about training. And yet there is still sooo much more to learn every day! It is an ever-changing field and it keeps my mind constantly stimulated. I am in love with the profession, and I can't wait to be an "official" trainer of these days!
Hello once again everybody! First, I would like to extend my deepest apologies for having waited so long between my last post and this new one. My days at the aquarium have been running as usual - but I also have a second part time job outside of the aquarium. So a typical work day between those two jobs has me awake and running around from 7 a.m. (when I wake up) to 10 p.m. (when I leave my second job). I've been so busy that all I ever want to do when I come home is sleep, hahaha. So that's why I've been slacking on writing entries for you guys. But I haven't forgotten! And I'm actually pretty excited now because - as you can see - I've decided to use www.blogger.com for my entries, since it is much more interactive. I have included relevant photos now inside all of my past entries, so be sure to go back and check em out! I am also able to post videos, which I've done in the last two entries along with the photos. So with all of that out of the way... now let me catch you up on everything that's happened in last two and half weeks!
The things I've been able to do at the aquarium since my last entry have been totally awesome! I'm still doing the otter presentations, and most of the trainers and staff have complimented me on how great I sound doing them. :) I've also moved on to doing the conclusions for the dolphin shows - there are a heck of a lot more people in attendance at these, so it's a little more important that I get it right. So I'm starting out small with that. Once I master the conclusion, I'll be able to move on to doing the intro, and then both intro and conclusion. On the food prep/exhibit maintenance end of things, I'm still scrubbing and cleaning as usual! It's a job you just have to learn to love, hehe. We have a "Training Camp" program at the aquarium, where people can pay to come in and learn everything there is to know about being a trainer and working with marine mammals. It's like my entire internship, but crammed into five days! So we had three high school girls this past week that came in to participate in our training camp. The head trainer threw me in charge of going over animal enrichment with them, and then I had to help them make a toy for the dolphins. The training camp girls then got to present their toy to the dolphins that afternoon, and it was very cute to watch the dolphins play with it with so much enthusiasm.
And NOW, in reference to the topic that I'm sure is on most of your minds - what kind of animal interactions and experiences have I been entrusted with? And the answer to that, my fellow marine-mammal-trainers-to-be, is LOTS! I've gotten to do a BAZILLION awesome things with the dolphins and river otters! The trainers have had me helping out a lot during the presentations in practicing a variety of behaviors with the dolphins - including the "hug" behavior, painting, blood draw, Nicholas' scars on his back, and assisting in little Winter's physical therapy (in preparation for her prosthetic tail, more info on that at www.seewinter.com). I've also helped out with touching and feeling the mass inside of Panama's mouth in order to densensitize her to the process used for its removal. I have also been authorized to do some behaviors with the otters, like basic fist targeting, target hold, paw, tumble, station, and follow. I get to ask for the behavior (i.e. "Webster, tumble!) and then bridge (the word "good") and reinforce (with food) if the behavior is performed correctly. :) I also got to do a free-feeding and basic hand stationing session with Panama, our oldest female dolphin. It was SOOO freakin' cool to be able to do that on my own. I got to use my bridge (the whistle) and everything! I would just like to make one comment about it - it's VERY different than everything you read. I mean, the basic concepts are the same, and I know positive reinforcement like the back of my hand. But when it actually comes down to the first time you do it, there are soooo many little factors in their behavior that you have to look out for... it's a little overwhelming. But I'm sure that, like everything else, I'll get better with practice. :) I also got to get in the water with Panama for a water-work session one afternoon, under the stimulus control of the head trainer. We did a foot push, where she puts her rostrum on my foot and we dive down together under the water, and then she pushes me around the pool like that. It was amazing. Then we did a dorsal tow, where I hold onto her dorsal fin and she tows me around the pool slowly; and a belly tow, where she rolls over ventral side up, and I hold onto her pecs while she swims around the pool slowly. You can see a short clip of my dorsal tow with Panama below...
I also got to use my bridge to help out for an activity called Object ID with the dolphins, where we present them with a shape made of PVC and they are supposed to swim over to an L-pole suspended in the water to touch the matching shape with their rostrum. They are bridged if their choice is correct (that was my job), and recalled if it is incorrect (the trainer's job). This is actually a very advanced cognitive question to ask a dolphin, because all of the shapes are made of the same material - so they cannot use echolocation to cheat by detecting differences in density (which would ordinarily allow them to distinguish between two objects). Object ID actually tests their ability to decipher between two objects based solely on one cognitive aspect, such as shape, by their assessment the amount of positive and negative space that shows up in their echolocation.
So my internship ends in just a short month from now. It seems like I've been there forever already, it's very strange. I'm very sad to be leaving, as I have developed a very strong love and attachment for the animals and people at the aquarium. I won't be able to keep myself away for long, though - I plan on driving down for one weekend out of every month until I graduate from college to volunteer and keep in touch with everything that goes on there. :)
So my internship is nearly half over already. And I've gotten to do a lot of different things over the course of time since I last wrote a blog for you guys. I've been very busy trying to get my behavioral write-ups done on time - there are soooo many of them do every week. It's a big pain, but I'm trying hard to keep up with all of it. My first public otter presentation didn't go very well, but then again, no one's ever does. But it wasn't terrible either. You can check out a short clip of that presentation below...
So I figured that the best way to overcome my fear of doing presentations is to be excited about it and do it every chance I get. And that kind of a mindset has totally worked! I've been doing the morning and afternoon otter presentations pretty much every time now and I absolutely LOVE getting out there and talking for the public. People really look to you for honest answers to their questions, and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside to be able to answer those questions with a smile on my face and my voice booming over the sound system, haha. I'm going to start practicing my dolphin presentations this week so that I can narrate for the dolphin shows, too. I can't wait! :) In other areas of my work lately - I've had lots of practice in helping with Indy's painting behavior down on the platform. I've also participated in a number of husbandry sessions in holding Indy's peduncle for the drawing blood behavior, or free-feeding Indy while someone else holds his peduncle, and scrubbing Nicholas' scars on his back from the sunburn he received as a baby. Another intern and I actually got to stick our feet in the water and support him while we scrubbed his scars with betadine and whatnot - ALL ON OUR OWN, but under the trainer's supervision. It was pretty neat. Let's see... I've also gotten to free-feed two of the otters through feeding windows into their exhibit under supervision. My only issue is with reminding myself not to call out the otter's name when he drifts from his position to get him to come back over - that would be reinforcing him for drifting. But other than that, the trainer says my technique looks great. A different trainer had me free-feed our river otter pup by hand directly inside his exhibit, while she held him in her arms. I guess we're trying to reinforce him for not being so squirmy while being held. Before I left for the evening yesterday, the trainers had me free-dive down to the bottom of one of the dolphin pools to retrieve a toy that was being suctioned to the drain. The dolphin I got in with - Winter, the baby dolphin without a tail - was not very happy that I was in her pool. She tried to fluke me, except that she doesn't exactly have flukes anymore. So she resorted instead to pushing her body forcefully into mine every chance she got while I was diving down. It didn't hurt, as she is still fairly small. But she truly is the Miss Attitude of the group of dolphins we have, hahah, it's almost endearing. Last week, some interns and I jumped into the pool that the divers were cleaning (no dolphins) for a quick swim before we left for the night. The dolphins were gated into the two other pools, so I grabbed a mask and dove over to the gates to check them out. With the boys, I could hear and feel them echolocating on me through the gate. It was incredible. They were very interested in knowing what in the world I was doing in the water on the other side of their gate. They kept swimming by, looking at me curiously and trying to stick their rostrums through the round cutout holes in the gate. I then swam over to the other gate we have, where Winter was gated off with Panama. Winter had positioned herself parallel to the gate with her eyeball looking out perfectly through one of the holes at me. She is a very tactile dolphin - she let me swim up to her gate and rub her rostrum and her side through the holes. I never noticed it until then, but her irises are blue! I was astounded - it was an amazing experience. I hope to obtain an underwater camera of some sort really soon so that I can take some pictures to show you guys. Until then, I have an entire slough of photos of everything else in one of my facebook photo albums, so feel free to add me as a friend on there (search for Ashley Holmes in Gainesville, FL) and check the pictures out. After that afternoon, I was never more positive that I had made the right decision in what I want to do with my life. Being away from your life (as you knew it before) is very altering. You meet a lot of new people and you're faced with a lot of new ideas. I've discovered a lot of things about myself that I never noticed before, including a good portion of my strengths and weaknesses. It has forced me to re-evaluate everything that I previously thought I wanted out of life. Most of all, it has enabled to discover myself as a person. I am so very glad that I came out here to do this.
Activity has picked up quite a bit at the aquarium. I've been doing food prep every single morning that I come in, so I feel like I'm mastering everything that needs to be done in there. I have taught a number of other volunteers and interns how to do the music for dolphin presentations, so I'm not the only one doing it anymore. This is nice since it frees me up to help out during presentations with other tasks that the trainers come up with. I've been working the gates for the dolphin pools any time they need the help, the protocol is pretty standard for that. I got to help out with a painting behavior with Indy down on the platform during a presentation last week and I was able to take the painting home with me as a courtesy, since I'm an intern. I love it. :) Since we are also a working animal hospital, the animals routinely undergo checkups and husbandry behaviors that comprise a large portion of their behavior repertoire. So I've been helping one of the trainers sometimes with holding Indy's peduncle still in the water (from the platform) while she practices drawing blood from his dorsal fin. Earlier this week I held a mirror in the dolphin pool with the boys for enrichment purposes - it was very funny to see how to they react to their own reflection. After all, dolphins are one of very few species on this planet that are believed to possess self-awareness... so they swim by and check themselves out. Indy was using his rostrum to forcefully poke at my hand (which was holding the mirror in place in the water) to see if he could get a reaction out of me. When I didn't react so as not to reinforce the behavior, he decided to see if biting my hand would work instead. When that also failed, he eventually gave up. But it was very funny to watch his behavior - it's almost like you can SEE a dolphin's thought process as it's occurring; they're incredibly intelligent creatures and they will always have my deepest love and respect. I am supposed to start my official otter presentations tomorrow for the public - I'm kinda nervous that I'll forget something. But one of the trainers was being silly and decided to spray me with a hose while I was practicing yesterday and I was able to keep talking and not screw up while she was doing that to me. So while it was really funny, it was also a bit of a confidence builder. Because I realized that I DO know my presentation pretty well. I'm supposed to begin free-feeding the otters sometime soon, supervised by trainers. I'll have more on that next week. :)
All went pretty well this week. I have done food prep completely by myself on more than one occasion now, so I'm super comfortable in that area. I'm learning about the medications and whatnot still, but it's only a matter of reading who gets what from a dry-erase board in the food prep room anyway. I have been given more and more responsibility outside of food prep as each day passes. The things I accomplished this week: I was taught how to work the gate controls so that I can assist in gating the dolphins from one pool to another for training sessions and shows. I assisted during one of the presentations in handing medical supplies to one of the trainers on the platform for a husbandry behavior with one of the dolphins. I assisted in a morning training session in retrieving a stomach sample from one of the dolphins - I had to use suction on my end of the tube to get the sample drawn up into it, and it was pretty difficult. But I got it to work! Later on, I helped a little bit in the otter off-exhibit area, spraying feces and water down the drain with a hose. Typical cleanup requirements. I now have two behavioral writeups to complete on free-feeding and basic targeting with the otters - if I can prove that I know my stuff, I will be able to perform these behaviors with them. I stayed up late typing up an otter presentation narration from the material that was originally given to me. I plan on using it as my guide to memorize it. One of the trainers liked it also, so she asked for me to print her a copy. I thought that was pretty cool. I've been practicing over the microphone headset "after hours", just sort of reading it and getting used to speaking articulately and loudly enough over the mic. One of the old interns stayed and tried to coach me through my first one on Thursday. It was super nerve-wracking and scary, but after a few minutes you start getting used to it. So now it's just a matter of me being able to remember all of the information so that I can to talk to the public about the otters! Awesome! Yesterday was especially fun, as I got to help with practicing a behavior with one of the dolphins that we call "v-splash". This behavior is such a powerful upstroke of the flukes that it DRENCHES whoever is standing in in the way. I had to stand across from the trainer and pat the concrete wall after the Sd was given by the trainer. He then swam over to where I was patting the wall and v-splashed with his flukes. After 5 times of this, I was asbolutely soaked. :) It was a ton of fun to be a part of that, especially since it was so hot outside. I also feel like I was able to demonstrate to the trainers my ability to understand and follow directions properly, so hopefully that will be to my advantage as I progress through my internship over the coming weeks. The last thing I did before I left was take my swim test in the dolphin pool (the dolphins were in a different holding pool since divers were also down cleaning it). I had to free-dive to retrieve a weight from the bottom (about a 15 ft. depth), tread water for five minutes with my hands above my head, and do a freestyle lap back and forth across the pool. I think I sufficiently proved I will not drown in the water, haha... Anyway. Between the actual day's tasks, review sheets, tests, behavioral writeups, reading supplemental material, and trying to memorize stuff for my practice presentations... it's a lot of work. It isn't something to laugh at, that's for sure. But I'm thriving under the pressure and I'm just keepin' at it. :)
So I've been interning for an entire week now. How exciting! I have learned sooooo much at the facility from everyone around me. I got my first Review Sheet from the internship coordinator (who is also conveniently my current roommate) today, so I plan on going over that tomorrow and completing it to turn in on Thursday when I return. I don't think it's due 'til Monday, but whatever. I'm not the kinda person to wait until the last minute to do things. Plus I'm kind of eager to self-evaluate all that I've learned so far. :) The cleaning and scrubbing portion of the internship is something that will never go away, so I've become a super-scrubber of sorts over the course of the week. I also learned even more food prep stuff and I finally feel comfortable beginning food prep in the morning by myself if the need ever arises. (Side story: The other morning was crazy when everyone arrived--there was apparently an electrical fire in the wall overnight and it shut off our freezer and all the refrigerators. So everything had been slowly defrosting all night, which is BAD NEWS. So we all scrambled to get food prepped for dolphins and otters really quickly for the morning training sessions, and electricians were called in immediately to fix the problem. They got it corrected rapidly and everything was great after that. It just goes to show how everyone really needs to work as a team in this kind of a career.) I've also learned how to do the music for the dolphin presentations. It's not difficult by any means, but learning the different songs and what type of training sessions they're used for (high energy vs. low key) was something to become accustomed to. I'm a pro at it now. I will also be setting up a "practice presentation" schedule on Thursday with the coordinator so that I can begin practicing my narrative for the otter presentations. Eventually I will be doing a dolphin presentation, too. I'm not afraid to get up in front of a group of people to speak, but if I have to memorize something (like the narrative they gave me), then it makes the situation a little more intimidating. But with something I already know from my own personal knowledge, then I don't mind at all. So I think that I'm just going to practice the narrative 'til I have it down pat, and then I'll have nothing to worry about! I also have my swim test coming up on Saturday to make sure that I'm incapable of drowning myself while in the water with the dolphins, hahaha... just kidding... but yeah. It should go well. I think I just have to retrieve a weight off of the bottom and some other standard tasks. I'm kinda looking forward to it in a way, because it means that I'm also another step closer to being able to work hands on with the animals! :) Yay!
I moved in with one of the trainers on Saturday afternoon. Everything went smoothly, she's very nice and I couldn't be happier with where I've picked to live for the next 3 months! Sunday was spent enjoying a day off... and today was my first day on the job as a marine mammal intern. I learned a lot about food prep from the very moment I stepped foot in the door, and a lot about cleaning, too! I never knew there were so many different WAYS to clean, hahaha... but getting down-and-dirty with all of those frozen fish really requires some serious scrubbing if you want to go home later without scales stuck to your skin. ;) I also had to read about all of the standard protocols used around the aquarium and I got to experience some of them firsthand down in food prep. In the afternoon, I watched two of the dolphin shows to get a feel for how they're run. The show schedule is pretty tight and everyone is always on-the-go. I got a chance to take a picture for one of the guests during a photo-op with Indy the dolphin, which was pretty neat. The task was randomly thrown at me rather quickly, but I felt more than happy to do it! I also met a lot of wonderful people--not just trainers, but also a ton of the volunteers that help the facility to run smoothly every day. I think that a lot of people don't realize how much volunteers are really needed. Some of the long-time volunteers (with whom I was paired up most of the day so they could show me the ropes) even help to run the presentations that are put on for the public. During one of the shows, the trainers could not get the dolphins to gate properly. The volunteer, who was originally only supposed to do a quick intro, somehow managed to talk for almost 25 minutes to distract the public from the gating problems they were having with the dolphins. It was amazing to see how efficiently everyone worked together to get through it. I worked straight through from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (with a lunch break, of course)... and I felt very accomplished when the time came to close up shop. I stopped by Publix on the way home to grab something for dinner quickly--still decked out in my board shorts, teva sandals and aquarium t-shirt, and probably looking exactly as tired as I felt--but it was all worth it. At the checkout line, I watched the cashier (an older woman) eye the CMA logo on the front of my t-shirt carefully, and then she looked up at me and smiled and said, "Getting off work?" , to which I replied, "Yeup!". And then she said something that really made me feel proud: "Good job you guys do out there!" I smiled, thanked her, and turned around to leave with my purchases in hand... and I think I sported the biggest smile EVER the entire way back to the parking lot. It was that one comment that finalized the feeling inside of me that I'm going to LOVE my internship this summer. To know that there are people out there who truly appreciate our efforts in working with such amazing creatures... it's totally awesome. :) I'm psyched about going back on Thursday!
**The names of staff members where interns are working will remain undisclosed, in order to maintain a certain level of privacy.**
I'm 20 years old and I attend the University of South Florida as a Biology major. I was a Marine Mammal Intern at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in the summer of 2007 and this is a compilation of pictures, videos, and blogs of my experience. I plan to become a marine mammal trainer after graduation from college!
So my internship is officially over as of yesterday. It has been an absolutely amazing experience - which is precisely why I am staying in Clearwater to continue volunteering there on a regular basis. :) I guess my plan for the future is just to finish my degree at USF while volunteering at CMA, and then attempt to land a job as an actual trainer somewhere!
My fear of the mic is completely gone - in fact, I really LOVE talking for the shows! I'm also learning more about training and doing new behaviors with the animals as time goes on. It's nice to be expanding my knowledge in that area, this way I'm very prepared when it comes time to get a job. Aaaand I'm STILL doing food prep and scrubbing buckets; as I said from the very beginning, it's a job that never goes away. But I don't mind it really, I just grin and bear it.
able to get in the water by myself with Winter for a play session! I got to rub her and play with her, and give HER some rides around the pool! She would actually lay down on top of me like a mat, letting me hold her while I swam backwards around the pool. It was very cute, actually. And despite her attitudinal nature, she is still very tactile with you when you're in the water with her, which surprised me. She really is a princess dolphin - or at least she thinks so! And I will love her forever for that.
ands-on experience I've obtained... makes me feel incredibly lucky to have been given the opportunity to participate in this internship. I would like to be able to say that it was a "once in a lifetime experience", but that wouldn't be very accurate, now would it? There isn't a doubt in my mind that I will be doing exactly this for the rest of my life. :)
