Last week we were given our intern whistle, and yesterday was the first day I got to use it! During one of the afternoon training sessions, I went upstairs with Dave, who is our intern mentor (basically the equivalent of a pledge mom for us interns haha). I got to work with our 16 year old dolphin Calvin, who is the smarty pants of the group. I gave him different signals for various behaviors like bows, front tail walks, pec shake (like a fin handshake haha), speed swims and a swim and wave! After Calvin did the behavior correctly, I got to bridge him (blow the whistle) to let him know he was right, and then gave him some fish as a reward! It was soooo awesome! Then I practiced having him rest his rostrum in my hand, turning him on his back, and having him give me his pec fin so that I could turn him on his side and give him a rubdown!!! I was seriously like giddy with excitement! It was one of the coolest things ever! Now that we are learning the techniques of bridging, we are one step closer to starting the window presentations with the dolphins, which is when they are down at the window for a guest presentation and we have them do various behaviors! I only have 2 1/2 months left in this internship and so far, it seems like they are going to be pretty exciting!!!
Here's a pic of the four Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins at The Seas!
Ranier, Khyber, Calvin and Malabar!
On another note, yesterday I had an interview for an animal care and training internship with the U.S. Navy dolphin and sea lion program in San Diego! If I get it, I'll be back in southern CA in January! Don't want to jump the gun, but keep your fingers crossed for me! :)
2 comments:
Omg. I want to print out a wallet-sized picture of those dolphins to carry around and look at when I have a bad day.
fingers crossed! congrats!
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