Wildlife Rehabilitation Internship at Ohio Wildlife Center

Merrick Hall Room 301

Ohio Wildlife Center treats approximately 8,000 sick, orphaned, or injured native Ohio wildlife every year. Throughout the spring semester, we completed a three-month internship to learn all aspects of wildlife rehabilitation. During our time at the Ohio Wildlife Center, we learned basic handling skills of a variety of species, including orphaned animals. Spring is the busiest time of year and most of our time was consumed with doing intake exams and tube feedings of infant animals. In addition to the wildlife hospital, the Ohio Wildlife Center has a pre-release facility located in Powell. Once a patient is deemed healthy enough to leave the medical supervision of the veterinary technicians at the hospital, they are typically sent to the pre-release facility (PRF). The facility has outdoor, open cages so that the wildlife patients can become acclimated to living outside before they are released into the wild. At PRF, we provided the patients with supervision, food, and personalized medical attention, so they would be fully healed and independent before release. During our time at the wildlife hospital, an avian influenza outbreak was prevalent across the United States. Our hospital had to adhere to certain protocols to prevent outbreaks of avian influenza. We were trained on how to examine and treat intake patients who were suspected of being carriers of this virus. We developed a variety of valuable skills on how to properly treat and rehabilitate many different species. Learning the inner workings of a wildlife center will be helpful during our future career paths in zoology.