Feliz Natal!

Well Hello Lower 48!  I'm back after being away for nearly 11 months!!!!!  I arrived in Texas on December 15th to a muggy day.  I left Alaska just before a blizzard hit the center causing it to close down.  Only to arrive in a Sunny Texas where it was 75 degrees that day.  You could say it was a bit of a climate change.    The first night back we had our annual moms vs. moms soccer game.  My youngest brother plays soccer on his highschool team.  Every year they have a fun game where the moms from all 4 highschool teams play in a game.  This picture is with my mom, corey, and parker (my 2 younger brothers). 

I was very excited to meet the newest member of our family...Low Rider AKA Rider!  She is a rescue dog.  One day my brother, Corey, and mom were at Petsmart.  They had dogs up for adoption and it was love at first site for my brother.  On her papers it says she is a mix of Lab and Basset Hound.  I am convinced that she also has a bit of pit bull in her.  Pitt Bulls have a bad reputation for being aggressive dogs.  However, I believe that it is not the dog that is bad but the owner that trains it to be aggressive.  All dogs have the potential to be aggressive and threatening.  I believe that a domesticated animal, such as a dog, if given attention and love can be a life long friend.  So here she is making her first debut on my blog....Low Rider!

 One reason why I headed back to Texas a bit earlier for the holidays was because my brother Parker was getting married!!!!!  This wonderful, cute, couple on the right became Mr. and Mrs. Parker Leighton on December 17th 2011.  Lauren and Parker went to Cancun for their Honeymoon.  After they got back on the 23rd they still had a few wedding gifts to open.  I think one of my favorite gifts they received was a pair of Bride and Groom frogs.  You can see Parker looking at the frog as he opens it.

Here he is loving his first ornament with his new bride; a pair of bride and groom frogs!

 On Christmas Day we headed to Church.  Church is one of the things I miss most being away from my family.  I also can't remember the last time Christmas landed on the same day as Church.  On Christmas morning it is tradition to open our stockings first in our new pajamas.  So after opening our stockings, going to church, opening gifts, it was about time for lunch.  Here is my Dad with my dog, Delilah.  Delilah is also a rescue dog.  I found her near a dumpster in Louisiana.  She is a miniture Dachsund.  Don't let her size fool you...she is a HANDFULL!  She is constantly trying to get people to play fetch with her.  On christmas morning we had to give her new toys to distract her while we opened gifts.  It didn't really work.  She quickly got bored with her new toys and found one of her favorite tennis balls to nicely drop in our laps to throw to her. 

Parker and Lauren also joined us for their first time as Husband and Wife.  It was fun having a new family member, my sister-in-law, with us on Christmas Day.

After spending the morning with parents and siblings; we meet up with my cousins,aunts, uncles,grandfather, and Great Grandmother.  This year we ate lunch at Bouca Di peppo.  It is an Italian restaurant.  In all we have 21 family members on my mother's side that live all in Texas...(except me). 

 On the left side we had the "adults" sit together.  On the right the cousins, and now my brother's wife, all sit together. 

 A somewhat new tradition that has gone on for 3 years now is our White Elephant Gift Exchange.  Because there are so many family members it can be stressfull to buy everyone a gift.  So a few years ago we decided to switch to  white elephant gift exchange.  You can either buy a really cheap gift or even find something from around the house.  I wanted to make my gift something alaskan.  I bought a moose hat from our giftstore at the center.  I was thinking that the younger cousins (around 10 years old or so) would be fighting over the moose cap.  I never would have thought that my 21 year old cousin and his sister in highschool would have been competeing for it!  All in all you could say our gift exchanges are always a lot of fun. 

 I do go a little photo crazy when I am home since it may be a while till I am back home.  Here is me and my mother. 

This is my great grandmother.  We all call her Nana.  She just celebrated her 94th birthday!

 You go Girl!!!

Now since I will be away from the center for another month or so; I still get wonderful emails from Doug Lindstrand to keep me filled in on whats going on up in Alaska.  These next four pictures are what happens when you play with a 350 pound, 6 month old, moose named Nelson. 

Don't worry no interns were injured during the filming of this event. 

Thanks Doug for these pictures!

I also wanted to explain the title of todays blog.  I was catching up on my facebook today and noticed that I had 2 un-read messages from people in Brazil.  Both were viewers of a television documentary about our center.  Earlier in the summer I was interviewed by a journalist from Brazil.  I completely forgot about the interview.  When I was reading the messages today it reminded about the interview.  They were very interested in learning how the cubs were doing.  So todays title "Feliz Natal" is simply Merry Christmas in portuguese for the loyal followers of our animals at the center.

Here is the latest picture of Taquka and Shaguyik.....

Shaggy is on the left with Taquka on the right

Feliz Natal Lower 48....and I guess now Alaska and Hawaii....y Brazil!

ErIn

Tis the Season

Gilly, aka the sweetest moose ever, was posing very well a few days ago so I decided to take advantage of this opportunity.  The calves are getting huge!  Gilly must weight over 300 pounds!  I remember when we first got him this past summer, and he weighed 40 pounds.  We have to now start being careful around them because of their size.  Even though we bottle raised them they still have natural instincts when they are scared or feel threatened.  I suspect Nelson will be the dominant of the 2.  He has learned that he can kick now.  It is amazing how a wild animal can still develop their own unique personalities.  Nelson is the boss and straight to business.  Gilly is the lovable and playful calf. 

On wednesday I had a day off.  I didn't really have any plans and didn't want to waste a day laying around indoors.  Mike, our executive director, was going to an event wednesday with a reindeer.  I asked if I could tag along if he needed any help.  I am very glad I went.  On the way to the event Mike decided that he wanted to buy a reindeer from the reindeer farm in Palmer,Alaska.  At the center we have all male reindeer.  This means that they have all dropped their antlers already.    The reindeer farm had a 4 year old steer that still has his antlers.  So here is a little bit of reindeer knowledge:  A steer means that the animal has been castrated.  In reindeer this means that they will retain their antlers much longer than the typical male reindeer because of the difference in hormone levels.  This picture above is our newest addition to our herd.  This is Bert the reindeer.  He is very lovable and is fitting in well at the center.  After picking him up we went to an aviation museum at the Anchorage airport.  They were having an event celebrating a certain type of retired airplane.  There was lots of food, music, games, and Bert the reindeer.  So we hung out for about 3 hours letting people meet Bert and talking about him.  I have to say this was  the first time I have ever felt like it could not have felt anymore like Christmas time.  I was standing outside in Alaska while it was snowing holding a reindeer, and listening to christmas music. 

This previous photo was taken by Clark Mishler, a photographer that emailed me this photo from the wednesday night event.   

 This picture was taking by Doug Lindstrand.  Mike and I had just gotten Bert ready for the event. 

Mike posing with Bert.  We now have about 11 reindeer at the center.  Bert will be making more appearances since he has been trained very well to be comfortable with people taking pictures with him. 

Photo again by Doug Lindstrand.














On Friday I gave a behind the scenes to tour to some returning friends who also brought 2 friends from Michigan.  I always love giving these tours.  It not only adds some variety to my day, but I always get to meet cool people.  We actually ended the tours in August;however, if we get requests for specific days and we have a guide available we would love to give a tour.  The tours are also a way to not only get to meet the animals up close, see how a day in the life of an intern is, but it also contributes directly to the animals 100% since we are a non-profit organization.   Here I am introducing Snickers to my tour.  Doug Lindstrand also got this snapshot. 

Well fellow readers I am sad to say that I will be leaving Alaska in 4 days to return to Texas for the holidays.  But fear not!  I will be returning the the wildlife center in Portage,Alaska.  I will still be updating my blog during my vacation.  Who knows...I may even get to meet some animals from a previous internship...bearcats, sloth, hyenas, camels....and many more!  Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!!!!!
Goodnight Lower 48...and Hawaii
ErIn

Yesterday, I had a porcupine presentation in Whittier.  It was Snickers first trip through the whittier tunnel. 

I did a presentation to the pre-school/kindergardeners first.  Then, I went and introduced Snickers to the junior high/highschoolers.  The whole school only has 37 kids!  I graduated with 1,063 seniors in my highschool!  That is more than the entire town of whittier!  You can see the kid in yellow on the bottom row is holding Stanley. 

After we got back from the presentation I still needed to feed the owls.  This time I wanted to capture the feeding on camera.  I was feeding them one quail each.  The first owl to usually eat is the female.  In birds of prey the females are typically larger than the males.  Our female,Snappy, loves to fly to the hollowed log on top of the enclosure.  The male, Hooty, usually eats the mice/or quail off of the lower branches of their tree. 

                            Here, Hooty is jumping down to the branch with the quail placed on it. 

After the female grabbed the quail from the upper log she flew to another perch.  You can see her holding the quail with her talons.

I really liked this picture!  The male usually holds onto his food a bit longer than the female.  He was holding the quail with his talons.  The way he was holding it makes it look like it is standing up just under him. 

Today at work the moose calves went into a Banana coma.  We used an entire palet of bananas to distribute through the center today.  At the end of the day Jonathan and I went to feed them bananas.  They had just been fed some of the bananas from the pallet.  They were so full that they didn't even get up to greet us!  This was definitely a first.  Jonathan wanted to take advantage of this opportunity and take some snap shots with us standing in between the calves.  I also had to get a picture with my man Gilly.

 Nelson is on the right and Gilly on the left.  Nelson was even burping a little.  The moose had banana breath.  I think it is safe to sy that they may be sick of bananas for at least a day or so.  Well ok, so maybe only a few hours or so till they are ready for more bananas. 

Tomorrow we will see just how excited they are to get more bananas.  Until then.....Goodnight lower 48...and Hawaii
ErIn

Flat Stanley

 Well readers sorry for the absence.  Have you ever heard of Flat Stanley?  This is the second time I have been able to help out with a project called Flat Stanley.  Many kids in school seem to do this project.  They have a paper figure known as Stanley and then they take tuns getting pictures with Stanley all over the world.  I have to admit getting Flat Stanley sent to the wildlife center is a really unique place for Stanley to visit. 

In this case Stanley was able to meet with Gilly.  Gilly almost tried to eat Stanley, but don't worry readers Stanley escaped. 

 Next, Stanley headed over to help feed Jewelie.  Jewelie was more interested in her grean beans and grapes then eating Stanley. 

Last, but definitely not least, Stanley was introduced to Snickers.  Snickers is always happy to meet new people.  Snickers has been introduced to Stanley a few times. 

Stanley will be leaving for New York to share his adventures at the center to his classroom. 

We have 7 bears at the center and currently 5 of them are hibernating.  The brown bears are usually the first to hibernate.  Next, Uli the black bear will be hibernating until late March.  Kuma, the male black bear, will hibernate on and off all winter.  Last, we have our 2 Kodiak bear cubs.  The bear cubs are still awake.  They have never actually learned how to hibernate.  It will be interesting to see if they naturally learn to hibernate.  I think they will naturally learn.  We are feeding them less and less, it seems, every day.  They bears seem to be less active every day.  Doug Lindstrand was able to send me snap shots after I fed the cubs. 

Photo courtesy of Doug Lindstrand

Today, was my day day off.  I must say it was one of my favorite.  I skied for 6 straight hours!  I am very tired and yet I am excited to listen to some blue grass music tonight. 

Tomorrow, saturday, will be another day with the animals.  Who knows what the day will bring.  Well readers I guess you will wait and see!

Goodnight lower 48....and Hawaii,

ErIn

Happy Thanksgiving

 We have had lots of snow these past few days.  We are also about to start training our 2 moose calves Gilly and Nelson.  However, I am not so sure I can even call them calves anymore.  They are taller than me!  Gilly was very interested in following me and my camera around.  While I was trying to be patient and get pictures with the 2 of us; Doug Lindstrand was passing by.  He quickly hopped out of his van and snapped a few photos of me with Gilly and Nelson.  Gilly is the lovable one.  He even gave me a few kisses.

Nelson, is the more physical calf.  If we put our heads down he loves to push his head against ours.  I think he will be the more dominant Bull between the 2. 

This same day we had a surprise visitor.  We had done some filming a few days earlier with our 3 year old bull moose.  Vanessa Hudgens was even in the scene with Jack the moose.  Vanessa, her sister, and her mother stopped by the center for a tour.  Jordan gave them a tour of the center.  I also hopped into the yukon to give them some bananas for Jack.  They were able to feed Jack, snickers, visit with the moose calves, and also meet Shaggy and Taquka. 

 At the end of their visit I was even able to get a photo with Vanessa. 

The movie Frozen Ground is expected to come out later next year.  Hopefully I will be able to make it to the premier!  It was very nice to meet Vanessa and her family.  They were very sweet and interested in everything Jordan talked about.

Just 2 days after filming Jack actually lost one of his antlers!  Wow! Talk about good timing!  I don't even want to think about what would have happened if he lost it before filming!  Tomorrow, Friday, is a free day at the center.  I am working in the ticket booth.  Today Alyeska, the resort in Girdwood, opened for skiing.  I am really excited because I may go skiing on Sunday!  Hopefully, I won't be as bad as my first day on Alyeska in February!  I remember how soar I was after that.  Wish me luck!

The photos from this blog were taken by the wonderful Doug Lindstrand.  As always, very appreciated Doug...Thanks!!!!!!

Goodnight Lower 48,

ErIn

Now that's cold!

 These past few days I have felt what is like to be a real alaskan.  When I arrived in February the coldest temperture I experienced was about -10 degrees.  We had a warm winter last winter.  Now, however, this month is colder than a typical November I hear.  Today it was -18 degrees!  Now that's COLD!!!!  On wednesday we were supposed to use our 3 year old bull moose for filming a movie scene.  However, it was so cold that they had to actually push filming back a day. 

On my last day off I took this picture just as the sun was setting.  I loved the color of the sky.

 Purple is, and always will be, my favorite color.  The sunsets in Alaska always surprise me.  I have yet to get used to the beautiful colors in the skies of alaska. 

 In order to get Jack ready for filming I had to go in with him a few times a day.  He needed to get comfortable with walking in and out of the trailer.  Of course, I had to take this opportunity to get a snapshot with him.

 On every wednesday in November Jonathan and I have an hour to do some sort of presentation at Girdwood Elementary School.  This past wednesday we used Snickers for a presentation.  We taught kids ages 3-9 about porcupines.  After Snickers made his debut we gave every kid some playdo to make their own porcupine.  Then they used spaghetti to represent quills on their porcupines.  This coming wednesday we will be teaching about insulation animals have in Alaska. 

Friday it was time to use Jack for filming.  Mike and Matt went to Anchorage around noon with Jack.  Even though filming wasn't until at least 5ish Jack needed to get used to his surroundings.  Jonathan, Jeremy, and I headed into Anchorage around 2pm.  We then froze our limbs off until filming started around 4:30pm.  The excitement kept any of us from thinking logically about staying warm.  Jack is behind us in the trailer. 

Jack did very well in filming.  He was even in a scene with Vanessa Hudgens! 

Here I am trying to get Jack back into the trailer after filming was over.  Of course it was easier getting him out than in.  Eventually tangerines, bananas, grain, and a pie pumpkin was his treat once he got back into his trailer. 

I am very excited to get to start training our younger moose, Gilly and Nelson.  We need them to be able to be comfortable with filming if they are needed. 

 Goodnight Lower 48!
ErIn

Musk and an Elk?

I said that yesterday I would post pictures from the bear cubs' surgery.  This first picture is
during Shaguyik's surgery.  Melissa, on the right, is visiting from Montana.  She works for Bear Trust International.  She had to continually monitor Shaggy's breathing to make sure it stayed normal.  Also, we checked for any signs of waking up.  Meredith, my roomate is in the middle of the picture.  We were both in aw of our opportunity to work so close to a brown bear. 

Photo by: Doug Lindstrand

The hardest part seemed to be actually loading and unloading the cubs.  Here, we are unloading Shaggy into her recovery pen.  We made sure to provide about 3 bales of Straw for cushion. 

 We have been checking on her every few hours since to make sure she always has snow available for hydration. 

Tonight I gave her some tangerines to help with hydration as well. 
Photo by: Doug Lindstrand

This morning started off with some abnormal excitement.  The youngest male elk hopped the fence into the musk ox enclosure.  He then started challenging the musk ox.  Immediately we made sure visitors stayed in the gift store or that they didn't drive around to the area they were working to remove the elk in. 

Elk and musk ox photos by: Doug Lindstrand

Once the young elk was removed; it was decided that it was time to combine all the elk. 

You can see that even before they were put together the Roosevelt elk,on the left, was already trying to fight the breeding bull through the fence. 

Photo by: Doug Lindstrand

Then the action really started!  Brawny, the roosevelt elk fought the breeding elk all day long!

Photo by:Doug Lindstrand

I had a special treat left over for snickers.  It was the last avocado paid for through a donation. 

 Snickers wasn't the only animal to get a treat.  The Wood Bison were very excited to get some more donated pumpkins. 

Kuma also got a pumpkin, or two,  along with a few tangerines as a treat.  Later, Uli even made an apperance after a few weeks of hibernating.

I went to check on the bear cubs.  Taquka is finally beginning to act himself.  He is still a little sore, obviously, but he is coming around. 

As often as I am chasing away these pesky birds; I stopped to get a few shots of one particular Magpie. 

We have filming with Jack on this Wednesday.  We are loading him up in the trailer for practice.  We also want Jack to be used to the trailer. We loaded him up today and drove around the center.  He did very well.  I was able to visit him 2 times today with donated bananas and bread. 

Tomorrow is my day off!  I think I will be heading into Girdwood for a nice cup of coffee and a book to read.  We may even try to walk a nice trail.  I hope to get some good outdoor shots tomorrow.  Guess what....ski season starts in about 2 weeks!  I guess it is time to get the Go Pro camera out!

Goodnight lower 48 and Hawaii,

ErIn