I spent this summer in Seward, Alaska at the Alaska SeaLife Center, an organization that not only houses many Arctic ocean species, but that also plays an essential role in conducting research on Arctic ocean ecosystems. As the Avian Husbandry and Research Intern I was able to participate in a wild seabird and marine mammal research survey and lead husbandry research on birds housed at the Alaska SeaLife Center in addition to performing husbandry duties. Most days, my main job was to, mostly independently, take care of the flock of 3-year old research common murres, a species of seabird closely related to puffins, including food preparation, feeding, training, health monitoring, cleaning both staff areas and the bird habitat, periodically deep cleaning pools and other areas, preparing foot soaks for the murres to help prevent and treat foot problems, checking enclosure netting, maintaining live traps for weasel pests, providing enrichment, and maintaining avian influenza precautions. In between husbandry tasks I tracked breeding season behaviors in the subadult common murre flock for husbandry research, the conclusions from which help to determine which individuals were pairing, which is important information for the department as it informs future decisions about other research and bird placement. Through shadowing the vet department I also learned about exam techniques for things like blood draws and radiographs, sample preparation, identifying white blood cell types in different species, and physiology through necropsy experience.
