Nurturing Nature

Hello! My name is Taylor Hebert and I am a junior Biology-Environmental Studies combined major. This summer, I am working as an Operations Intern for Gold Country Wildlife Rescue in Auburn, California, a small city east of Sacramento, near where I am originally from. Gold Country Wildlife Rescue (GCWR) is a non-profit organization built upon the work of interns and volunteers with goals to rescue, rehabilitate, and release wildlife species native to the Sierra Nevada ecosystem.

Additionally, they work to raise public awareness through community outreach events about how the rapid urbanization of Northern California continues to negatively impact the existence of our native species. By reintegrating wildlife into their natural habitat, GCWR also improves food security and access to fresh water to both indigenous and non-indigenous communities through the strengthening of the ecosystem by the presence of its most crucial species.

My responsibilities here include working alongside wildlife technicians through the steps of supportive animal care, primarily with birds, from the moment of intake to when the animal can be released. I have had the pleasure to work with a variety of avian species here, including House Finches, House Sparrows, Scrub Jays, Stellar Jays, Magpies, American Robins, Northern Mockingbirds, Cliff Swallows, Mallard Ducks, Canadian Geese, Red-tailed Hawks, Great-Horned Owls, Egrets and the list continues!

During the summer months, the breeding season has come to an end this year for most of these species, which means that we receive hundreds of baby and juvenile animals on a monthly basis. We raise them through a process that prevents habituation to human activity, so that they are not dependent on the care that we have provided for them when they are released back into their habitat. For avians, they are fed formula every hour for the first few weeks of life, then they are fed berries or mealworms every hour until they begin to self-feed on their own with the seed we leave for them. Once they are self-feeding and show signs of flying, we transport them into a larger enclosure for flight tests for another few weeks. Finally, these birds are ready to be released back into their Sierra Nevada environment. The process of rehabilitation and release is fascinating and I am so grateful that I get to directly contribute to the well-being of these beautiful birds.

I decided to intern with Gold Country Wildlife Rescue this summer for a hands-on learning experience with wildlife that directly correlates to what I want to pursue in the future: Wildlife Biology. Through my time at Whitman College, I have been most interested in classes related to animal biology, ecology and evolution, which has sparked my interest in wildlife and how they behave. This internship full of identifying species, learning how to replicate their own habitat in our facility, and feeding them species-specific diets has taught me so much about the behavior of avians native to my hometown. I hope to carry this knowledge into future career opportunities that come my way after my Whitman career. I am so grateful for the opportunity to intern for Gold Country Wildlife Rescue, and this is an experience that I will never forget!