Each year, dozens of students arrive at the Wildlife Center of Virginia to receive hands-on training in the fields of wildlife rehabilitation and medicine. Summer is an especially busy time for hosting students; undergraduate students spend their summer break with us before going back to school, and the summer season is also when the Center needs more helping hands due to a high volume of patients. This summer, 11 students joined us for the wildlife rehabilitation externship program.
In addition to their training in husbandry, nutrition, capture and restraint techinques, and release criteria for a wide variety of wildlife, rehabilitation students must also complete a project during their externship. Enrichment projects seem to be a particular favorite of the students; these projects can be fun and engaging creations that help stimulate natural behaviors in some of our wild patients or even education ambassadors.
Rehab extern Maia, who just recently finished her two-month externship, decided to focus her project on an enrichment item for our aquatic turtle patients. The Center is currently caring for eight young Yellow-bellied Sliders, and Maia wanted to learn more about these sometimes overlooked, less flashy animals. Maia said, “I didn't know anything about turtle natural history or behavior before starting my research for this project, so it was great to get a chance to learn a lot and then apply what I had learned to something physical that would directly benefit the adorable little sliders.”
Maia created a giant roller ball for the turtles to swim through and forage within, with the idea that the small turtles could really hunt for food like they would in the wild. She took special care in measuring and designing the ball, carefully considering the space required for the young turtles to swim through safely. Maia constructed the floating ball out of floral arrangement wire, expanding foam, and moss, and then introduced the new item to the turtles’ enclosure.
“When the ‘moss ball’ was placed into the tub, about half of the turtles swam away, and half stayed to investigate. It floated, so we had to put a rock at the base so it would stay submerged. We put all of their food in and around the ball as enticement and to encourage them to really forage for their food. And it worked! 
Within a few minutes, the sliders were swimming through the holes of the roller ball, munching on super worms and pieces of shrimp, and crawling on the moss. After they were left alone for about 10 minutes, even more came to explore and even started hanging out in the ball, meaning they felt comfortable in it – which is great,” Maia shared.
Overall – the enrichment project was a success, and Maia had some takeaways based on observations of the turtles and the turtle habitat. “If time and resources weren’t constraints, I would have made it much bigger and maybe even more rectangular so it would fit better in the tub and would be easier to store. Bigger would also mean more room for the turtles to explore, hide, play, and forage. They really seemed to enjoy the ball, and I can only imagine how much more they would love a bigger area to engage in their natural behaviors. But all things considered, I’d say the ball was a success!”
“I love seeing the students so engaged with their projects. It's a great learning opportunity for them, to explore more about natural history and behaviors, and these enrichment projects are great for our patients as well!” – Alex Olvera, Wildlife Rehabilitation Supervisor