Wildlife Photograph

Ijams, UT staff visit International Crane Foundation

Saturday July 28, 2007
Crane husbandry is topic of delegation's visit

Last April, Ijams veterinarian Dr. Louise Conrad, UT Associate Professor (Avian and  Zoological Medicine) Dr. Cheryl Greenacre and I visited Baraboo, Wisconsin home of the International Crane Foundation (ICF).  I cannot say enough about the wonderful staff at ICF.  We met with veterinary and aviculture staff, as well as the facilities manager, development director, education director and gift shop manager.  They all took time out of their busy days to give us personal tours and their undivided attention.  I could not take notes quickly enough and we all felt the trip was very worthwhile.  ICF has habitat exhibits, great educational displays and a fantastic education program. Take time to visit their website: www.savingcranes.org; you will be inspired. The education director Joan Garland shared ICF’s educational curriculum for grades 1 through 12 and welcomed us to adapt it for programming in East Tennessee.

 

In June, Nancy Zagaya, Licensed Veterinary Technician from the UT Veterinary Teaching Hospital also visited ICF.  Nancy was thrilled to see a new chick guarded by its parents in the whooping crane exhibit and was excited to witness surgical procedures on a crane.  Nancy’s experiences add to the information base being built by the UT Veterinary Hospital and Ijams Nature Center to better prepare us to care for our own cranes in the future.

 

ICF staff members remarked that we are preparing to care for cranes the “right way.” They were pleased that we are taking the time to learn all we can and to gain experiences that will better prepare us for the challenges of housing captive cranes. We are excited about the future and we know all of our members are too!

 

- By Pam Petko-Seus, Wildlife Biologist and Curator/Exhibits Manager

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