Day 7

7-23-10

This morning we walked around the zoo for a long time observing the animals and making sure they were all active and normal. We checked on an adult prairie dog that had been trapped, but it wasn’t the one with the hurt leg or the tooth problem, so we let him go.

This afternoon, we took some time for target practice with the dart gun! Earlier this week, Dr. Guthrie gave me a book to read called the Handbook of Wildlife Chemical Immobilization. After reading the sections she pointed out, she gave me a short tutorial on how to load a dart with drug, and how to charge the dart with pressure. When I felt like I understood everything she had told me, we went to get the CO2 pistols and barrels, and the blow dart pipe. We set up a target on a piece of plywood and placed it in the sand pit on the backside of the zoo. I got a lot of experience loading the darts and pressurizing them, which is very confusing the first few times you do it. After a little while, though, it got easy, and I was ready to shoot. After some coaching tips from Dr. Guthrie, I loaded a dart into the barrel, attached the CO2 pistol, and pressurized the CO2 canister. My first few shots were absolutely horrible! I am a decent shot with a regular gun, but this thing was completely foreign to me. Moreover, in a zoo or wildlife setting, you can’t spend any time getting set and aiming your gun. You really can’t even take the time to put it up to your face and look down the barrel. If you hesitate for the amount of time it takes to aim, you’ll miss your chance because the animal will either get agitated and spooked, or he’ll figure out what you’re up to! In all actuality, shooting the target has nothing whatsoever to do with aiming. It has to do with lots of practice and knowing the feel of your gun. Dr. Guthrie gave me a few more tips such as holding the barrel farther away from my body, pointing my finger down the barrel, and turning to fire instead of standing there and aiming.

It worked! My next few shots in a row were on the paper, and I even got a few of them close to the bull’s-eye! Once I felt it work correctly once, it’s almost as if it became easy and sort of second nature to me. Now I know what she means by saying “you just have to get the feel of it.”

At the end of the day, we went to check on a waxy monkey frog that was acting very sick, not moving around, and was emaciated. Dr. Guthrie took a quick look at her and is currently thinking about what she might want to do for this frog.