"This year, the Wisconsin Wildlife Rehabilitators Association (WWRA) Conference was held in Green Bay at the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary. I was blown away at how large the facility was! We spent the day hearing incredible lectures on different aspects of wildlife rehabilitation and even got to see some of the wildlife being cared for at Bay Beach (like River Otters and Wolves)! My favorite talk of the day was Erin’s presentation, entitled “Your Vertebrae are Showing!” which focused on managing large shell wounds in aquatic turtles. Now I know it may sound biased to say that Erin’s talk was my favorite (Erin is a Wildlife Veterinary Technician at DCHS's Wildlife Center), but I truly loved the case study aspect (how cool to see one of our very own turtles up on the big screen!) and I learned a ton, not only about snapping turtles, which are a species I don’t have much experience with, but about wound care techniques that I hope to be able to apply this summer season! I thought it was fascinating to see just how well seemingly detrimental shell wounds can heal - and what an interesting healing process they go through (shoutout to osteoclasts and fibroblasts). I also got the chance to work with some of the ambassador animals at Bay Beach which ranged from a Blue Jay to a Peregrine Falcon.
"The National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association (NWRA) Conference was held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana this year! It was so cool to be not only in a new state but in a room with hundreds of wildlife professionals from all over the world. We got to escape the cold and snow for a bit and Kate and I took a field trip to the Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center - could we truly say we had been to Louisiana without a swamp visit? We also got to attend a workshop on Bloodwork Basics led by Dr. Nicki Rosenhagen, the wildlife veterinarian at PAWS Wildlife Center in Washington. Focusing on 12 case studies, we were given patient bloodwork to read and interpret to try to come to an initial diagnosis and create a plan for stabilization. The rest of the lectures ranged from how to detect hummingbird fractures to how to encourage opossums to forage in care and everything in between. It was a week full of learning, exploring a new city, and growing as a wildlife rehabilitator and it was tons of fun!"
- Werndli Apprentice, Lynnea Colbert
“This spring was busy with amazing learning opportunities for Lynnea and me. At WWRA in Green Bay, it was fun to see so many new and familiar faces who have a shared love for wildlife. My favorite lectures included Erin’s awesome talk on repairing snapping turtle shells, and Lisa from Wildlife in Need Center’s talk on the natural history of Great Horned Owls. I was able to hear a lot of new things about animals we see so frequently, which is a great reminder of how much there is to learn!
This year’s NWRA conference took us all the way to Louisiana! Being in a room with hundreds of people with the same passion was a very fun experience, and getting to learn about the board and higher levels of organization within the wildlife rehab world was eye-opening. It was cool to hear about facilities on the other side of the country who normally receive completely different animals than we do here in Wisconsin. Between classes, we met a fellow rehabber from Colorado who had only ever seen an opossum once! On the flip side, we saw photos of enclosures in Washington for rehabbing black bears, which was pretty fascinating!
I was able to attend panels focused on home-based rehabilitation, which was very interesting to me as I have mostly worked with larger rehab facilities. Learning about the different tips and hacks that home-based rehabbers have come up with to do their best for animals using their own money and resources was really inspiring!
We also had the opportunity to participate in a workshop focused on using basic bloodwork to guide patient stabilization, and it was a great learning experience. It involved going through 12 different case studies, diagnosing based on bloodwork results, and making treatment plans. Lynnea and I were impressed with our results and just how much knowledge we’ve gained during the course of the apprenticeship so far! We got to end our trip with a field trip to the Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center. It was a beautiful day, and we got to go on a guided hike and see some cool native birds, including egrets. We left Louisiana feeling so grateful for this amazing opportunity to discover more about the career we love.”
- Werndli Apprentice, Kate Hanselman
