Blogs from the Field
A healthy future for wildlife, people, and planet.
![Christian Mazariegos placing a tail guard to prevent damage to the tail feathers on a red-tailed hawk anesthetized for radiographs.](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2024-04/Christian%20Mazariegos%20BLOG%20thumbnail.jpg?itok=oGHU_QsN)
April 11, 2024
Santa Barbara is widely regarded as one of the most breathtaking coastal cities within the state of California. Home to perfect weather, beautiful beaches, five-star restaurants, and lively bars, it’s pretty safe to assume that I had a “wild” time and partied it up in this amazing city during the ten weeks I spent living there. Well, not exactly. Instead, I had a “wild” time treating wildlife at the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network (SBWCN) as a veterinary extern....
![Danielle Keerbs shown changing a bandage.](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2023-12/Danielle%20Keerbs%20Costa%20Rica%20Blog%20thumbnail.jpg?itok=IivhZRE0)
January 03, 2024
My heart hammers in my chest as I unlock the door to the enclosure, my eyes hunting through the mesh to find the animal inside. It’s not just the heat making my palms sweaty as I open the door and duck inside; it’s not just the exercise making me short of breath. Of all the animals in the clinic, this is the one that terrifies me the most: the one-armed, two-toed sloth named Ace....
![A whale calf’s entangled flipper and how tightly wrapped the line is.](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2023-11/Hall-Whale-entangled-in-monofilament-Photo-1-Breaching-768x433-1.jpeg?itok=08sgh3LD)
November 08, 2023
For my last summer before clinical rotations, I wanted to gain experience with marine animals. I was accepted as an intern with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Marine Mammal Rescue & Research (MMRR) program in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, a unique geographical area where tides and coastlines can suddenly trap a dolphin or whale in inches of water....