Help for Wildlife in Minnesota

I can't say enough about the tremendous work the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota (WRC) is doing to care for sick, injured, and orphaned wild birds and animals.  It is one of the largest wildlife rehabilitation clinics in the U.S., treating more than 8,600 animals each year.

For the first time, I attended the WRC Open House on Feb. 7, 2016.  I picked out a stuffed toy robin to go through a mock exam.  My robin needed to be taped up because he had a broken wing.  We went to radiology and along the way, volunteers and veterinary students explained how and why certain procedures are done and what type of cage my poor robin would be in during his recovery of about 3 weeks.  Everything was so interesting!  For one thing, I did not know birds have nucleated red blood cells!

A Wonderful Surprise in Boston: The New England Aquarium

I was pleasantly surprised by the large collection of penguins at the New England Aquarium.  I spent quite a while watching the African, rockhoppers, and little blue penguins in the various pools along with a number of people in the pools cleaning the displays.  I would guess this is a constant battle.  The giant ocean aquarium also has a nice display of sharks, sea turtles, barracudas, and moray eels along with divers who were again cleaning the display.