Whats going on at DRC?!

Today was an exciting day at work! We have so much going on! First of all, DRC participated in something called the "Wounded Warriors Ride" which was where all of these wounded men and women who have served in our military got to come and swim with the dolphins! It was so cool to see these men and women and how happy they were just to get to swim with our dolphins! Many of them were missing limbs or had been injured while serving and it really was cool to get to be a part of something so amazing! I also got to feed Pax, Pandora, and Aleta today!! Pax is one of the big boys and lives with Talon, who I got to feed the other day. Pandora and Aleta both live up front and both have one year old babies. I got the feed the moms while Sarah got to feed the kids next me! We had such a good time. Here is a picture of those three from today!

Pax



Pandora


Aleta

It has also been pretty cold here. I know what your thinking....cold in the keys?! yeah right. Now I thought that too, but with the wind blowing it can get very cold, even for me, who isn't used to the heat so far. Since it's been so cold and windy, I haven't been able to wear shorts. I get to wear my "foul weather pants." Many of you have no idea what these look like, so I took a picture of them so you would understand. They are basically waterproof overalls and they keep me warm and dry....they are easy to clean and very comfy! Then you can wear a long sleeve T-shirt or sweatshirt under them and you can be more comfortable out on the docks with the dolphins. What do you think?! haha

Another cool thing going on at work is that we just got a new baby sea lion!! Her name is Lina and she came from California. She came from a stranding facility (which is like an animal shelter) and we took her in because she needed a home! She just got to DRC on Thursday night. Our owner, Mandy, and one of our managers Cheryl, flew to California to meet her and get to know her. They then flew back with her to Miami. Because Lina is new to our facility and we do have other sea lions currently, Lina has to be in quarantine for a little while until they get her acclimated and used to DRC. So she has her own pool and house off to the side. She gets fed her own special fish and we are also doing watches on her to make sure she is OK. I get to do a watch tonight from midnight to 8 in the morning! Luckily I have Saturday off to rest and get back on a normal schedule. I am really excited to do the watch because she is just so cute! Shes about 2 years old and weighs only 70 lbs. About as big as my dog Sadie! Here is a picture of her that Sarah took on her phone today. She swims really fast and only pops up for a min. so its not too good, but you can see how cute she is already!

And finally, the last cool thing happening at work right now is media is everywhere! DRC just published a new research article on imitation in the comparative journal of psychology!! Its a study based on "blindfolded imitation." So what happens is that Tanner gets these things called eye cups put on his eyes. They stay on just by suction and all the dolphin has to do is blink and it pops off. They put these on both of his eyes to blind fold him. Then another trainer asks Kibby to preform a behavior, and then Tanner is asked to imitate what Kibby is doing! They can do this so well and its because of their echolocation. They echo locate on the other dolphin to see what it is doing, and then Tanner copies him. Its pretty cool and we've had the local news, CNN, and military TV filming lately talking about this new research focus! If you google channel 6 news Miami, and then search "dolphin research center," it is the first article that pops up and you can watch the video there too.

Bear update: Bear is currently eating some food right now. Hes been wild again, I guess because its close to 8:30, which is his party time. Here is what I came home to today....

... I guess he spent the day surfing the net.

And then on Wednesday, I went grocery shopping and he tried to help me put up the groceries...or he was trying to get cool.

haha, hey at least he was trying to help!

Well, thats all that has been going on so I hope you all have a wonderful night! I'll be up all night watching Lina, so if you wake up in the middle of the night, you can think of me :)