Update: Week 3

Hello Everyone!

I am glad to report that I aced my dolphin identification exam this last week! It took a lot of intense staring at the dolphins but I can now say I can identify the dolphins; it might take a minute but I can do it! This week we continued in our public speaking course; we have each been assigned a presentation to learn that is usually given to the public. I received the topic of baby dolphins, so I am sure that I will be sharing more about that in the future.

This last week I was also able to be closer to the sea lions and observe the trainers with them. There are 4 sea lions here, their names are Lina, Kilo, Diamond and Karen. They have all come from different facilities/ were rescued and have DRC as their forever home. One of my favorite movies is called Andre (some of you may have heard of it), it’s about a seal in Maine. The interesting part is that in the movie, Andre is played by a sea lion. If you haven’t seen it, go watch and enjoy it.  What I am realizing about Sea Lions is that I won’t actually get to have a “friendly” buddy sea lion. Most of the sea lion interaction is through protected contact with a fence between you. That makes me a little bit sad but it is still fun to watch them and prepare to work with them. We also had a course on sea lions and dolphins this past week, and it has been interesting to learn how they are different but also about the similarities they share by being designed as deep diving animals. This week we begin our animal handling course which should be very interesting!