Quartz - ring seal (Phoca hispida). He's fat. He's only about 3 1/2 feet long. He was released at the northern most part of the state the day after this pic was taken, and that's a satellite tag glued to his back (it will fall off). He's doing good.
Agate - spotted seal (Phoca largha).
Agate
Copper - spotted seal.
Copper
Coal - harbor seal (Phoca vitulina).
Coal. Suckling on the side of his tote.
Garnet - harbor seal. Letting water pour on his head.
Garnet
Kyanite, Ky for short - harbor seal.
Ky
Ky. He always sucks on his right pinky finger - always.
Nickel - harbor seal. He was premature and very tiny, but he is doing great.
Little Nickel.
Marble - harbor seal.
Marble. Resting on his heating pad.
Topaz - harbor seal. Unfortunately, we lost this little one. He suddenly got really sick and we were unable to save him. It sucked.
Topaz
Onyx - harbor seal.
Onyx. Suckling on his tote.
A baby duck that came in, but died a few days later.
Zircon - the bald eagle. Restraining this guy was the scariest thing I did all summer. He was transported to the terrestrial bird sanctuary in Anchorage.
Jade - yearling elephant seal (Eumetopias jubatus). Sadly, this one did not make it. The definitive cause is yet to be determined.
Jet - harbor seal. When he came in he was so malnourished that he had been losing muscle mass and couldn't even move his hind end. Now he is doing much better and loves to swim.
Jet - sitting on his heating pad.
Jet - must have had something in his eye, which made it look like he was winking at me.
Gravel - harbor seal. Still keeping a close eye on this one b/c his right rear flipper is fractured, but he seems to be doing okay.
Ky- getting nice and fat. I love Ky.
Zinc - adult sea otter (Enhydra lutris). Very rare to have an adult otter arrive still living, so it's a unique opportunity. He's looking pretty shabby, and we don't know what happened to him. We are spending a lot of time now just making sure he survives. He likes crabs.
Jasper - sea otter pup. Pretty much the cutest thing ever. He's probably about 4 weeks old. It's important to keep in mind that due to the extensive parental care sea otters require, this animal is unreleasable. He is a wild animal that will spend the rest of his life in captivity, in a zoo or aquarium.
Jasper - sleeping w/ his toys. He requires 24 hour care, so on top of regular seal shifts, we are now also doing otter shifts.
Me and Jasper. Not a good picture of him, but you get the idea of his size. He's actually very light, he just has so much fur; otters have about 1 million hairs per square inch, b/c they have no blubbler.
Jasper - sleeping. I love his little paws! They're so unique.
Jasper - baby otter burrito. This is how he gets restrained so he can be tube fed. It's extremely important that he eat all of his food, so when he won't take it all from his bottle he gets tubed.
Jasper and his first solid food. He ate this piece of squid, and it was really exciting to watch.
Nickel - pretty much the cutest animal ever
Sandy's release
Rocky - our new baby boy. That's right two sea otter pups. He came in on July 31st and was about 2-3 weeks old.
Rocky in his crib. Sea otter pups always get the Simpson's sheet.
Emerald - a Steller sea lion. Very cool that she came in, but she was very sick and died later that night. I did get to help w/ the necropsy the next day, which was, uh, bloody.
Coal
Garnet - release day in Juneau
Gravel - had a toe amputated, but doing awesome.
Jasper - loves to swim
me and Jasper
Jasper - with his little blue funnel toy
Rocky
me with Rocky in my right arm and Jasper in my left
Jasper getting his bottle
From left: Nickel, Marble, Coal, Jet, Onyx
Nickel and Marble
Mica - the fur seal. 1st ever one to arrive at the center.
Mica - doing good. Likes fish.
Nickel - what a fatty!
Onyx - poor kid can barely see. He developed cataracts and was determined non-releasable. He'll find a permanent home in captivity.
Jasper - in the car on the way to the airport in Anchorage.
Jasper - going for a car ride, then a plane ride.
me and Rocky at the airport.
Rocky sleeping in my lap in the car at the airport.
Rocky and me, Jasper and Vanessa. Both otters were transferred to the Minnesota Zoo. 8-30-07.
Chuckchi - a walrus that took several weeks to rescue. All I really wanted all summer was a walrus and he came in about a week after I left. Figures.
