Introducing Imogen!

On Monday I started my work experience at the rehabilitation centre. I wanted to work here for the two weeks because it’s something different to all the jobs that everyone else is doing. Everyone at the centre is very polite and has made me feel very welcome on my first day. The first few days have been interesting and I have learnt some new things from the jobs I have done, such as how to measure the salinity in the water as you need a specific amount for the animal in it which I did not know until I came here, and I have also learnt how to set traps to possibly catch terrapins, so far we have not caught any.

Enjoying a cup of tea before doing some serious tasks!

I find the jobs I have done so far interesting as they are active and involve going outside which is better than being in an office most of the time. I like the jobs particularly because you see different things everyday and learn something new.

My first job at the centre was to catch a few crabs as Eden a turtle currently recovering at the centre needs some living creatures in his tank, despite my fear of crabs I managed to catch a few and spot lots of them, I learned that when they are all put together they are very aggressive and will fight and end up killing each other, so there are only a few living ones left.

Yesterday one of the jobs that we did was bird monitoring, there was a lot of walking involved but we managed to spot many species of birds. During the three days that I have been here there are only two animals at the centre, one of them being a terrapin named Chichi that was domesticated and now that the person looking after it has left and gave him to the centre, where they are helping it get back to being independent and ready for the wild again. The other one is a turtle named Eden no more than a few years old,  he has a cut across the carapace and is in recovery also to be set free into the ocean once again.