PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Two wildlife organizations located in Palm Beach County are collaborating on a new education program, giving recent veterinary school graduates the ultimate hands-on experience needed to pursue a career in wildlife rehabilitation.
Busch Wildlife Sanctuary and Loggerhead Marinelife Center have partnered to create a year-long internship focused on marine and terrestrial wildlife rehabilitation as a way to invest in future wildlife specialists.
“Wildlife conservation is sort of a very fluid and dynamic system," said Dr. Heather Johnston, Busch Wildlife Sanctuary Chief of Veterinary Medicine and Conservation. "It's ever changing, and there are so many different parts to educating the public. That education starts with school children, goes the whole way through their parents, through adults, high school, college age students, and now we're able to go into graduate work and the professional side."
WATCH: New internship between two local wildlife organizations aims to train the next generation of wildlife conservation veterinarians
As the need for wildlife conservation continues to grow, this new program comes less than two years after Busch Wildlife Sanctuary moved locations and quadrupled the size of its animal hospital. Last year alone, Busch Wildlife Sanctuary provided care for over 5,000 animals at their center while also focusing on what they call the "One World Health" movement, recognizing that the health of the environment, humans and animals are all intertwined.
“Yes, we do treat the individual animal, but at the same time, we're thinking about it at the level of the population, the ecosystem, and then kind of the impact that it can have on the entire environment overall," Johnston said.
While Busch Wildlife Sanctuary aims to expand, Loggerhead Marine Center saw the opportunity for partnership while it looks to enhance its training programs.
"I’ve always had a great relationship with (Busch), and I felt like the opportunity to get that broader picture of all wildlife health, whether aquatic or terrestrial, would be important to training the specialists of the future," said Dr. Heather Barron, Chief Science Officer and Director of Conservation Medicine at Loggerhead Marinelife Center.
Dr. Nicole Scarberry is one of the two interns chosen for the inaugural program, having earned her DVM from the University of Missouri. She feels that getting experience at two different sites will allow her to further see how the world of conservation is intertwined.
“The biggest benefit to me is being at the two different facilities, because I'm sure there are idiosyncrasies of how the different places run, as well as the wide variety of species," Scarberry said.
Scarberry, along with Dr. Emily McDermott, was chosen through the Veterinary Internship and Residency Matching Program.
“It's kind of like speed dating for veterinarians, and if you both have ranked each other highly enough, then you are a match,” Barron said. “And so we were very fortunate to have our top picks match with us, which is great news for a program that is in its infancy.”
The program, which began July 7, will go beyond simply treating injured animals. It aims to provide hands-on experience with real-world conservation issues, such as developing sea turtle protection zones to help prevent the animals from getting hit by boats, to educating the community on how to avoid getting wildlife entangled in fishing line.
“Taking that holistic approach to conservation medicine is very important to us here, and they will be doing all of those things,” Barron said.
They will also get exposure to some of the latest and greatest technology in the field, including Loggerhead's new computer tomography (CT) scan machine for sea turtles.
Intending to specialize in zoological medicine and pursue a residency training after the internship, Scarberry is thankful for this opportunity that will guide her through her wildlife conservation career.
“I think the biggest thing about veterinary medicine is that your path just kind of divulges for you,” Scarberry said. “So even if you think that your path is one thing, I feel like it just kind of morphs every step of the way.”
The organizations are looking forward to working together to prepare the next generation of veterinary professionals under their shared mission of conservation.
“Training that next generation of veterinarians, I feel, is so important, not only for the future of our endangered sea turtles and the health of our oceans, but also for the health of people,” Barron said.
