Training

Wildlife Handling Classes
( Humane treatment of captive and wild animals)

The Wildlife Science Center offers hands-on training to field professionals, animal control officers, veterinary technician students, zoo professionals wildlife managers and students in wildlife / veterinary related backgrounds. The three and four day courses offer wildlife chemical immobilization training that focuses on the needs of wildlife researchers and managers. It emphasizes practical and professional equipment and techniques for organizing and conducting field operations with either physical restraint or chemical immobilization. These courses are a "must" for those in charge of wildlife, both free-ranging and resident. Call for more information.

Today, wildlife professionals must work under higher standards than ever before; there is no substitute for hands-on experience. Both the inexperienced and the experienced (e.g. Yellowstone National Park's Gray Wolf Recovery Team, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and wildlife professionals from Canada and Japan) have attended these classes to hone their skills to the level required when working with wildlife that may be dangerous, endangered or high profile. Two spring classes and two fall classes are offered annually, providing ample opportunity to learn drugs and their effects, legal responsibilities, responses to veterinary emergencies, drug delivery systems and other capture methods, and handling techniques for large carnivores.

Participants learn proper restraint techniques (i.e. hands, muzzle, and leg shackles).	Proper techniques for vaccinations and blood draw are emphasized.
Participants learn how to provide complete health checks, and monitor the animal's vital signs (i.e. through temperature, pulse, respirations, and observations) throughout all handling exercises.	Proper restraint and handling are vital to ensuring both the animal's health and the biologist's. Using the right tool for the right job is just as important as the confidence that hands-on experience provides.