Saving wildlife around the world I was kayak, weighted down with capture equipment and a to herd and corral biologist carrier with his sick comrades. netted managed be we could kayak, he the back into Oregon’s wildlife health and way for my troublesome duck until in the the as aWorkingsloshing and clamberingand carefully placed Oregon to fly, he in day wobbly sit-on- my to sick duck. Unable a agile swimmer compared an pleasantly warm, sunny, September still paddled hurriedly after It was aastop precariously-balanced pet carrier full of miserable waterfowl. population program, I never quite know how I’ll be spending my As I closed in, I dropped my paddle and grabbed the pool- day. I might be cataloguing cougar DNA samples in the lab, out skimmer-like capture net. Following his trail of bubbles, I could darting a deer with a tranquilizer gun, or acting as zookeeper to see him swimming just under the surface to my right, orange a couple of wayward orphaned bear cubs. Or standing in three webbed feet kicking frantically. feet of water, wearing a glorified water wing around my neck, and “Gotcha!” I exclaimed, leaning heavily to the right and being laughed at by a bunch of ducks. sweeping the net down. As it hit the water I watched him swerve It is, perhaps, an appropriate choice of career for someone directly under my kayak and cursed as he surfaced on my left who grew up in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge and enjoyed side, inches away. I shifted and swung left to make a reckless grab fishing with her dad, the quiet solitude of the woods, and the at him. I felt the kayak tip and just had time to groan to myself rambunctious company of a houseful of dogs, cats, hamsters, before I toppled gracelessly into three feet of pungent, mucky, ferrets, parakeets and goldfish. murky, pond water. When I graduated from Linfield in 2007 with a degree I stood up, sputtering, in biology, I couldn’t have imagined where the next five years dripping wet, with hip- would take me, or when they might bring me back home to waders filled to the brim, but Oregon (much to my mother’s chagrin). Pioneering a new relieved to find everything study abroad program for Linfield in the Galapagos Islands in else in my kayak remarkably 2006 had me nose-to-nose with curious sea lions, beak-clacking dry and intact (except my albatross and ancient giant tortoises, igniting my passion for dignity). A few sick ducks wildlife conservation. blinked at me wearily from I leapt from graduation to an internship helping release the carrier, unimpressed. As California condors back into the wild; bounded into two years I wrung out my shirt, a pop- in Australia as a Fulbright scholar researching fur seals and hiss announced that my auto- introducing tourists to the smallest penguin in the world; dove inflating life-vest had (belatedly) headfirst into summers on some of the most remote islands of decided I was in mortal danger. the Pacific with the sun-loving, endangered Hawaiian monk seal; I heaved a sigh. My and side-stepped into six months on the fringes of the Antarctic, capture partner, just being belched at by elephant seals and buffeted by the12-foot behind me on his wingspan of the wandering albatross. I cannot find words to paddleboard, describe how incredible these experiences have been nor how was laughing so fortunate and grateful I’ve been to have had these opportunities. hard he was in When I trace my journey, it may have been nurtured by tears. After the damp, fertile forests along the Columbia River, but it truly awkwardly came into bloom in Linfield’s welcoming classrooms, corridors Julia Back ’07 left Linfield with her biology degree and has worked with wildlife around the world. She has returned to Oregon, working for the state’s wildlife health and population program. At left, she is releasing a Western painted turtle back into the wild near Corvallis. In the photo at the right, Back holds a mallard duck with botulism while one of the state wildlife veterinarians treats it. Inset: They prepare to give the mallard IV fluids through a vein in its leg. 1 6 - l i n f i e l d m a g a z i n e Winter 2013
Linfield Winter 2013
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