Dear Donors,

Over this most recent summer I was working at Echo, the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain. While I was there I spent my time as an animal care intern. This consisted of performing certain daily routines such as feeding the animals and cleaning their enclosures. Additionally, we maintained their life support systems and fixed or replaced them when necessary. Perhaps my favorite part of the internship was simply observing the different animals to a point where you could tell the differences in their behavior from week to week.

I only worked at Echo Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday mornings, so some of the animals I became more familiar with than others. Mondays I worked mostly with the different species of turtles that Echo has, including snappers, box, map, painted, and wood turtles. Tuesdays I worked with their sculpin and their two aggressive bullfrogs. On Thursdays I worked with their full grown female American eel. She was my favorite to work with, because after she familiarizes herself with your scent, she’ll come out of hiding and investigate while you are working on her tank.

This internship gave me a new appreciation for establishments such as Echo, or more broadly aquariums and zoos in general. Typically, I do not agree with keeping animals in relatively small tanks their whole lives, but the level of care that the full time staff gives these animals really makes their time as enjoyable as possible. Furthermore, the animals serve as a significant educational platform for young kids to come and learn about species, and what they look like in person. Without these places, many people would only see such animals in photograph form.

Lastly, I would like to thank all of the donors for providing me with funding. It covered my rent for the three month duration of my internship, and allowed me to become more independent from my parents. I know that supporting me in college is a huge stress for them, so thank you for allowing me to alleviate some of those stresses.

Sincerely,
Eric Licho