Let Your Spirit Soar as a Wildlife Volunteer

Chances are you’ve been pondering how to make 2012 one of the best years ever: you’ll try new things, challenge yourself, have more fun, accomplish something meaningful and help others.

Imagine working with animals at the High Desert Museum, from eagles and owls to hawks and badgers, helping to care for them and work with them in our acclaimed programs that teach people about our natural world.

Haven’t worked with anything more wild than a house cat? That’s fine, you do not have to have experience. You’ll be trained by our wildlife experts, including Curator of Living Collections Jim Dawson, a raptor biologist who has studied nearly every raptor species in every desert in North America.

Picture yourself here at the Museum’s 135-acre ponderosa pine forest. You hold your breath aa one of our hawks glides toward you. You hold your arm high, wearing a thick, leather raptor’s glove. The wild bird seems to look right into your eyes as it flares its wings and lands on your hand. It’s so close, you see every feather and its powerful talons. You remember to start breathing again.

Few people have an experience such as this, an unparalleled way to connect with the natural world. Raptors lead lives that are spectacular and exciting. You will be a part of it. And you can share it through our programs, drawing visitors into nature and the wild world of birds and inspiring stewardship of our resources.

What better way to think globally and act locally?

Find out more about being a wildlife volunteer. Call Jim Dawson at 541-323-3322. Or click here.

And, if you’re interested a range of ways that you can assist at the Museum from working with wildlife, to giving talks and tours or helping behind the scenes, join us on Jan. 5 for Volunteer Orientation, 10:30-11:30am. RSVP: volunteer@highdesertmuseum.org. Details at highdesertmuseum.org.

Photo by Museum volunteer Todd Carey