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Claire Short UC Davis graduate, Spring 2022 Major: Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology  Jelly Bean giving me kisses. “Do they love you or do they just want food?” I have been asked this about various animals I’ve worked with, including the piglets and my pet rats and goldfish. It might sound like a straightforward question, but it brings up a philosophical question of what it means to love someone. Personally, I believe that loving someone and mostly caring about food are not mutually exclusive. The line between loving someone’s intrinsic qualities and loving the more material happiness they bring you can be blurred almost out of existence.
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Claire Short UC Davis graduate, Spring 2022 Major: Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology  Jelly Bean biting a toy. Romeo’s large mouth closed around my hand, and although he didn’t break the skin, I was bleeding a stream of worries and doubts. Romeo had stopped biting over food weeks ago when we stopped hand-feeding him, but recently he had started biting Nora and I for no obvious reason. It didn’t seem aggressive – more like he just found it satisfying to bite hands. Since there was no obvious trigger for the biting, I worried about whether we could ever really trust the piglets as therapy animals. What if the biting got worse? What if we started an experiment and the piglets developed some new problematic behavior partway through? In addition to these concerns, I was starting to feel a bit burned out, because even playing with piglets can feel like a job sometimes.
Jessie Ostrove UC Davis undergraduate, 4th year Major: Environmental Science and Management  Daisy enjoying her extra pellets and carrots. Earlier in the summer, at the beginning of my working with the minis, I wrote a blog post detailing all the things they have individually taught me thus far. Of course, since that last blog post, they have shown me so many more things, as well as taught me quite a bit more about myself. For this week’s blog post, I present to you, an updated version of what the minis have taught me (so far!).
Nora Bahr UC Davis undergraduate, 4th year Major: Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology  Jelly Bean taking a rest in my lap This week has been a tough one, for both the team and all of our plants and animals. A heatwave is passing through California, but it has hit Davis and the surrounding area especially hard. What’s worse is that there is practically no breeze and it is extremely humid, making it difficult for any of us to keep cool
Dalia Carbajal-Robles UC Davis undergraduate, 4th year Major: Landscape Architecture  Mural of El Corrido de Ricardo Valdez by Juan Solis - 1994 Photos of the mural by Robin Dunitz from the USC Digital Library circa 1994. Growing up in East Los Angeles, I saw many murals painted in public spaces. A mural I would commonly see is 'El Corrido De Ricardo', a mariachi painting by Juan Solis that depicts traditional Mexican clothing and colors. Juan Solis does a great job describing the mariachi culture and the story of how the Mariachi Plaza came to be known. When I first viewed El Corrido De Ricardo, I felt engaged because I was learning the cultural history of Mariachi Plaza. Murals convey a powerful message to the people and their communities.
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