10/24 Post: Practicing Your Knowledge (Hands on Activity)

     Todays post was a little challenging.  We were given the assignment to participate in a hands on activity  related to our field.  This proved to be especially difficult for me, as I have been focusing my blog on marine mammals.  Living in Michigan, it is pretty uncommon to see whales and other marine animals outside of places like zoos and such.  I had to remind myself that the field of zoology doesn't just deal with marine mammals, it encompasses all animals and the study for them and their lives and habitats.  So I decided to step outside of the usual animals I have been talking about, but still pick one that interested me.  Along with marine mammals and wildlife, horses have always held a large interest for me.  I took riding lessons as a child and my mom owned horses for most of her life, including the beginning of mine. A few months back, my mom heard of a new baby horses that had just been born at her old barn, Pine Meadows.  So I went home over the weekend and my mom took me up to the barn so I could observe the baby horse and the interactions between use and the mom and the baby.
     My first observation was that the baby horse was sooooo cute!!  it was really fun to see how interested it was in its surroundings because everything was so new to it.  it would run over to the people and its trainers, or explore different patches of grass then run back over to its mom for a little.  It was interesting to see how open the baby was to new things and how friendly it was.  A lot of times older horses will ignore you and just go about their business, but the baby was very interested in its surrounding.
     It was also very interesting to realize how alike these creatures are to humans.  Just like the baby horse, human babies are also very  are fascinated by what is around them and they like to explore, but still keep a close relationship with their mother.  It really just drives home the idea of how much animals are like us and how we need to learn to share the planet with them.
     research and observation is a very big part of the field of zoology.  Having this skill and using it are very important aspects of the job.  In the future, I hope to do some research with marine mammals and their lives under the sea because I realize how important this is, but I don't want that to be all I do.  I would really like a chance to interact with these animals and develop some up close and personal observations about them.