Gold 4 had the opportunity to tour and work at the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary. The first day we visited Busch, we were given an informative tour of the groundsd. David, the head man, taught us about the purpose of the sanctuary and about the animals that were there. The second day we visited, we worked on exotic plant removals.

Our first adventure to Busch was excellent. The grounds were well kept and the staff was informative and friendly. As our tour began, David explained to us that the purpose of the sanctuary was to rehabilitate injured animals and release them back into the wild. But unfortunately, some animals would never fully recover, and were kept at the sanctuary and used for educational purposes. There were many birds of prey, water birds, wild cats, foxes, deer, otters, aligators and crocodiles, raccoon, skunks, turtles, snakes, dogs and cats. These animals were taken care of at a small hospital on the grounds, and kept in cages and open areas that were as close to their natural habitat as possible. Many animals, mostly the wild cats like the panthers, were meant to be house pets. When the owners realized that was impossible, the animals were brought to the sanctuary. The animals that could not be re-released were ones like the panther who had been de-clawed, thus could never survive in the wild. Other animals that were kept were many birds of prey - owls, hawks - who had injured wings due to a gun shot wound. The hope is to teach eople about the mistakes humans make towards animals, thus leading to the lifetime of a cage as home for the animals, and eventually to the ceasing of human endangerment toward wild animal.

Our second day at Busch Wildlife, we were put to work. For a majority of the day, we removed exotic plants and weeds from arounf the animal's caged. Once we were shown which plants to remove, the work went quickly. As some of us putlled and snipped, others loaded a golf cart to clear the debris off the path for the visitors of the day. In our short time at Busch, we were not only given the opportunity to help keep the sanctuary looking its finest, bt we also learned many facts about the animals and about the effects of uneducated human activities.