Call of the wild a start of career

BRIDGETON — Not every animal lover can visit a wildlife sanctuary, so Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge in Medford regularly sends staff and a sampling of its permanent menagerie on road trips.

Two or three times a week, it is 22-year-old Rileigh Leach behind the wheel to put on another session of “Raptor and Reptiles” for the curious. It’s a childhood dream come true for the Hammonton native, who picked environmental science over medicine as a career.

Leach recently found herself at the Bridgeton library, escorting a turtle, snake, and hawk to meet about 15 kids and their families.

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Leach was the handler for Blinken the box turtle, Chevy the cornsnake, and Cyrus the broad-winged hawk.

The kids also got to examine owl feathers and the shell of a turtle. Touching the live animals was not allowed, but questions and comments flowed from the younger spectators.

“They surprise you sometimes by what they know, and how much they like animals, especially things like snakes or birds,” Leach said.

Leach works with all the refuge’s animals, but she spends a lot of time with its birds.

“We also have a skunk — she’s really cute, named Phoebe Muffay — that we use for education programs, too,” Leach said. “They’re really cute, when you’re not scared of getting sprayed. And she loves attention.”

Child's passion for wildlife turned to career choice

Growing up in Hammonton, the daughter of a firefighter dad and EMT mom always was passionate about wildlife.

“I’m 20 minutes from our refuge,” Leach said. “I’ve brought animals to our wildlife rehab hospital. That’s one of the things we’re known for. We are the busiest wildlife rehab hospital in the state of New Jersey. In 2023 alone, we saw 6,200 animals.”

The refuge has about 50 species as permanent residents, who for various reasons cannot survive on their own. The sanctuary’s “Refuge on Wheels,” a brightly wrapped and decorated SUV, is their chance to get out to meet the public.

There is the occasional glitch. On Saturday, Blinken was a well-behaved turtle. But Chevy clung as close to possible to Leach, determined to crawl out of her arms and into her shirt. Cyrus (a female raptor, despite the name) fell off her perch on her wrist but recovered after some furious, upside-down flapping.

Leach, as a part-time environmental educator with the refuge, does two, three, or more trips a week.

“It’s busier in the spring and the summer,” Leach said. “When it’s warmer, people will have us go to summer camps and schools, and they’ll come to us. It’s closed down a bit in the winter, because people really don’t like to be outside when it’s cold out.”

Leach got the position with Woodford Cedar Run at a fortuitous movement, just two days after she graduated from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. She also is a part-time laboratory technician with Rowan University, pending getting a full-time position.

Leach said the refuge was a good entry-level move. “Work with animals, do education, kind of combining the best of both worlds,” she said.

South Jersey has openings for people with her degree, although not as many as in some states and especially in the South. The better, long-term positions will take more education and experience and likely travel. Her end game is a professorship.

“You can do a lot of different things with wildlife biology,” Leach said. “You can be a consultant. You can be a researcher. You can be a teacher and things like that. It’s just more what your interest are.

“If you really want to get in the field, you kind of have to be open to leave,” she said. “I know people who have moved all across the county, to different countries. Because wildlife biology is … not big enough where it’s common you can stay in your hometown and work there.”

Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey 36 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times.

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This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Call of the wild a start of career