“We get foxes, bobcats, opossums, songbirds, pelicans, cormorants, raptors, hawks, woodpeckers, squirrels, and bats,” she says, reciting only a fraction of the total, adding, “Actually, we’re due for a bucket of bats coming to us from the Humane Society any minute now.”Īs if on cue, the bats–hidden from view in a small carrying container–are hustled in through the front gate, across the courtyard, and into the hospital area,where a team of staff and volunteers are waiting to examine the newcomers. “If they are native and they are wild, they come here,” says Justine MacLean, volunteer manager for WildCare. It’s a goal that is successfully met thousands of times a year. That said, for the majority of the wounded and orphaned animals brought in to WildCare, the goal is always to release them again, back to whatever lake, pond, forest, hill, or marshy field they came from. Hopefully, those children will gain an appreciation for these animals, so when they see them in the wild, they won’t be tempted to shoot them or catch them or do anything bad to them.” “Thousands of children come through here for our camps and school visits, and hundreds of walk-in adults and families, and they see these beautiful animals they wouldn’t get to see up-close anyplace else. “We look at them as ambassadors for their species,” says Melanie Piazza, director of animal care for WildCare, which encompasses a multiroom clinic and a large educational classroom. These are the unlucky ones (if being loved and adored and hand-fed fish can be called unlucky), because, though fully recovered and completely free of pain, their injuries have rendered them incapable of feeding or defending themselves the way most of the other patients here, upon their release back into the wild, are able to do. These outsiders (you know they don’t belong here if they can actually fly) are kept at bay with judiciously aimed squirts of water from the hose.Īll around the courtyard are pens and cages containing other unreleasables, known around here as “animal ambassadors”: Azor the kestrel (missing a wing after being shot with a BB gun), Vlad the turkey vulture, Kali the red-tailed hawk, Aurora the bald eagle, Leonard and Eullalie the ravens, Sage the opossum, and Willow the wood duck. These once-wild, fish-craving characters include a pair of crotchety pelicans named Fred and Scoma, a quartet of cormorants, and three gulls, all of which have damaged wings and are unable to fly or survive in the great wide open.Ī number of freeloading herons and gulls, nonresidents all, are waiting on the rooftops and fence posts for the opportunity to swoop in and snatch a fish from Fred and Scoma and the other not-so-speedy seabirds. ![]() ![]() Just inside the pleasantly noisy courtyard at WildCare in San Rafael–which encompasses a wild animal rehabilitation center and the Terwilliger Nature Education Center–a worker, hose in hand and a pail at her feet, is attempting to feed fish to some of the resident birds in the outdoor bird pond. Whether you desire casual observation or hands-on contact, numerous opportunities exist in the North Bay to hang out with the animal world Going Native: A visit to one of the North Bay’s wildlife centers offers the opportunity to observe animals and learn about their habitats and habits.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |