10,000 Birds

JANUARY 2, 2015

In a sequence of events to which every wildlife rehabilitator can relate, stories of the brothers who cared for injured birds circulated, their telephone began to ring, and their quest for medical knowledge escalated. You can contact them at info@wildliferescue.org.in. Donations are both welcome and needed.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation India Rescue Wounded 263

10,000 Birds

APRIL 18, 2021

Occasionally I host wildlife rehabilitator vent-fests, where I post a question on Facebook and duly note the rehabber responses. Today’s topic comes from Tracy Anderson in Hawaii: what was the strangest container (or method of transport) in which you have received wildlife? “Almost restores your faith in humanity!”

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Transported Wildlife Rehabilitation Bats Opossums 279

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 3, 2023

Baby birds are cuteness personified, possibly even more so than other baby animals, including human babies, and pose interesting questions of survival and development. Baby birds may be separated from the nest and their parents because of natural occurrences (violent weather, floods) or unknowing human interference or predators.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Family Birds Collecting 290

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 23, 2015

This week’s guest blog was written by Linda Hufford, who has been a wildlife rehabilitator specializing in raptors for over twenty years. She runs Birds of Texas Rehabilitation Center in Austin County, Texas. How it is being affected by human intrusions? His answer surprised me. Or how gracefully it flew?

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Collecting Wildlife Rehabilitation Solomon Islands Texas 240

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2012

This story comes from Emily Johnson, who is a sub-permittee for a licensed wildlife rehabilitator in Helena, Montana. Grace’s family didn’t know about wildlife rehabilitators, so they simply kept him in the safe haven of their fenced-in backyard, hoping with enough food and rest, he would recover on his own.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Montana Compassion Rescue 241

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 10, 2014

This is more of a cautionary tale about one of the perils lying in wait for wildlife rehabilitators who decide to take shortcuts. However, since young redtails don’t normally loiter by the side of the road (unless they’re having a meal), much less allow a random human to pick them up, I figured he had probably bounced off a car.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Soreing Morals Wildlife 229

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

“I’ve seen her around, when I was setting my traps,” said the trapper himself, who brought her to Tamarack Wildlife Center , in Saegertown, PA. This is why certain wildlife rehabilitators end up misanthropic and homicidal. Birds Albino leghold traps leucistic Red-tailed Hawk wildlife rehabilitators'

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Delaware Wildlife Raccoons 242

10,000 Birds

MAY 22, 2015

There would then be three options: 1) re-home them to people who will keep them inside; 2) drop them off at an animal shelter as far away as possible; or 3) humanely euthanize them. Enough hand-wringing, enough taking butchered birds to exhausted, emotionally drained wildlife rehabilitators. It’s time for this to end.

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Feral Cats Feral Cats Wildlife Rehabilitation 259

10,000 Birds

MAY 31, 2013

She lives with her handler, wildlife rehabilitator Lisa Acton, in upstate New York. Lisa takes her to schools, fairs, and events, and together they show people why they should respect and admire the wildlife who live around them. “The Birds Eurasian Eagle Owl wildlife rehabilitator' Xena is a Eurasian Eagle Owl.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Eagles Raised Owls 211

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2016

I asked a group of wildlife rehabilitators: “What are some of the Worst Bird Myths? Bats just love to fly into human hair!” Two: Humans are diurnal, which means they are normally active during the day. Three: Why would anyone , no matter what their species, want to become tangled in human hair? Feel free to vent!”.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Porcupines Raccoons Ethiopia 189

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2012

None of the wildlife staff were at the gate when the man arrived with the hawk, so he gave it to a groundskeeper, who pushed it into a box with a stick. The groundskeeper didn’t know that wildlife rehabilitators must always obtain the finder’s name, address and telephone number. I wanted his rescuer to see him go.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Wounded Zoos Reptiles 247

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 28, 2015

Part of a wildlife rehabilitator’s job description should be a willingness to have your heart smashed to bits over and over again. More than 90% of wildlife injuries are caused by humans.

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Wildlife Wildlife Rehabilitation New York City Dogs 244

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2015

My work as a wildlife rehabilitator over the past forty-five years has allowed me a unique perspective on a disturbing trend. Consider this: ninety percent of birds treated at wildlife centers are admitted as a result of human interactions that have nothing to do with “nature.” The difference seems obvious.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Bald Eagle Rescue Wildlife 190

10,000 Birds

MAY 16, 2021

The Philadelphia Metro Wildlife Center in Norristown covers four Pennsylvania counties (including Philadelphia) and takes in over 3000 animals a year. Licensed wildlife rehabilitator and Assistant Director Michele Wellard relayed this story: In the spring a few years back, a man cut down a tree on his property outside Philadelphia.

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Wildlife Philadelphia Wildlife Rehabilitation Raccoons 264

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 24, 2014

So I asked seven wildlife rehabilitators, “Tell me your favorite (or one of your favorites) release story – the kind that makes you keep going, in spite of everything.”. “A It was like they said, “You reek of humans, go wash.”. Birds bird releases wildlife rehabilitators'

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Ohio Tulsa West Virginia 252

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 12, 2016

Today’s blog was written by Kathy Hershey, co-founder of Utopia Wildlife Rehabilitators in Hope, Indiana. Guardians of human health, and a pretty awesome bird species as well … what a package! The voice on the other end of the phone was panicked. There’s a huge bird chasin’ the kids around the trailer park!

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Mice Indiana Wildlife 180

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2014

Spring through summer is baby season, and the human population ventures outside and finds little creatures in their backyard, their garden, their porch, the edge of the trail, the sidewalk, the train platform, etc. Birds identifying birds nestling birds wildlife rehabilitators' Quiet little “chip” for begging call.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Georgia Birds Kentucky 256

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 26, 2016

This guest blog was written by Debbie Souza-Pappas, the director and founder of Second Chance Wildlife Rehabilitation in Price, Utah. With human patients, it’s easy – you put them in a hospital bed and tell them to ‘stay still.’ We anticipate removal of the device around the end of March.

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Eagles Wildlife Rehabilitation Utah Vet 187

10,000 Birds

JULY 29, 2016

Like human babies, young birds are messy. If the bird is truly orphaned and needs help, the best advice is the shortest: take her to a wildlife rehabilitator. Need more information while you’re finding a licensed wildlife rehabilitator? Northern Flicker.

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Raised Wildlife Rehabilitation Monkeys Birds 190

10,000 Birds

JULY 29, 2016

Like human babies, young birds are messy. If the bird is truly orphaned and needs help, the best advice is the shortest: take her to a wildlife rehabilitator. Need more information while you’re finding a licensed wildlife rehabilitator? Northern Flicker.

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Raised Wildlife Rehabilitation Birds Monkeys 190

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

My rehabber friend Lisa Acton, who is with Animal Kingdom USA Wildlife Rehabilitation , picked up her phone and heard the voice of an elderly lady. Lisa installed a mirror in his enclosure, handled him as little as humanly possible, and hid her face when she brought him his meals so he wouldn’t associate a human with food.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Turkey Humane Wildlife 236

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 7, 2016

I’d been volunteering at rescues through my young adulthood, and I was training as a cat socializer, teaching terrified felines — the unlucky victims of cruel people — to trust humans again. I’d rescued birds before, but this time I had to face the wildlife center with a personal connection to the carnage. One typical, blue-sky, L.A.

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Cats Stray Cat Stray Los Angeles 223

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2011

Four several years, I’ve been a volunteer at a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. More often, the parents are nearby, just waiting for interfering humans to leave. They quickly adapt to the presence of humans (and even dogs) in the yard and don’t seem to be frightened by much of anything. It was still alive.

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Seattle Wildlife Rehabilitation Rescue Dogs 255

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2012

I love her Carolina Wrens , her Piping Plovers , her Chimney Swifts , her Ivory-billed Woodpeckers , and her Phoebes, both avian and human. The book is loaded with Julie’s art from rough sketches, often helpfully captioned in Julie’s own handwriting, to full-color, full-page reproductions of her wonderful watercolors.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Woodpeckers Emotional Hunting 262

10,000 Birds

JULY 31, 2015

This post is from Lisa Beth Acton, a wildlife rehabilitator in Accord, NY. Lisa brings her to all kinds of gatherings to spread the word of wildlife (see Xena’s Facebook page ). For a while I was afraid they were too friendly and might turn to humans if they needed food, but I’ve seen no sign of that.

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Raised Mice Wildlife Rehabilitation Squirrels 250

10,000 Birds

JUNE 5, 2015

Wildlife rehabilitators are a multi-tasking lot. Human breast milk – no, don’t get me started. Not only do we take care of zillions of injured and orphaned birds/mammals/reptiles/whatever, we also have to deal with and educate the public. The baffling, mind-boggling public.

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Hamburgers Squirrels Wildlife Rehabilitation Chickens 250

10,000 Birds

JULY 11, 2012

In responding to Suzie’s post defending wildlife rehabilitation I began to think again about the areas in which animal rights and animal welfare overlap with the field of conservation, and the ways in which they don’t. Animal rights is concerned with preventing the suffering or even use of animals by humans.

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Animal Rights Rights Animal New Zealand 270

10,000 Birds

MARCH 22, 2013

But then we get a few heroes who do everything right, who go far out of their way to help an injured wild creature, and who restore … well, maybe not our complete faith in humanity, but at least our confidence that we won’t end up in jail for the rest of our lives. He called Lisa Acton, of Animal Kingdom USA Wildlife Rescue , who took over.

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New York City Owls Rescue Wildlife 255

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2021

Normally the slender, fairy-feathered shorebirds are shy and avoid the humans who encroach on their territory. Snowy Egrets like to keep their distance. But a small colony of them have made an exception for Elton Reed, who has fished off Chincoteague Island, Virginia for almost five decades.

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Virginia Wildlife Transported Fish 264

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 14, 2015

Predators and storms can wreak havoc and human intervention is sometimes needed for survival. Here are some examples of when a bird definitely needs your help and a call to a federally permitted bird rehabilitator is warranted. Unfortunately a bird’s nest location is not always perfect. So: When do you intervene?

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Wounded Rescue Medical Cats 257

10,000 Birds

MARCH 27, 2020

Faithful 10,000 Birds readers will remember Suzie as our wildlife rehabilitation beat writer. Your posts for 10,000 Birds took us into the unique world of wildlife rehabilitation. Can you share your most memorable experience as a wildlife rehabber? I can run but I can’t hide. There are so many!

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Bald Eagle Eagles Wildlife 279

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2015

As a result of human interference, four Chimney Swift nestlings had to be rescued. Starving and dehydrated, they were taken into care by Dr. Helene von Doninck of Cobequid Wildlife Centre . The 2014 season demonstrated the power of cooperation, communication, and determination to save three Chimney Swifts.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Canada Wildlife South America 230

Animal Person

SEPTEMBER 5, 2009

I was watching a news segment on a wildlife rehabilitation center here in Florida. Note to everyone who works with birds and water fowl: Hypothermia and rapid freezing are not appropriate methods of euthanasia and are not considered to be humane unless the animal is anesthetized prior to freezing.

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Euthanasia Wildlife Rehabilitation Fowl 2002 100

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 23, 2012

Both were wooed by Landon… Becci spent countless hours with our three crows as their human toy, entertaining them and giving head scratches. “I know the two people who will miss Landon most are Lisa K and Becci.

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illegal Rescue Raised Animal 226