Newly recorded public service announcements to help people help thier wildlife neighbors will soon be on the air around the Humboldt Bay area!
Category: wildlife rehabilitation
WILD BABY SEASON IS ALMOST HERE!
Why did the Opossum cross the road? (spoiler alert: because someone thoughtlessly built it there.)
Every Spring and Summer, Humboldt Wildlife Care Center treats as many as 90 orphaned Opossums (Didelphis virginiana). We usually begin to admit them in mid-April – just around the corner! Nearly all of these young marsupials are brought to us after being found in the pouch of their mother, who’d been hit by a car. The second biggest human threat Opossums and their babies face that we see is being attacked by the family dog.
There are people who run Opossums down on the road on purpose. Who hasn’t heard some yahoo bragging about this very fact. Who hasn’t heard an endless array of roadkill jokes, complete with point systems for keeping score? In fact, both informal and rigorous studies have demonstrated that somewhere between 3 and 6 per cent of drivers will swerve to intentionally hit an animal on the side of the road. The number of animals who are killed intentionally when no swerving is required remains unstudied.
Now, the simple act of driving puts all of us at risk of unintentionally colliding with others, other cars, pedestrians, wild neighbors, family dogs and house cats. It is very distressing to unintentionally kill with our cars and most of us have probably done so, and we can all commiserate together.
Still, it seems obvious that many of the Opossums who are hit by vehicles, since they are large and easily seen in headlights (their name, “Opossum”, is an Algonquin word, purported to mean “white animal” or “white dog”), are hit intentionally.
Opossums, according to the internet, are very useful animals. That they eat a large number of ticks seems to be the chief reason to let them be… That a fellow traveler on this one green and blue Earth needs to have utility to human civilization in order that they be spared the worst our kind has to offer is perhaps the real lesson in that strategy of advocacy.
Intentionally running down Opossums may be hard to stop through education. Is it really simple, curable ignorance that would cause a person to act with such wanton destructiveness? Seems unlikely.
That makes it incumbent on us to find ways to protect Opossums where we can. Road designs that prevent small animals from entering the roadway and offer crossing sites that are easy and natural to use are a great idea, but expensive to implement everywhere that they’re needed. Being extra-vigilant and remembering that in a region like ours, with many rural highways following streams and criss-crossing the bottoms, wild neighbors are likely to be seen – to expect to see wild animals and be prepared to give them safe passage.
Also, we need to remember that wild neighbors have a right to move freely through the terrain, without being confronted by dogs. Supervising our family dogs’ night-time potty excursions is our responsibility.
An Opossum has quite the weaponry on board in the event of such a confrontation. First, they can hiss and show teeth. Opossums have a lot of pointy teeth. Second, if that doesn’t work, they can pretend to be dead and allow a foul smelling secretion to ooze from their rectum. Deadly.
In other words, Opossums present absolutely no threat to human households, other than the occasional ocurrence of an Opossum coming in through the cat door for some cat food.
And finally, when all else fails, if you find an Opossum who has been attacked by dogs, or hit by a car, even if apparently dead, check to see if she is a mother with live babies in her pouch. At least we can give these little ones a second chance.
Opossums have been a part of North America for a very long time – they have a right to be here. They exist from sea to sea, their range limited only by snow and winter cold.
Each Opossum we raise, of the 80 or so we admit each year, costs a certain amount. Milk replacer formula, heating pads, solid food, housing rent, caregivers, all of it is provided by your generous support. Without your help, we would not be here. Without your help, none of our wild neighbors would get a second chance. With your help, we can prevent some of these injuries and the need for a second chance, and with your support we’ll be here when care is necessary.
Thank you for your love of our wild neighbors! Thank you helping us all co-exist peacefully.
Help Us Make It Through the Year!
Last year, between the 1160 patients BAX treated at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, and the 440 birds admitted during the botulism outbreak at the Lower Klamath Refuge north of Shasta, we provided direct care for 1600 wild animals.
We provided this care on approximately $110,000. (Thank you to everyone who donated!) While it is certainly the case that some patients cost more in care than others, still, this means that we spent an average of $68.75 per patient. Think about that. On less than 70 dollars per patient, we successfully treated and released hundreds of our wild neighbors.
Believe it or not, this remarkable success is also a failure.
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We never have more in the bank than what will get us through the month.
And at $70 per patient, we have absolutely no room to cut our expenses. Should we spend even less? Of course not.
Our goals for HWCC include expanding the care we provide, as well as expanding our education and outreach efforts promoting co-existence with our wild neighbors.
Yet, each Spring and Summer we struggle to make certain we have the food and medicine we need, that the electric and phone bills are paid, that our water bill is paid, that our rent is paid. Our staff is grossly underpaid and even so, meeting our payroll is a stressful struggle.
OUR GOAL FOR 2019: $150,000 RAISED BY THE END OF THE YEAR. We’ve set targets of $50,000 by April 30, $100,000 by August 31, and $150,000 by December 31! Right now we are $35,000 away from our April 30 target. Reaching it seems impossible, but not reaching it means another year entering our busy wild baby season uncertain of where the resources will come from. Please help us get close to our goal!
For the success of our mission, for the care of our patients, for the education and outreach that will prevent injuries, orphanings and other harms to our wild neighbors, we need to find more resources.
When Bird Ally X took over the management of HWCC in 2011, we took on an organization that operated on even less, with no full-time staff, with a facility that was only sporadically open, and with no capacity to provide quality care for more than a few species of raptors and songbirds. Aquatic birds (50% of our caseload) were sent 300 miles away to a facility in the Bay Area.
Frankly, in 2011, the reputation of this facility was in shambles. Since BAX took on HWCC, we’ve developed the clinic into a topnotch wildlife hospital which has the respect of our colleagues from around the nation and the state. We’ve established a program to train new wildlife rehabilitators that has seen over 60 successful graduates, many of whom have gone on to work in various aspects of serving wildlife here and around the country.
Often wild patients who are difficult to treat, or presenting unusual problems are sent to us from around the state. We’ve admitted and successfully treated an Osprey sent us from Modesto, an Albatross rescued from a ship in Brookings, Deer fawns from Redding, and more.
In 2011, HWCC was not seen as an organization fit to be a viable member of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network. Since Bird Ally X took over the management and operation of HWCC, we’ve joined the OWCN, and added valuable team members to the roster of pre-trained oil spill responders available to help in the event of an oil spill in our area, or across the state.
In short, our effort to build HWCC into a respected wildlife care facility that is also a teaching hospital as well as a working lab developing real world improvements to the care all wildlife rehabilitators can provide has been largely successful, even as our resources are scarce! Look what we can do with very little! Imagine what we can accomplish with a little more!
To sustain these advancements and build on them, we need your help now. A shoestring budget is common for missions such as ours, but we still need a sustainable flow of resources, especially as we move into our busy season.
Our goal this year is to raise $150,000 – and if we maintain the caseload of last year, that would raise our average sending per patient from $69 to $93 – still a fraction of our real costs, but a big improvement, an improvement that would reduce the stress on our staff, which by itself would enhance the quality of the care we’re able to provide
PLEASE HELP US REACH OUR GOAL! HELP US HELP OUR WILD NEIGHBORS!
PLEASE DONATE TODAY!
Hungry Hawks (and a Falcon)
Late Winter storms were tough on our region. Rain seemed to fall for days without ceasing and many of us suffered from chronic wet socks and an unshakeable chill. And that endless rain was tough on more than the human community.
In the last two weeks of February, Humboldt Wildlife Care Center admitted 8 birds of prey who were found struggling, their hunting grounds covered in water, or other challenges that caused more than a few area raptors to go hungry.
A Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) was found struggling near Lake Earl outside of Crescent City, too weak to fly, as well as two Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) from the same area, Crescent City and Brookings, Oregon, just north of Crescent City.
As the Eel River began to flood we admitted five hawks, four Red-tailed Hawks and one Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus), from its bottom lands, all of them displaced, wet, cold and hungry.
We can only surmise that there were other wild neighbors who didn’t survive the drenching storms of this winter. The last two weeks of February, during the rains, we admitted 31 wild animals for care, including several songbirds, ducks and gulls. During storms, simply because fewer people are outside, fewer struggling wild animals are found.
Right now, we are preparing for our busy season, yet also having a busy winter. Already our caseload is up 20% over last year, which was our busiest year so far. We need to raise $50,000 by April 30 to be able to stay open, with our staff and housing ready to meet whatever comes our way. These are trying times for many, and it’s no less true for our wild neighbors. We need to be here for them when they need us. Only your support will make that happen. Please donate today. Thank you for your love of the wild!! DONATE HERE
Gearing Up For Spring
In mid-February many of us are dreading the long wait for the return of warmer weather, and all of the joys of Spring and Summer. Here at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, we are not dreading the long wait at all. For us, it’s right around the corner! By the end of next month, we need to have all of our ducks in a row and be prepared for the arrival of the first wild orphans of the season.
In the past, we’ve admitted our first orphan Raccoons (Procyon lotor) as early as March 31st. Meanwhile, we are keeping busy during our so-called downtime taking care of the injured hawks, seabirds, raccoons, songbirds and more. We’ve already admitted over 80 injured wild patients in 2019.
We have important projects to complete before Spring madness fully kicks in and we need your help.
- Our main building, a double wide modular that’s been our primary facility and office since 2006 is in need of critical repairs that will cost us over $2000.
- Our Seabird pools need a thorough rejuvenation – liners need to be replaced and pumps and filters need to be repaired, costing approximately $500.
- Last year we admitted close to a dozen orphan fawns, about the maximum we can handle. We need to increase that capacity and add a better yard. This will cost approximately $2000
- Not a project, just a regular fact of our existence, but we need to pay to use the land our facility is on at the Jacoby Creek Land Trust – our annual rent is $6000.
- All of this is in addition to the cost of caring for each of our patients. We accomplish a lot on very little. We have one full time paid staff person and two part time staff, whose contributions to our mission are invaluable. Already underpaid, if we were to be unable to maintain their positions, the care we provide our patients would suffer.
We operate on the proverbial shoestring. Each year we raise the funds and resources to complete our mission as we go along. So far, we’ve managed to get through each year with our bills paid. And each new year, we start again. It’s stressful, certainly, but it’s the only thing we can do.
So for 2019, we’ll be mounting three major efforts to gather the support we need to meet our challenges.
This Spring, our goal is to raise one third of our annual budget by the end of April. That’s $50,000! If we raise $50,000 by April 30, we will have paid not only the expenses of February, March and April, but we’ll enter May with the resources on hand and the facility prepared to begin meeting the following months, our busiest time, Half of the animals we treat in any year are admitted in June, July, and August. Your support this Spring will give us a strong place to stand as we enter the most difficult part of our year.
Our community’s support is how we meet the challenge of treating hundreds of wild neighbors each year, helping resolve thousands of wildlife conflicts peacefully and prepare the next generation of wildlife caregivers.
Thank you for helping us help our wild neighbors.
Five days left to comment! Let CA Department of Pesticide Regulation know you care that rodenticides are reaching nearly every wild animal in our state!
Now four years after second generation anti-coagulant rodenticidess were taken off store shelves and restricted to licensed applicator use (commercial, agriculture) studies have shown that these poisons are still increasing dramatically in the populations of many different wild species, from threatened birds of prey to Bobcats. Latest results show over 90% of wild animals test positive for rodenticide exposure!
The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) has begun the process of re-evaluating these terrible poisons for further action to address their mounting prevalence in the environment.
The deadline for public comments has been extended to January 16, 2019.
Our friends at Raptors Are the Solution (RATS) has this suggestion for commenting on the DPR action
| ” Please send a short email to Rodenticide.Comments@cdpr.ca.gov expressing your support for DPR’s proposed decision and urging them to follow through and remove all second-generation anticoagulants (SGARs) from use in California. Although the state banned SGARs for use by consumers in 2014, a giant loophole allows the pest control industry to continue using them widely. If possible, please forward a copy of your sent email to raptorsarethesolution@gmail.com. We would like to track the number of comments submitted. ” |
As always, your involvement makes a difference! Let’s start the wheels rolling to get all of these wildlife-killing toxins off the shelves and out of our lives! Thank you!!
Mallard Ducklings Were Lost and Now are Found
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) mothers for millions of years have selected safe secluded places to lay their eggs. Under bushy plants, in high grasses, and not more than a day hike from a nice pond. Once her babies hatch from their eggs, they are quickly on the move. Unlike songbirds whose young are altricial, meaning they are unable to do anything for themselves at all but open their mouths and accept food, ducklings are precocial – they come into the world ready to walk around and feed themselves. Within hours of hatching, mother Mallards lead their babies to water.
[Please support our work. Your contribution goes directly to the care of injured and orphaned wild animals and keeps our doors open! We need you! Please help. You can donate here now.]
Of course in the intervening years, human have arrived on the scene, and in the last few thousand years began the process of covering the Earth in roads and other serious threats to our wild neighbors. Now an obstacle course of mayhem stands in the way of Mallard families and the ponds where they must grow, develop and learn to be successful adults. A mother killed by a car in traffic might leaving a dozen day old ducklings scrambling for their innocent lives. An off-leash dog might scatter a family with some babies never re-grouped. However it happens, thousands upon thousands of Mallard babies are separated from their families in California each year. Every year Mallards are the avian species most frequently admitted for rehabilitation in our state. Swimming pools with no way for a duckling to get out, pollution, traffic, dogs and cats, curious unsupervised children – the threats to young ducklings in human society are nearly endless.
At Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, we see less victims of these threats simply because we have a much lower human population. Still, we raise anywhere between 20 and 40 Mallard ducklings each year.
Orphaned Mallard patients from 2016, learning about duckweed, the miracle food!
Our three young Mallards who are currently in care, under a heat lamp in our indoor housing. Soon they’ll be old enough to be housed outside.
Last week we admitted the first Mallard orphans of the year. Found scrambling though a backyard in the coastal community of Manila, these three babies are doing very well, now. Currently housed indoors until they are big enough to stay warm through the night, soon we’ll move them to our specially built duckling pond and then to our waterfowl aviary where they will continue to grow and develop in relative privacy – their wildness respected and protected – until they are old enough to fend for themselves. When they are ready, after about six weeks in care, they’ll be returned to their free and wild lives.
Right now we are entering the busiest time of our year. Every day from now through the rest of Summer we will be helping keep wild families together and raising wild orphans when we must. The workload is intense and so is our need for your support. We are striving raise $25,ooo by May 31. We have $20,000 to go. Your support makes all the difference. Please donate today. Thank you!
photos: Bird Ally X
Wild Baby Season is Coming!
The earth rolls around the sun dipping first this hemisphere then that one toward the light and the wild animals follow suit. Summer birds have already begun to return to the North Coast. Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) investigate the old cavities where they may have raised last year’s young. Ravens (Corvus corax) fly though late Spring winds with sticks for their nests held tightly between their bills.
Mother mammals are on the move, seeking safe places to give birth. This year everyone is in a hurry to bloom and leaf!
All of this means that our busiest season is about to start. Each year we treat around 1200 animals. Nearly half of these patients come in during the months of May, June and July. While we stive to reduce the number of our wild neighbors who need help, through public education and good phone consultation to resolve human/wild conflicts, still our caseload and our costs will predictably skyrocket in the coming weeks.
We will be reaching out to you frequently, asking for help. Financial contributions of any amount are critical. We’ll also be asking for donated supplies, like goat milk, produce, sheets, towels, vinegar and baking soda – all things that are crucial to our daily operation!
Nestling Swallows (2015) receiving their regular feeding – soon these birds would fledge into our Songbird aviary where they continued to be fed while they learned to fly and eat on the wing.
Common Murre (Uria aalge) chicks, separated from their fathers at sea, too young to provide for themselves. Each year we raise any number of these oceanic birds, depending on the how successful the year’s breeding season is… last year we raised 6, the year before, 30.
Every year for the last 5 years we’ve provided safe haven and bits of mouse for a Western Screech-owl (Megascops kennicottii) chick found in Fortuna’s Rohner Park
Every year we care for several Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) goslings who’ve been orphaned by the highways that separate their nest site from the water. Parents killed trying cross US101 leave chicks scurrying in traffic – a dangerous situation for all. If safely captured, the young geese will come to our facility in Bayside.
The most common reason for young Opossums (Didelphis virginiana) to be orphaned? Their mothers are hit by cars while they’re still in her pouch. Each year we admit over 50 babies!
A Black-crowned Night-Heron(Nycticorax nycticorax) chick’s life took a turn for the worse when s/he was knocked from the nest high above the beach at Moonstone during a wind storm. This yung bird ate a lot of fish!
Every summer we save lives, preserve wild families, and give unfortunate victims of accidents and human intervention a second chance. This juvenile Hermit Warbler (Setophaga occidentalis) whose nest was disturbed in the Arcata Community Forest. An improvised substitute made from a basket lined with twigs and mosses was placed high in the tree above where the young not yet flighted bird was found. Soon parent birds were seen bringing food and resuming care. Reuniting wild babies with their families is an important and frequent task throughout Spring and Summer.
Each year Raccoon (Procyon lotor) mothers are shot, trapped, poisoned and otherwise mistreated in ways that leaves their babies behind, often stuck in an attic or a crawlspace and left to die. When they’re lucky, someone hears them, finds them and brings them to us. Almost every single orphaned raccoon we care for could have been raised by their mother if only people would take basic steps to protect their property by preventing Raccoons and other animals from getting in, or seeking advice before acting irresponsibly and resorting to lethal solutions. Providing care to orphaned Raccoons isn’t cheap! Usually they are in care 4 moths before they can be released. Each baby costs nearly $500 to raise successfully and we raise over 20 of these curious Earthlings each year!
Every year our busy season has the added stress of paying for food and medicine, the water bill, the electric bill, staff salaries. Scrimping and saving is good and necessary, but so is knowing that our basic costs are going to be covered. It’s good to know that if an unexpected major expense comes up – like last year when we treated a lead-poisoned Bald Eagle whose care required six months of recuperation – that we’ve got it covered.
So, we’re launching a special Baby Season fundraiser.* Our goal is $25,000 between now and May 31. That’s 9 weeks. $25,000 will keep us going through early Spring and leave us ready to take on the most hectic months of our year with something in reserve, reducing our stress so that we can be better care providers. It costs us about $12,000 a month to operate during the Summer. Your help is vitally important. Without your generosity… well, let’s just say that we are grateful that you’ve kept us going this long and we look forward to your continued support. Let’s make this the best, least stressful Wild Baby season we’ve had. Thank you!!
*By the way, we are still a couple thousand short of our March goal of $7000. Want to help us reach it? Donate here. Thank you!!
photo: Bird Ally X/ Laura Corsiglia
Pacific Pond Turtle!
Found on Samoa Beach, this young Pacific Pond Turtle (Actinemys marmorata) was almost kept as a pet. Fortunately he mentioned the turtle to his veterinarian at Sunny Brae Animal Clinic and they cautioned him that the turtle is wild and needs freedom. They called Humboldt Wildlife Care Center and we went over and picked up the curious and active youngster. No injuries or illness were found on his admission exam and he was released to a nearby mucky area that from now on will be known as Turtle’s Delight!
There are so many ways to live on Earth! Some of us spend years wth parental help and supervision on our way to adulthood and others, like this turtle, are born ready
Even though we strive to maintain a professional distance from our patients, sometimes it’s hard not to just be bowled over by the cuteness!
Seriously, though, this young turtle came very close to having his life ruined, spent in a glass box. Fortunately the person agreed to give this turtle his freedom. Also, the turtle was fortunate that the people at Sunny Brae Animal Clinic knew to call us at HWCC.
As we enter Spring and wild babies start to pop up around our community, please let’s help remind each other to keep wild animals wild, and to keep wild families together (even if it’s a family of one turtle!)
Want to help us meet our challenging mission to provide care for injured, orphaned and misplaced wild neighbors? We’ve raised over $4000 toward our March goal of $7000 and need your help! Without you, this turtle and all of our patients would have nowhere to go when the chips are down. You can donate here. Thank you for helping us help our wild neighbors!
photos: BAX
