Volunteers for Wildlife- Wildlife Hospital & Education Center

Our Amazon Wish List has been restocked with items of need at our Wildlife Center! You can give wildlife food, medical, or other supplies to help them while they are in our care! High priority items are nuts for squirrels, duck pellets (fed to ducks, geese & swans), vet wrap & exam gloves. Our Wish List can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/ZY513QD3LBM3 Thank you for your support!

Amelia, our ambassador American Kestrel, is tucked away for the night inside our center to ride out this storm! This photo was taken on a sunnier day than today. We love how the photo highlights some of Amelia’s awesome adaptations for hunting! What adaptations do you see?

These days it’s feeling like everyone LOVES opossums (and if they don’t, they certainly should!) We have the perfect holiday gift for the opossum lover in your life! Adopt Lucille or Sully, Volunteers for Wildlife’s resident opossums, as a gift for a friend or loved one this holiday season. Adoptions help us to provide the best care for these two marvelous marsupials throughout the year! To learn more:... https://www.volunteersforwildlife.org/adoptions

As we all get ready for bed, the little nocturnal Southern Flying Squirrel is gearing up for a night of activity! Flying Squirrels are a common but seldom seen resident of Long Island. This little patient was admitted from Lloyd Harbor after an unfortunate interaction with a cat. On examination, we found him to be suffering from spinal trauma. He is making good progress in our care and we are hopeful for a full recovery!

We’re continuing with highlighting each of our Animal Ambassadors to find them all a special adopter for the bright new year! These two are for all of our turtle lovers out there. Meet Jade and Jasper! These two sister Diamondback Terrapins were admitted to our hospital in 2015. Like so many turtles we receive, they were found as hatchlings and kept for four years as illegal pets! Once they grew too large for their set-up, they were surrendered to our hospital. Unfor...tunately for Jade and Jasper, permanent damage had already been done. These two terrapins were tame and had severe shell deformities that rendered them non-releasable. They now reside permanently at our center and help us to teach kids and adults about their unique species and the importance of keeping wildlife in the wild! Your adoption of Jade and Jasper helps us to provide for their needs including nutritious meals (fish, clam and pellets), appropriate UV lighting, aquarium salt for their brackish tanks and medical care throughout the year. To adopt Jade and/or Jasper or any of our wonderful ambassadors, visit our website: https://www.volunteersforwildlife.org/adoptions

The weather here on Long Island is definitely not conducive to any releases today, so here’s a good clip of a speedy little Hermit Thrush returning to the wild last weekend!

It was a big lap around the lake Mallard drake released back to his home at Belmont Lake State Park on Saturday!

It’s a great day for ducks! This young male Mallard was admitted to our hospital a week ago with a leg injury. He is now healed and once this storm passes, he will he heading back to his home at Belmont Lake State Park. In the meantime, bath time is the best time!

After months with only virtual educational programming, we are so excited to get back out there with our ambassadors! Join us at our table at the Sea Cliff Farmer's Market on Halloween from 10AM-12:30PM! Come shop local and meet some of our incredible ambassadors! Don’t forget your masks!

Yesterday we received patient 20-2021, an Eastern Screech Owl, from our cooperating veterinarians at the Veterinary Medical Center of Long Island (VMCLI)! This adult male was found on the ground on Friday in Islip and fortunately was brought for help. We were contacted immediately by VMCLI for a pickup and this pint sized patient was transported to our center yesterday by our Rescue/Transport Volunteer Brianna. Upon arrival yesterday, he was fully examined by our rehabilitators and was found to be thin, severely dehydrated and suffering from seizures. We suspect this owl may be suffering from toxicity. We were happy that he pulled through his first night in care and are hopeful he will continue to improve with supportive care here at our hospital!

We admitted our 2,000th patient of the year this week! Our ability to help so many injured and orphaned animals is made possible by the generous support of the public. If you’d like to make a supply donation to help our wildlife patients, please visit our Amazon Wish List: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/ZY513QD3LBM3 Thank you!

Have you had the opportunity to come visit our ambassadors in our Wildlife Garden? If so, you may have met Lady! Lady is our beautiful 20 year old Red-tailed Hawk. She was admitted to our hospital in 2001 following a vehicle collision. Lady suffered a traumatic injury to her left eye which rendered her non-releasable. Due to some age related ailments, Lady no longer travels for our educational programs. However, you can still visit her in her aviary and will usually find her on her favorite perches sunning herself! Come visit Lady and all of our ambassadors Wednesday through Sunday between 9AM-5PM at our center at Bailey Arboretum.

Our Nursery Crew is growing up! Most of our orphaned squirrels have now graduated to once or twice daily formula feedings and are eating lots of fresh produce, rodent block, bark and other natural foods on their own. In the next week or so, these squirrels will move to outdoor enclosures where they will start the final step of the rehabilitation process, acclimating to the outdoors prior to their release!

Our Ambassador Opossum Lucille knows the importance of washing her hands! After each meal, Lucille meticulously cleans her hands before heading back to bed for the day.

Volunteers for Wildlife provides permanent sanctuary to eight ambassador raptors and cares for over a hundred injured raptor patients each year. Providing these birds with nutritious, high quality food is costly! Will you help us fill our freezers?

On the night of July 4th, two young nestling Cooper’s Hawks took a traumatic fall from their nest in Northport. While one survived the fall unscathed, the other had a fractured leg. These two nestlings were rehabilitated at our hospital for over a month. Once medically cleared, they moved on for flight conditioning and hunting assessments with the skilled rehabilitators at Christine's Critters Inc. We are so thankful for Christine’s Critters for helping us give these Hawks the life they deserved back in the wild!

This young Snapping Turtle was rehabilitated and released back to the wild this summer! Snapping Turtles are large turtles that, on average, grow to 8-14 inches in length and weigh 10-35 pounds. This patient was less than a year old, and we know that this species can live to be 75+ years old in the wild! So far in 2020, we have helped over 1,900 injured and orphaned wild animals. If you would like to make a donation to help support our work, please visit our Amazon wish list: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/ZY513QD3LBM3 Items of need at our Center include food, cleaning supplies, and other wildlife supplies. All donations go directly towards helping animals in need.

Special thank you to Priscilla Mezrahi for helping support the fall babies in our nursery!

While we all know winter is coming eventually, Trixie and the rest of our ambassador Box Turtles are still loving their beautiful fall days outside! Trixie turned 20 this year! He was admitted to our hospital in 2005 from Baiting Hollow after he was kept as an illegal pet for five years. Unfortunately due to poor diet and housing, Trixie has permanent shell deformities that do not allow him to properly close his shell to defend himself. Trixie has spent the last 15 years at our center. He’s a handsome turtle with quite the personality!