A Review of 2020 at Nebraska Wildlife Rehab
We started 2020 out strong with our Capital Campaign for the new Baldwin Wildlife Center and Hubbard Family Wildlife Hospital. To learn more about the campaign and how you can help us build the new Wildlife Center, click here. Here are some renderings of the new building and two videos that help tell the story!
Spring means BABY SEASON and COVID-19 didn't slow that down one bit. In fact, in we took in more than 1,400 animals in May alone, making it our busiest month EVER! Check out the photos of the some of the babies we received this year, and this adorable video of a baby woodchuck having a lip-smacking good meal!
Although babies dominate our spring, they aren't the only animals we care for! Spring is full of animal rescues, including saving migratory birds in the field and treating injured adult animals! Check out these photos and videos from this spring, including a pelican rescue, a wood duck rescue, more tangled tail squirrels and more. (Huge shout out to Gretna High School for helping reunite a mother duck and her ducklings!)
Spring also brings BAT RELEASE! Instead of gathering at the Joslyn Art Museum for our annual bat release this year, we went virtual on Facebook live. Although it wasn't quite the same without all of you there, we were still able to share the release and answer questions. Check out these photos from Bat Release, and if you want the full experience, watch the recording of the Bat Release - Facebook Live style!
Complex medical cases are not uncommon at Nebraska Wildlife Rehab. Indeed, we are here to take care of injured and ill animals just as much as we're here to raise orphaned youngsters. Here are just a few of the medical cases we handled this year, including: A young raccoon that was injured by a chainsaw, an adult raccoon that had a beer bottle stuck on her hand (read her story here), a snapping turtle that had swallowed a hook, a mink that had a plastic ring stuck on its neck (read his story here), and one of many geese that had discarded fishing line tightly wound around its legs.
As summer wanes and turns to fall, the number of baby animals we receives declines (although we continue to get baby opossums and rabbits well into September). Late summer transitions into care of ill and injured juvenile and adult animals and fall sees an uptick in injured migratory birds. We continue to do as many of our own field rescues. In this gallery you'll find a daring rescue of an injured squirrel hanging from a tree, some surprise domestic ducks we received as ducklings, a coyote that was pulled from a lake after getting stuck against and seawall and exhausting herself trying to escape, and many of the other juvenile and adult animals we cared for this fall.
Releases are always our favorite time at Nebraska Wildlife Rehab - returning wild animals to the wild is why we do our work! Check out these photos of two pelicans on release day and this video of two great blue herons returning to the wild!
"Dirsko" the bobcat (named after his surgeon) captured the minds and hearts of our staff and volunteers and many of our supporters this year. Here are some photos that show his progression (including some x-rays of his bone healing) and a video that tells his whole story from start to finish!
As fall slips into winter, almost all of our orphans have returned to the wild, with the exception of a few late season opossums, and our beavers who will stay in rehab for 2 years prior to release. It's also time for us to prepare for our "bat season" - the time when we feed and care for hundreds of bats through the winter until Bat Release in the spring. Winter also gives us time for special projects, like collaborating on the video below - "Life in a Different Light." Here are some of the animals that are spending the winter with us, some of that bats we've received this summer and fall, and the stars of "Life in a Different Light" with blacklight and without!
