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Dr.
Kevin Fowler (right), Melanie Haire and an assistant
examine an injured otter |
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WILDLIFE
REHABILITATION IS
The
process by which injured, sick and orphaned wild animals
receive the care necessary to insure their successful
return to the wild. |
Wildlife
Rehabilitation concerns itself with every aspect of
the wellbeing of wild animals; healing the sick, repairing
the broken, strengthening the weak, as well as
| Syringe
nipple feeding an eastern cottontail |
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raising and training the young. The AWARE staff will
spend a great deal of it’s time training volunteers
to prepare baby formulas, feed infants, monitor growth
rates, administer
medications, and clean, clean, clean cages. Working
at a rehabilitation center is difficult, heart wrenching
work and the rewards are few but, the release of a
healthy adult animal that you remember feeding when
it was one inch long with it’s eyes closed is a reward
unlike few have ever experienced.
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Puppet
feeding a young great horned owl |
Wildlife
Rehabilitation is
also the process of educating the general public
about the need to protect our wild creatures.
One 45 minute |
education
program in a classroom can prevent the need for rehabilitation
of hundreds of wild animals that otherwise might have
been unintentionally poisoned or accidentally orphaned.
Education is the key to the future survival of all
species and rehabilitators represent a significant
force for that process.
In summation, if you think you would enjoy working
16 to 18 hours a day cleaning baby bottoms and cages,
feeding so many infants so often that by the second
feeding of six for the day, you find that you are
already ½ hour behind schedule and at midnight you
think you would look forward to a 7am feeding the
next morning, all for FREE, then wildlife rehabilitation
is right up your alley. |
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