WILDLIFE PATIENT STORIES
GET TO KNOW WILDLIFE, One animal at a time
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See individual stories of rescue and healing — and how WildCare helps every animal improve their odds of survival.
Baby Raccoon-Palooza at WildCare
Spring and summer are, as you likely know, Baby Season for wildlife. These warm months are when most of our wildlife neighbors nest or den and hatch or give birth to their babies. Of course, bringing new life into the world is a hazardous proposition, and far too...
How to Help Fawns This Spring
Every spring WildCare admits a number of animals, usually fawns and baby jackrabbits, that have been "kidnapped" by well-meaning people who found them alone and assumed they needed help. In fact, approximately one in five fawns brought to WildCare are found to be...
Make Way for Ducklings
Based on the calls coming in to WildCare's Living with Wildlife Hotline 415-456-7283, everyone is seeing ducklings right now. Mallards lay their eggs in what seem to us to be the strangest places. We've had reports of duck nests in construction zones, on the medians...
Baby Season 2025 Has Begun
Orphaned Mallard Ducklings These little mallards caused a ruckus at a construction site when they entered the site and started following the construction workers around! There was no mother duck in sight, and these fluffy ducklings were clearly in distress and in need...
Farewell to Vladimir
On Friday, March 28, 2025, WildCare bid farewell to Vladimir, our venerable and beloved Wildlife Ambassador Turkey Vulture. Vladimir was 40 years old, one of the oldest vultures known in captivity. Due to severe complications from age-related arthritis, WildCare...
Owlet Reunite – 1st of 2025
March feels early to be organizing raptor reunites, but when these two fluffy Great Horned Owlets were rescued and brought to the Wildlife Hospital, WildCare's Raptor Reunite Team (RRT) sprang into action! After noticing they'd been sitting alone in the same place for...
Opossum Rescued from the Bay Bridge
This opossum was spotted ambling up the side of the busy San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge! Fortunately, with the help of a Good Samaritan who knew how to handle animals and a warm-hearted California Highway Patrol Motor Officer, she was safely rescued and brought to...
Meet Quercus the Acorn Woodpecker
Quercus is WildCare's newest nonreleaseable educational Wildlife Ambassador animal. An Acorn Woodpecker, Quercus was found as a nestling in the Marin County town of San Anselmo. His nest tree had been cut down, sending him and his siblings crashing to the ground. The...
Boots for a Crow
This young American Crow was brought into WildCare unable to stand, hop, or fly. His legs and toes were weak and sitting curled under his body. He was thin, too docile, incredibly dehydrated, and his legs were cold to the touch on intake. This all pointed to a pretty...
Turkey Vulture Recovers at WildCare
This adult Turkey Vulture was spotted on the side of the road. Drivers guessed he had been hit by a car and called Marin Humane, who dispatched an officer to rescue the bird and bring him to WildCare. The intake notes in the Wildlife Hospital say that the vulture was...
Owls at WildCare
It's "Owl-a-palooza" at WildCare right now. The Wildlife Hospital currently has seven owls of various species in care. This is a surprising number, given that we usually only have one or two of these birds of prey onsite at any given point. Many of the owls in care...
Protect Migratory Songbirds
Migratory Songbirds and Windows Migratory animals face an incredible number of hazards, especially the smallest of avian migrants, the songbirds. Hermit Thrushes, like the bird in this photo by Michael Pagano, are comparatively short-distance migrants, but they still...