WILDLIFE PATIENT STORIES
GET TO KNOW WILDLIFE, One animal at a time
READ OUR WILDLIFE PATIENT STORIES!
See individual stories of rescue and healing — and how WildCare helps every animal improve their odds of survival.
Burned Red-tailed Hawk Recovers at WildCare Transition
It's raptor migration season, which means that birds of prey are filling the skies over the San Francisco Bay Area as they make their way down the Pacific Flyway. Migrating birds face many hazards, but this bird's reason for admission to the Wildlife Hospital...
WildCare Transition Up and Running
All of WildCare's Programs are now at WildCare Transition! While we rebuild our new facility at our Albert Park Lane location, WildCare has relocated all of our programs, including the Wildlife Hospital, to a Transition location. We'll be operating out of WildCare...
Wildlife Ambassadors Move to Transition
A New (Temporary) Home for WildCare's Wildlife Ambassadors Watch WildCare's beloved Wildlife Ambassador pool birds and our venerable Turkey Vulture, Vladimir, entering their bright and spacious Transition enclosures for the first time in the video below. Vladimir is a...
WildCare’s Move + Orphaned Baby Squirrel in Care
As you likely know, WildCare is in the process of moving out of our venerable facility on Albert Park Lane in San Rafael, California so we can rebuild a new, state-of-the-art wildlife hospital and nature education center at this site. To do that, we have to move the...
Gray Fox Entangled in Soccer Netting
WildCare admits a surprising number of animals entangled in soccer netting. Soccer goal netting is thick and durable, and it's always hung at either end of a wide-open grassy field. If you've never walked a soccer pitch at dawn or dusk, you may not realize how much...
Baby Bat Emergency
It was a bat emergency in Bakersfield. WildCare's Director of Animal Care, Melanie Piazza received a call on Saturday morning that hundreds of baby Mexican Free-tailed bats had fallen from their roost under a freeway overpass. The temperatures in Bakersfield reached...
Extraordinary Skunk Rescue in Front of WildCare
WildCare's Wildlife Hospital is at its busiest right now, but our team is never too busy to help an animal in need! A panicked pedestrian came to WildCare's front gate, pointing at the creek behind him and saying that there was a skunk with a trap on her foot dragging...
Patients of Many Species at WildCare
Peregrine Falcon Fledglings 2024 has been a banner year for young raptors at WildCare, including fledgling Peregrine Falcons. We have admitted and treated five of these extraordinary birds this summer. UPDATE: As we were writing this story, a sixth young Peregrine...
Baby Red-Shouldered Hawks at WildCare
At WildCare we are always impressed at the lengths to which raptor parents will go to raise their young. In the week before Father's Day, our thoughts have turned especially to raptor dads who work tirelessly to catch and bring food to their always-hungry chicks. The...
Emaciated Pelicans at WildCare
Wildlife experts up and down the California coast are concerned that Brown Pelicans are facing another "stranding event" like the one we saw in 2022. That year, our partner organization International Bird Rescue (IBR) admitted over 350 emaciated pelicans, 19 of which...
Baby Skunks at WildCare
Five baby skunks arrived at the Wildlife Hospital after being rescued from a freeway on-ramp! Fortunately a driver saw the five little skunks, tails high, marching up the on-ramp and managed to catch them before they got into oncoming traffic. Skunks at this age are...
Reunited Great Horned Owlets
Although Great Horned Owls are very good parents, they aren't exactly champion nest builders. In fact, these large owls don't even build their own nests-- they take over the already-built nests of other birds like hawks or ravens in which to raise their young. The...