It has been an exciting spring for all of us with Nebraska Wildlife Rehab, Inc. (NWRI)! We have received several charges that are unusual in rehab, including a baby beaver, a baby muskrat, 3 baby minks, and a beautiful Franklin’s gull. All of these aquatic creatures have really tested the limits of our caging resources (we don’t have that many pools!) but we are really enjoying their time with us, and are thrilled at how well they are growing and learning the skills they need for their release.
The big story for us right now is the extreme number of baby raccoons we have received and are trying to manage right now. After a very slow start to raccoons this spring, they have been flooding in! We have about 80 babies now with another month or so for juveniles to continue to be admitted for care, and we need your help! Please consider the following:
VOLUNTEER – Whether you are a seasoned veteran or a brand-new volunteer, we need help now! We have 14 babies in need of immediate placement, including the following:
- A litter of four that are nursing well off a bottle. They are working on weaning now, and will need about two to three weeks in care before moving outside.
- A single baby, far younger than our other babies, that needs to be fed four times a day. She needs about five weeks with a rehabilitator before she can be weaned.
- Three single babies, all eating formula out of a dish. They need to be weaned, and will require another two to three weeks in care before moving outside.
- Another litter of three babies, all eating formula out of a dish. They need to be weaned, and will require another two weeks in care before moving outside. These babies are not friendly and will need an experienced hand.
**Please note that to be a raccoon volunteer, you must be in a house (no apartments please!) and there cannot be any children under the age of 12 in your home.
If you’d like to help, please call Laura at 960-4366 or e-mail her at lastastny@yahoo.com. If you have never completed a volunteer application, you can find it online at:
http://www.nebraskawildliferehab.org/pdf/get_involved/volunteering/application.pdf
DONATE – Raccoons are the most expensive animal we rehabilitate on a regular basis. Each baby costs NWRI about $50 to raise, including formula, food and caging. Please consider donating today to sponsor one or more babies!
http://www.nebraskawildliferehab.org/how_you_can_help.html#donations
BUILD A CAGE – With all of the extra babies, we need more caging! Raccoons spend about eight weeks in an outdoor wilding cage once they are weaned. We need additional cages and release sites for them to accommodate all of our raccoons! A new cage costs about $200 to build, so you can help by donating to build a new cage, or by putting a cage on your property if you live in a rural area with good raccoon habitat!
If you have any questions about how you can help us with our raccoon explosion, please call or e-mail Laura at 960-4366 or lastastny@yahoo.com.
There are tons of other exciting developments happening at NWRI this spring, including a project with the Underwood Hills Focus School to build an Outdoor Science Classroom and wildlife habitat on school grounds, and a new home of our own! Watch your mail for our newsletter with more details in the coming weeks. If you’re not on our mailing list, you can make a donation to receive the newsletter or watch our Web site for the new newsletter, which will be posted there once it is sent!
That's the update. Thanks for all you do!
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Baby opossums in my backyard
I'm currently rearing a litter of six little joeys. They're lapping their formula now and very interested in applesauce, escaping their kennel, scattering in all directions in the backyard, and practicing their climbing with this tree and tire swing!
Monday, June 7, 2010
Have you ever seen a mink?
I hadn't, until Nebraska Wildlife received these three sweet little babies!
Last month a local business had to move a piece of heavy machinery that had been sitting all winter on a work site near the Missouri river in northeast Omaha. When they did, a mother mink ran out, leaving behind her three babies that were only a few days old. It was a blustery, rainy day, but one of the workers knew he needed to give the mother a chance to reclaim her young, so he put them in a container and left them near the original den site, making sure they stayed warm. The kind worker did exactly the right thing, but unfortunately the mother didn't return the entire day, likely due to all the human commotion and noise on the work site. Because the day was so cold and wet, the minks' rescuer knew he couldn't leave them on the construction site overnight, and had no choice but to take the babies home with him when he left for the day. He immediately called NWRI and transferred them to us so that they could receive the care they needed.
Over the past three weeks, they have more than quadrupled in weight and are beginning to look more like mink than they did when they first arrived. They are getting very close to opening their eyes (mink open their eyes at 3 1/2 to four weeks of age) and will be transitioned off of formula and over to solid food within a few weeks after that. We are working on designing and building a wilding cage specifically for mink, as they can escape from most of our traditional caging. They'll need to spend time in this cage to acclimate to the outdoors, so we expect to have them for a few months as they learn to hunt, swim, and make their way in the wild!
Just look at these tiny things. What a privilege to care for them, and what a responsibility to do it right!
Would you like to help us care for these fuzzy little mink? Every donated dollar goes directly to food in these creatures' bellies and the wilding cages we build for them. Help us help animals here!
We'll be back with updates....thanks for all you do!
Friday, May 28, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Meet the Beaver!
Surprise! A little over a month ago, utilities workers in north-central Nebraska found a baby beaver that they thought had a broken leg! Poor thing. They picked her up and took her to the nearest veterinarian, which happened to be a spay-neuter clinic. The veterinarian didn't have x-ray equipment on site, so she splinted the baby's leg and her assistant contacted us here at Nebraska Wildlife Rehab. A volunteer at the clinic transported the baby to Valentine, NE and cared for her overnight. Then the next day, she drove the baby to meet Shelley, a Nebraska Wildlife volunteer from O'Neill. Shelley took the baby back to O'Neill, where she met up with a couple more of our volunteers from Omaha, Susie and Dan. They drove the baby all the way back to Omaha on the same day, a seven-hour trip in total, to make sure she received the medical attention and formula she needed!
On Saturday, April 24th, Dr. Keith Halsey at VCA Animal Medical Center x-rayed the little beaver's leg and determined that although it was sprained, it was not broken, and that it should heal without any intervention. Nebraska Wildlife volunteers now have the long task of raising and rehabilitating this unique baby and returning her to the wild.
Amy, this baby's primary caretaker, reports that she has been on formula for several weeks now, but is really beginning to eat solid foods. She loves sweet potatoes and willow branches. Her diet consists of several other foods as well, but those are her favorites!
Since it has been such a long time since Nebraska Wildlife has had baby beavers, we no longer have an enclosure suitable for their rehabilitation and are in the process of a building a new, large enclosure, complete with a pool and "chew-proof" walls. We couldn't do all of this work with our amazing animals if it wasn't for the support of our generous public-- so if you find your heartstrings tugged, please donate to our baby beaver's care and her new home today! We'll post pictures of her enclosure once it's built and keep you posted on her progress too!
Friday, May 7, 2010
VERY exciting news!
It has finally happened! Nebraska Wildlife Rehab has been offered a BUILDING!
(Meet Chuck, our president Kay's husband.)
Isn't it beautiful? Ash Grove is located a mere 10 minutes from the Sapp Brothers interstate exit, approximately 20-30 minutes from most of Omaha via the interstate and Highway 50, and it is right next to the Schramm Park State Recreational Area. We can do SO MUCH with this building. It will be our first center of operations ever, giving us a real street address and a base for conducting the business end of non-profit work. We'll staff it with volunteers to field the wildlife hotline calls! Transporters can drop off animals in need! We'll be able to host wildlife training and certification events, and call board and volunteer meetings in our very own space! We're even looking into hopefully hosting field trips for elementary children as well as possibly figuring out a summer internship program. The possibilities are truly endless.
Ash Grove Cement is generously offering the use of this building to us for a whopping $1 per year. We will be responsible for utilities, insurance, and routine upkeep and maintenance. For us to be able run the center on an all-volunteer basis we are estimating that we'll need an additional $10,000 per year, and we are needing to come up with that amount of money within the next 30 days. So on that note, we need your help!
1) WE NEED MONEY!
For insurance, utilities and other immediate building necessities, we absolutely must have $10,000 within the next 30 days. Otherwise, we may not be able to take on the responsibilities of this building and all the opportunities it could give us. That's not a lot of time! Nebraska is one of only three states without a permanent wildlife rehabilitation facility-- we are doing this ourselves, out of pocket, on our own time.
2) WE NEED VOLUNTEERS.
We need as many willing hands as possible to help us whip the building into shape this summer. The building is a bit run-down from disuse, but it's nothing a little elbow grease won't be able to fix.
Once the building is up and running, we will ALSO need volunteers to staff the hotline and help the public with their wildlife questions and problems. If you are interested in learning everything there is to know about wildlife in Nebraska, this is the volunteer gig for you!
Please help us make this happen for the animals! Please donate to help us secure this building and all of its advantages!
And please, do tell your friends.
(Meet Chuck, our president Kay's husband.)
Isn't it beautiful? Ash Grove is located a mere 10 minutes from the Sapp Brothers interstate exit, approximately 20-30 minutes from most of Omaha via the interstate and Highway 50, and it is right next to the Schramm Park State Recreational Area. We can do SO MUCH with this building. It will be our first center of operations ever, giving us a real street address and a base for conducting the business end of non-profit work. We'll staff it with volunteers to field the wildlife hotline calls! Transporters can drop off animals in need! We'll be able to host wildlife training and certification events, and call board and volunteer meetings in our very own space! We're even looking into hopefully hosting field trips for elementary children as well as possibly figuring out a summer internship program. The possibilities are truly endless.
Ash Grove Cement is generously offering the use of this building to us for a whopping $1 per year. We will be responsible for utilities, insurance, and routine upkeep and maintenance. For us to be able run the center on an all-volunteer basis we are estimating that we'll need an additional $10,000 per year, and we are needing to come up with that amount of money within the next 30 days. So on that note, we need your help!
1) WE NEED MONEY!
For insurance, utilities and other immediate building necessities, we absolutely must have $10,000 within the next 30 days. Otherwise, we may not be able to take on the responsibilities of this building and all the opportunities it could give us. That's not a lot of time! Nebraska is one of only three states without a permanent wildlife rehabilitation facility-- we are doing this ourselves, out of pocket, on our own time.
2) WE NEED VOLUNTEERS.
We need as many willing hands as possible to help us whip the building into shape this summer. The building is a bit run-down from disuse, but it's nothing a little elbow grease won't be able to fix.
Once the building is up and running, we will ALSO need volunteers to staff the hotline and help the public with their wildlife questions and problems. If you are interested in learning everything there is to know about wildlife in Nebraska, this is the volunteer gig for you!
Please help us make this happen for the animals! Please donate to help us secure this building and all of its advantages!
And please, do tell your friends.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
We have new furry babies!
On Saturday, April 3rd, a farmer and his wife found two beautiful fox kits hiding underneath a round hay bale on their farm west of O'Neill, Nebraska. The two kits, a boy and a girl with eyes still sealed shut, were cold and out of their den, with a dead sibling lying next to them. Their mother was nowhere to be found. At a mere 12 days old, they would have died out there had they not been rescued. Shelly, a wildlife rehabilitator in O'Neill, collected the kits and cared for them until they were transported to us in Omaha on April 5th. On that day, their little eyes opened and they began to explore their new world!
They are thriving wonderfully under care. In the first week alone they doubled their body weight and they are still eating with gusto, moving about confidently, playing, pouncing on each other, wrestling and climbing. Just yesterday they were weaned off a bottle and are now lapping their formula from a dish. They are healthy, exuberant five-week-olds! Here are pictures of the little fuzzballs:
If YOU would like to make a donation to help support the care of these baby foxes, please visit our website!
http://www.nebraskawildliferehab.org/
Hover the mouse over "Get Involved," then click "How You Can Help." There, you'll find a Donations link with instructions on how to donate to Nebraska Wildlife via PayPal or by mailing a check. Alternately, you can scroll down the right side of this blog and look for the brown "Get Involved" box-- a link to the Donations page is there as well. Remember, it is YOUR generous support that makes our work possible!
Well be back with updates on Thing 1 and Thing 2 (just kidding), so stay tuned for that and other exciting news! We appreciate your kind help in caring for our wild friends! And of course, so do the snuggly foxes.
They are thriving wonderfully under care. In the first week alone they doubled their body weight and they are still eating with gusto, moving about confidently, playing, pouncing on each other, wrestling and climbing. Just yesterday they were weaned off a bottle and are now lapping their formula from a dish. They are healthy, exuberant five-week-olds! Here are pictures of the little fuzzballs:
If YOU would like to make a donation to help support the care of these baby foxes, please visit our website!
http://www.nebraskawildliferehab.org/
Hover the mouse over "Get Involved," then click "How You Can Help." There, you'll find a Donations link with instructions on how to donate to Nebraska Wildlife via PayPal or by mailing a check. Alternately, you can scroll down the right side of this blog and look for the brown "Get Involved" box-- a link to the Donations page is there as well. Remember, it is YOUR generous support that makes our work possible!
Well be back with updates on Thing 1 and Thing 2 (just kidding), so stay tuned for that and other exciting news! We appreciate your kind help in caring for our wild friends! And of course, so do the snuggly foxes.
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