When you visit our Wildlife Wanderland, you must keep in mind that our animal ambassadors have permanent disabilities and cannot return to the wild (except for the Red Wolves which are part of the Species Survival Plan).
These pictures show our female Red Tailed Hawk stuck in the grill of a car. She was hunting and flew into the grill, permanently injuring her shoulder rendering her non-flighted. Fortunately she was rescued by a wildlife rehabilitator.
When it was determined she could not return to the wild, she was placed with us where she goes into the classroom and teaches people about her species and why Red Tailed Hawks are important.
Every animal on our earth has a job, no matter how big or small, they are all vital to
nature's balance!
My husband and I visited the nature center several years back and enjoyed ourselves. One thing that stuck out to me though was the housing for the Red-tails. Two adult birds in an enclosure barely big enough for one. Their food was on the ground completely covered with flies. Now granted it was summer and that happens fairly quickly that time of year. Have they had their enclosure updated or were those two about to be released or are they still in the same living space? I don't mean to sound snotty or anything, I was just concerned for them. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi LeAnne!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading my blog! Our Red Tailed Hawks are both
non-flighted which means they require much less space to live in. Since you visited, they have moved to a brand new enclosure and our non-flighted Barn Owls live in the enclosure you mentioned. When we feed our animals, we place the food in various locations depending on the species of animal .The birds' food is almost always placed on perches. When you saw food on the ground, they may have eaten some of it and knocked the rest on the ground. Unfortunately, flies are part of feeding animals outside and we do what we can to reduce fly issues. All of our animals have permanent injuries and are not releasable, that's why they live at our facility as animal ambassadors teaching people about their species and the important role they play in our ecosystem.
Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you will visit again soon!
Tish