by Ben Bettterly, Wildlife Educator
Every Thursday, the
North Lakeland Discovery Center hosts an EE program for 11-14 year olds called
“Eco-Adventures. Eco-Adventures is an offsite program, where we explore local
communities and natural area as part of a weekly theme.
Last week’s theme
focused on Northwood’s wildlife; and so for Eco-Adventures we visited two
wildlife rehabilitation centers in the area: Northwood’s Wildlife Center in
Minocqua, and Wildlife Instincts in Rhinelander. During our visit,
we learned about ins-and-outs of wildlife rehabilitation, and found out what it
takes to become a wildlife rehabilitator.
The goal of any
wildlife rehabilitation center is to help sick, injured, and/or abandoned
(often young) animals, so that they can be released back into the wild as soon
as possible. It’s important to remember that animal rehab centers are not
zoos, where animals are put on display for our entertainment. Instead human
contact should be minimized as much as possible in order to avoid conflicts
between humans and the “patients” when they are finally released back into the
wild. For this reason, animal rehabilitation centers are often limited,
if not closed to the general public.
Most animal
rehabilitation centers rely purely on citizen donations for their funding; and
animal rehabilitation doesn’t come cheap. For example, although we didn’t get
to see them, Wildlife Instincts currently takes care of 10 abandoned bear
cubs. Each bear cub cost approximately $3,000 dollars by the time they
are released. This cost includes the price of food, and any medical or
cleaning supplies that might be needed; and this can add up fast! That’s nearly
$30,000 for bear cubs alone, and this doesn’t include the costs to take care of
all the other animals that might need help such as foxes, otters, porcupines,
raccoons, baby birds, etc.
If you would like to
support the Northwood’s Wildlife Center or Wildlife Instincts, donations are
graciously accepted in the form of money or supplies (such as fruit, dog food,
paper towels, etc.); however, I’d recommend calling first to find out what
supplies are most in need.
LACI = Lasiurus cinereus [Hoary bat]
LANO = Lasionycteris noctivagans [Silver-haired bat]
MYLU = Myotis lucifugus [Little brown myotis]
We are starting to
supplementally feed the purple loosestrife bio-control beetles being reared at
the Discovery Center by adding additional loose stems to each netted plant.
Thanks to the rain we have gotten, we haven’t had to add water to the kiddie
pools to keep the plants’ roots wet, which decreases our work. The plants are
beginning to die at the top which signals that our release date is near!
Today I went to check
on the beetles and feed them as necessary. I thought a few plants looked
particularly sparse of leaves so I took a closer look. 
