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TWC staff rescuing a
mallard in downtown Toronto |
Wildlife Rescue
A loon caught on a lake during a flash freeze, an orphaned bear cub hiding 30 feet up in a tree, a fox that has fallen into a construction pit, a swan with a broken wing swimming far from the shore, a baby squirrel trapped inside a wall...
Toronto Wildlife Centre is the only organisation in Canada's most populous region that rescues wild animals from life-threatening situations.
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great horned owlet
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Challenging Rescues
This baby Great Horned Owl's mother was brought to TWC with serious head trauma; she had been found near a golf course.
No one knew of the young owl close by, high up in the old tree waiting for its mother to return with food.
TWC staff, upon examining the adult bird, noticed that she had a brood patch. Worried that the owl's baby may be somewhere in the area, Hotline staff contacted the golf course. Staff and regular golfers were questioned - had anyone seen the owl in one of the nearby stands of trees? Meanwhile, TWC staff and volunteers scoured the area, looking for nests.
Information from one of the maintenance staff led TWC to believe that the nest may be up high in the hollow of an old tree. A truck with a lift bucket was found to help, and a volunteer was hoisted high up in the air to check inside the hollow of the tree.
When the volunteer peeked in the hole, sure enough an angry baby owl clacked back at him. The baby had gone several days without parental care; now he was finally found, and could be returned to his mother. The two were reunited at TWC, where the baby was hand fed by staff while his mother recovered from her head injury.
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double-crested
cormorants recovering from
an oil spill
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Oil Spill Response
When people think of oil spills, images come to mind of horrible catastrophes such as the Exxon Valdez or the spill in South Africa in 2000, where more than 20,000 penguins were affected and thousands of volunteers rushed from all over the world to help.
Thankfully, in Ontario we have never had to cope with an oil spill disaster of such magnitude. However, small spills do occur weekly. Industrial accidents affect hundreds of wild animals at a time, and wreak havoc on sensitive wildlife habitat.
Clean-up companies, often the first ones on site at these spills, have little or no training in how to respond to the animals affected by these terrible accidents.
Toronto Wildlife Centre is one of the only wildlife centre's in Ontario with Wildlife Care Supervisors trained in oil spill response.
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