By Jennifer Guess, Senior Wildlife Technician

It’s finally spring and the Orphan Care Unit (OCU) at California Wildlife Center is up and running! The doors officially opened for the season on March 15th. Of course, nature had its own plans.The first orphaned patient California Wildlife Center received in 2018 was a nestling Band-Tailed Pigeon on January 25th. Between then and March 15th, CWC received 95 orphaned animals who were treated in the Intensive Care Unit until OCU opened for the season. Forty-six of those young patients were Eastern Fox Squirrels being cared for under the supervision of our home care rehabber Glenn Ellis. Besides orphaned Eastern Fox Squirrels, CWC received 22 Mourning Doves, 13 Band-Tailed Pigeons, nine Virginia Opossums, and five Hummingbirds.

As of this writing, the OCU has taken in over 275 young patients. Our dedicated team of volunteers, staff, and our Homecare Network have been looking after more than 105 Eastern Fox Squirrels, 75 Virginia Opossums, and 90 baby birds including House Finches, Lesser Goldfinches, Northern Mockingbirds, Hummingbirds, Mourning Doves, and Band-Tailed Pigeons. As time progresses, the mammals in OCU will slowly transition into outdoor enclosures preparing for release. We will see a major influx of injured and orphaned baby birds.

If you find a young animal the first thing you will want to do is look from afar to see if it has any obvious injuries. If you notice an injury, prepare a box with an absorbant towel at the bottom, and gently contain the injured animal. Contact the hospital at (310) 458-9453 to get further instructions. If you find a young uninjured animal you believe might be orphaned, contact the hospital as soon as possible to get instructions on whether the animal should be contained and brought into our Orphan Care Unit. It is very common for many species of birds to spend anywhere from 3-7 days on the ground learning how to fly. This is called the fledgling stage. Many people mistake these fledgling birds for orphans, but in reality the parent is still caring for them while they are on the ground. Unfortunately a lot of young animal are orphaned from tree trimming incidents. The best way you can help young animals is to wait until December to trim your trees!