Monthly Archives: January 2018
Snapping Turtle
This little snapping turtle is one we’ve had since last year—and this patient has grown since being admitted, although he’s still tiny! Female snapping turtles can lay a large number of eggs because most of their babies won’t make it to adulthood so by having many they increase their chances of success. Once they grow to a certain size, however, this species has very few natural predators and can live a very long time. We’re hoping that this one will be one of the lucky ones once he is released!
Canada Goose
Even the snow has not stopped people from going to great lengths to care for injured wildlife! Today, we received this Canada Goose that was found near Claytor Lake suffering from eye trauma and a leg injury. Canada Geese are long-lived and their lifespan can extend into their 30s! One subspecies of Canada Goose, known as the Giant Canada Goose, is the largest type of goose in the world and was declared extinct until a tiny population was found in Missouri in the 1950s. Thank you to Kim for transporting this patient!
Bird Atlas
This map shows our data contribution to the 2nd Virginia Breeding Bird Atlas, an ongoing five year long study to document what birds are breeding in Virginia and what is happening to their populations. As so far as we can find, Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center of Roanoke is the first wildlife rehabilitation center ever to directly participate in a Breeding Bird Atlas and is supplying valuable data to this study. This map shows the incredible geographical range of patients that we take care of—but keep in mind that this ONLY two years of data, ONLY shows baby birds, and ONLY shows data that was viable for the study (so not all baby bird patients are represented). Even though this only displays a tiny fraction of our patient load over the 18 years we’ve been in operation, it’s interesting to clearly see how we not only care for wildlife locally, but Virginia-wide! If you have nest boxes or have birds that breed on your property, learn how you can contribute that data to the Atlas at vabba2.org