The Wildlife Center of Virginia, an internationally acclaimed teaching and research hospital for wildlife and conservation medicine located in Waynesboro, has admitted the 50,000th patient of its history — a Common Loon that was found near the Green Valley Book Fair in Mount Crawford.
The loon had suffered abrasions on both feet. Center officials say that recent heavy rains were undoubtedly responsible for the loon’s plight. During heavy rain or ice storms, when normally dry surfaces of parking lots or pavement are covered with water or ice, loons and similar species which live almost their entire lives on or in the water can mistake the reflective surface of standing water for a lake or river. When these birds land, they can be stunned by the impact and become stranded. Loons cannot become airborne from a hard surface; they require a significant stretch of open water on which to build up speed before taking off, in the same way an airplane requires a runway. Most of the injuries from such strandings are relatively minor. The Center veterinary staff is cautiously optimistic that Patient #50,000 will be ready for release within a few days.
The Wildlife Center was founded as an emergency room and hospital for wildlife in 1982. Among the 50,000 animals treated and cared for during the Center’s 25-year history are more than 200 species of native birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. During 2007, for example, the Center admitted a total of 2,333 patients from all across Virginia. As expected, the 2007 total included many common species - 386 Eastern Cottontail Rabbits; 207 Virginia Opossums; 162 Eastern Gray Squirrels; 96 White-tailed Deer; 87 American Robins - as well as one Common Loon.
Also admitted for treatment were a number of threatened species, or species designated by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries as species of special concern, including 36 Bald Eagles [a single-year record for the Center], seven Barn Owls, three Peregrine Falcons, a Long-eared Owl, and a Brown Pelican.
Patient #50,000 also comes during the month of May - traditionally the busiest month of the year for patient admissions. About one-quarter of the patients that the Center will admit during the entire year typically come during May, including large numbers of baby rabbits and opossums and baby birds of a wide variety of species. The goal of the Center is to "treat to release" - to restore patients to health and return as many as possible to the wild. The Center provides state-of-the-art medical care for the sick and injured, and sustained, quality foster care so that animals may be returned to the wild with the ability to survive, and thrive, in their native habitats. Among the patients admitted thus far in 2008, in addition to the Common Loon, are:
- A Dark-eyed Junco, the first patient admitted during the year;
- 13 Bald Eagles;
- Eight Black Bears; and
- An Alleghany Woodrat - the first of its species admitted during the Center’s quarter-century of treating animals.
"The 50,000th patient we’ve admitted represents an important milestone for the Wildlife Center," said Ed Clark, President and Co-Founder of the Wildlife Center. "Yet the patients that come through the doors of our hospital clinic are really just the tip of the iceberg. We have helped train an army of volunteer wildlife rehabilitators across Virginia who are often the 'first responders' in providing emergency medical care. Our 'help-desk' staff has answered questions and given sound advice to the thousands of individuals who call us each year."
The Center estimates that the number of patients admitted annually actually represents only about one-quarter of the animals that are helped through contact with the Center. "We didn’t welcome our 50,000th patient with balloons, a bouquet, or confetti," Clark continued. "We instead provided what we strive to give to every patient - quality emergency medical care." "Our celebration here was brief," Clark stated. "There is just too much to do, too many problems left to solve, and too many challenges left to overcome on behalf of wildlife and the environment."
Common Loons are water birds that nest on freshwater lakes in northernmost areas of the United States and across Canada. Loons winter in coastal marine areas near shore and inland on large lakes. Wildlife Center veterinarians believe Patient #50,000 - a juvenile loon - is likely a migrating bird. Center veterinarians have cleaned and sutured the wounds on the loon’s feet; the hope is to release the bird on a large body of water after a short stay at the Center. Like Patient #50,000, most of the animals checked in to the Center’s hospital are brought in by concerned individuals who find animals in need. Other patients are brought in by animal-control officers, game wardens, law-enforcement officials, and wildlife rehabilitators. The Wildlife Center also has developed a corps of volunteer transporters across the state who bring animals to the Waynesboro clinic.
During its 25-year history, the Wildlife Center has:
- Presented compelling, life-changing programs to more than 1.4 million children and adults and introduced these audiences to feathered, furred, and scaled representatives of Virginia’s wildlife; and
- Trained a generation of wildlife health-care professionals across the United States and around the world.
In 2007, the Wildlife Center received the prestigious National Conservation Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation - the "Academy Award" in the field of conservation - for exemplary leadership in conserving wildlife and bridging the gap between wildlife conservation, public health and safety, and veterinary medicine. Additional information about the Wildlife Center is available at wildlifecenter.org.