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Baby animal rescues by Austin Wildlife Rescue
The Austin Wildlife Rescue is off to a busy start to the spring with an influx of fury and feathered friends.
AUSTIN, Texas - The Austin Wildlife Rescue is off to a busy start to the spring with an influx of fury and feathered friends.
The nonprofit says it’s now seeing between 30 and 40 animals come in every single day, and some of the recent arrivals are pretty unique.
What they're saying:
Baby season has officially arrived at Austin Wildlife Rescue. The nonprofit cares for injured, orphaned, and sick native Texas wildlife with one goal of getting them back to the wild.
At this time of year, they’re busier than ever.
"April and May are huge. They are kind of the kickoff of wildlife baby season because once the wildlife comes out after winter, they're out there, they're finding partners, looking for love, they're making dens for their babies and then April and May is when a lot of these animals start to have their babies," said Jules Maron, executive director Austin Wildlife Rescue.
Austin Wildlife Rescue takes in 11,000 animals a year, with 2,000 arriving in May alone. They’re already seeing that spring surge. Hundreds of baby opossums and squirrels have come into their care in the past few weeks.
But some of the newest arrivals are a little more unexpected, like vulture eggs found at a construction site.
Baby vulture hatches at Austin Wildlife Rescue in time for Easter
Austin Wildlife Rescue welcomed a different kind of Easter chick on Sunday, a baby vulture!
"There just was not going to be a feasible way for that mama vulture to come back and be able to sit on her eggs and be able to properly incubate them without getting constantly disturbed. So, we were going to risk really losing those eggs completely. So when the eggs came in, we put them in an egg incubator, maybe about a month ago. And I happened to be in the room where the egg incubator was and something caught my eye and there was a baby vulture that had popped out of its egg," said Maron.
Among the new additions are three baby armadillos who were found lying in a driveway.
"Right now, we've got the Three Stooges that are out here in the playpen. And they are just an absolute delight," said Maron.
But the most unusual discovery of late is a baby beaver believed to have been washed away from its dam in the recent rainfall. It was later found wandering along a sidewalk.
The beaver has since been transferred to a facility in Amarillo for more specialized care.
"We actually contacted Wild West rehab that's up in Amarillo. They have an amazing water feature enclosure up there that will be perfect for the beaver as it continues to get older so that it can practice its beaver skills with its dam building skills and things like that," said Maron.
As for the other animals still here, their journey is just beginning. Some, like squirrels, may only need a few months for release, while others, like the beaver, can take years.
"It's not a really quick turnaround. You know, once they come to us, we really have to do a lot of work and make sure that we get them set up for success," said Maron.
What you can do:
If you come across injured or orphaned wildlife, contact Austin Wildlife Rescue’s hotline at (512) 472-9453.
They have facilities in both Austin and Elgin.
The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin's Jenna King