This Gopher Tortoise patient has been under care for 50+ days after being hit by a vehicle. He has fractures along the carapace (top of shell) and bridge (side of shell). Our vet staff added hardware along the fracture to stabilize it. This patient will remain in care until the injuries heal, and for now is enjoying eating the grass outside! 🐢
We ask that you please watch out for gopher tortoises and other wildlife while on the road. Always check under your cars when you're in areas where gopher tortoises are found as well!
#FloridaWildlifeHospital #gophertortoise #watchforwildlife #wildliferehabilitation #floridawildlife #tortoise #protectwildlife #keystonespecies #RescueRehabRelease #KeepingWildlifeWild
Happy Freedom Friday!! Watch as these two opossums make their way back into the wild! Great job to our staff and volunteers for making this possible.
#FloridaWildlifeHospital #FreedomFriday #VirginiaOpossum #opossum #floridawildlife #RescueRehabRelease #KeepingWildlifeWild
Happy (belated) National Wildlife Day! Today and every day we celebrate the diverse wildlife we have around us! While also protecting wildlife and their habitats. We hope you celebrate with us and enjoy some of our patient release from this year!🐾🦝🦦
#FloridaWildlifeHospital #NationalWildlifeDay #protectwildlife #floridawildlife #RescueRehabRelease #KeepingWildlifeWild
One of our Loggerhead Shrike patients is enjoying some mealworms! Loggerhead Shrikes are songbirds with predatory behaviors. They are nicknamed "butcher birds" because they commonly stick their food on barbed wire or branches to eat them. They also have a unique mask of dark feathers along their face. This patient was able to be released back into the wild last month.🪹
#FloridaWildlifeHospital #wildiferehab #birdrehab #loggerheadshrike #RescueRehabRelease #birdfacts #KeepingWildlifeWild
Happy Freedom Friday!🦅🦦🐇 117 patients were released from Florida Wildlife Hospital just in the month of August! From Brown Pelicans, Virginia Opossums, Cooper's Hawks, Marsh and Eastern Cottontail Rabbits, Ospreys, Gopher Tortoises, North American River Otters, and a wide variety of songbirds! We can't thank our staff and volunteers enough for their hard work in rehabbing these animals and getting them back into the wild! #KeepingWildlifeWild
#FloridaWildlifeHospital #coopershawk #opossum #rabbit #songbirds #floridawildlife #floridabirds #RescueRehabRelease #wildliferehabilitation
TOMORROW August 31st at 7:30AM the Running Wild 5k begins!!
Sign up is still open at https://runsignup.com/Race/FL/Melbourne/RunningWild5KRun
Run/walk the 5k trail and meet education ambassadors along the way. We hope to see you there!🏃🐾
#FloridaWildlifeHospital #RunningWildTrail5K #runningzone #wickhampark #brevardrunners #spacecoastrunners #floridarunners #5krun #supportwildlife
Take a closer look at the Florida Wildlife Hospital otter release!!🦦
We want to give a HUGE shoutout to our veternarian, Dr. April, vet staff, and animal care staff for raising these otters over the last few months! Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication!🦦
#FloridaWildlifeHospital #wildliferehabilitation #northamericanriverotter #otter
#floridawildlife #floridaotters #RescueRehabRelease #KeepingWildlifeWild
Happy Freedom Friday!🐢
Check out this Peninsula Cooter, wasting no time to get into the pond! We're always thrilled to see our patients released back into their habitat.
#FloridaWildlifeHospital #FreedomFriday #peninsulacooter #turtle #floridaturtles #florida #wildlife #conservation #RescueRehabRelease #KeepingWildlifeWild
Our North American River Otter patients tried live blue crabs!🦦🦀 This was the final step for them to make sure they can properly hunt in the wild and to know some food can bite back! Our otters did a great job hunting the crabs and were released last week!
#FloridaWildlifeHospital #NorthAmericanRiverOtter #otter #floridaotters #floridawildlife #bluecrabs #RescueRehabRelease #KeepingWildlifeWild
A juvenile swallow-tailed kite was recently brought to FWH after it was discovered to have plastic wrapped around its legs. It was very young and unable to be re-nested. Our staff noticed it wouldn’t eat from the bowls, so they slowly started stacking the food higher up, and sure enough, the kite started eating just fine! We transferred it to the Avian Reconditioning Center, where they specialize in swallow-tailed kites. Once it’s old enough they will release it back into the wild!
#FloridaWildlifeHospital #swallowtailedkite #RescueRehabRelease #floridawildlife #migratorybirds #KeepingWildlifeWild
Learn more about what is rabies, what animals can carry rabies, and what to do if you encounter a rabies vector species. It's important to be informed on this disease in order to protect wildlife and yourself! 🐾🦝🦦🦊
#FloridaWildlifeHospital #rabiesawareness #floridawildlife #education #wildlifeeducation #conservation #KeepingWildlifeWild
Happy Freedom Friday!!🪹
We recently released a pileated woodpecker on our property. We had two wild pileated woodpecker friends that interacted with our patient outside his enclosure. Day after day, they would hang out nearby, so when our patient was ready for release, we decided to do it here at the hospital. Since he was released, we have spotted the trio several times around the property!
#FloridaWildlifeHospital #pileatedwoodpecker #woodpecker #floridabirds #floridawildlife #RescueRehabRelease #wildliferehab #KeepingWildlifeWild
We are thrilled to announce the release of four North American River Otters. The first two arrived December 22, 2023. The next two arrived March 5. This species has a long development time. After lots of practice swimming, playing with their buddies and catching live food, they were able to go back to the wild where they belong.#FloridaWildlifeHospital #floridawildlife #NorthAmericanRiverOtter #otter #RescueRehabRelease #supportwildlife #keepingwildlifewild
Dove Release with FWH Intern
✨Intern Highlight and a Happy Freedom Friday!✨
Our animal care tech intern, Sophia, released four doves with our staff! We're happy to involve our interns in the release part of wildlife rehabilitation. Thank you to our staff member and intern for releasing these four patients back into the wild!
#FloridaWildlifeHospital #dove #floridabirds #wildliferelease #RescueRehabRelease #floridawildlife #florida #wildliferehab #KeepingWildlifeWild
Our North American River Otter patients are practicing more and more with live food! Today they chased around some fish. We'll soon have them trying out live blue crab before they're ready for release! 🐟🦀
#NorthAmericanRiverOtter #riverotter #floridawildlife #otter #FloridaWildlifeHospital #RescueRehabRelease #wildliferehab #KeepingWildlifeWild
Gopher Tortoise Release
✨Intern Highlight✨ Our animal care tech intern, Emily, helped out with a gopher tortoise release last week! By buildling a starter burrow for this young gopher tortoise, eventually this burrow could be 30 feet long! Thank you to our staff member and intern for getting this important keystone species back into the wild!🐢
#FloridaWildlifeHospital #gophertortoise #burrow #keystonespecies #wildliferelease #RescueRehabRelease #floridawildlife #florida #wildliferehab #KeepingWildlifeWild
Happy Freedom Friday!☀️ Our volunteer was able to release this brown pelican right on the Indian River Lagoon! Thank you to our staff and volunteers for making this possible and keeping wildlife wild!
#FreedomFriday #FloridaWildlifeHospital #BrownPelican #Floridawildlife #IndianRiverLagoon #pelican #wildliferehabilition #RescueRehabRelease #KeepingWildlifeWild
During the summer we love to give our patients COOL enrichment!🧊🐟
Our otter patients enjoyed ice chunks and underneath they found frozen fish!
#FloridaWildlifeHospital #otters #northamericanriverotter #wildliferehab #wildlifeenrichment #florida #wildlife #iceenrichment #RescueRehabRelease #KeepingWildlifeWild
Mockingbird Renest
Another successful renest! Our staff member was able to reunite this mockingbird fledgling with their parent. Remember to always look around for parent birds before bringing a baby bird to the hospital, renest is best! 🪹
#FloridaWildlifeHospital #mockingbird #renest #wildliferescue #RescueRehabRelease #floridabird #KeepingWildlifeWild
Our juvenile gopher tortoise patient had to double check that their x-ray was all clear! Along with a nod of approval!🩻🐢
#FloridaWildlifeHospital #gophertortoise #radiology #xray #wildliferehab #floridawildlife #keystonespecies #tortoise #wildliferescue #RescueRehabRelease
#KeepingWildlifeWild
