Video experience from one of our interns
Christine is a student at Stone Hill College and just finished her internship at New England Wildlife Center. When she was leaving, she presented us with this video that she made, describing her learning and life experiences at the Center.
Wow! It is inspiring to see the Center through the eyes of one of our students. We are excited to share her work with you.
Thank you Christine. :)
The raccoon who made these prints must have disappeared right before I arrived on this wooden bridge. Our nature trails skirt through the homes of many species of wild animals. 
This American robin was successfully rehabilitated after breaking its shoulder blade. In order to keep the bone stable and give it time to heal, the bird had its wing wrapped to its body for two weeks. Just like a human would have a cast or sling. But because bird’s have a much faster metabolism than mammals, the birds broken bone will heal in 1/4 the time it would take a human!
Marco Venturoli, our senior technician, is shown here releasing the robin back into the woodlands behind our Center.
Photos courtesy of Ashley Kramer, Student Intern.
This Virginia rail was happy to be recently released back into the wild.
Rails and other migratory birds often become injured during the spring and fall migrations as they are passing through Boston on their way to warmer locations. The brights lights and large glass windows of big cities confuse the birds and result in collisions with buildings and other man-made structures. An estimated 100 millions birds die in collisions each year! Luckily, this rail was only stunned and was able to make a full recovery.
Photo courtesy of Ashley Kramer, Student Intern.
This juvenile downy woodpecker was found by a good Samaritan in his backyard while it was being attacked by another bird. The bird was rescued, but it had sustained serious wounds to its head that caused it to be uncoordinated and unable to fly. When the bird first came to the hospital it was very disoriented and even had a hard time finding and eating the food in its cage. With some care and patience, the woodpecker made a full recovery over the course of several weeks. And after he began pecking wood again and acting like a normal woodpecker he was release back into the wild.
Photograph courtesy of Ashley Kramer, Student Intern.
This year we raised 18 orphaned raccoons from a very young age. All but two of them have been released so far. Raccoons require a lot of care, as they develop very slowly and take a long time to reach an independent stage. In the wild, some raccoons will stay with their mom through their first winter. 
Although they do not hibernate, they will seek shelter in the den they were raised in until mom kicks them out the following spring to raise a new litter.
These photos show two of this year’s raccoons being released back into the wild.
Some objects, like this rock, they are experiencing for the first time. At first they are timid, but they quickly adapt to the environment around them.
These raccoons have a nice thick fur coat and extras stores of fat to give them the best chance of surviving their first winter on their own, since mom is not around to help.
All photographs are courtesy of Ashley Kramer, Student Intern.
The Raccoon Bandits will perform at the Catbird Cafe on Friday, November 4, 2011. Doors will open at 7:00 PM. $5 suggested donation to benefit the New England Wildlife Center.
This eastern grey squirrel was found in Boston Common with a huge abscess (pus filled pocket) under its chin.
After clipping and scrubbing the infected area, we are ready to lance (cut open) the abscess to allow it to drain.
Flushing the abscess helps to clean out debris and bacteria so that it can heal over faster.
This squirrel also had overgrown teeth that had to be trimmed back.
Several days after surgery, this squirrel is recovering nicely and is much more comfortable.
All images are courtesy of Ashley Kramer, Student Intern.
These juvenile red squirrels are recovering from a serious case of mange (mite infestation) in which they lost almost all of their fur. The only fur that remained was on the their head, feet and tail making them look like a domestic cat with a lion-haircut. Slowly, but surely, they are starting to regrow healthy fur coats to keep them warm in the colder months.
When these squirrels first arrived they were completely hairless on their bodies.
After just a few weeks you can see their new fur is just starting to show up.
New England Wildlife Center will be holding its annual pumpkin trail, Night of a Thousand Faces, Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th of October from 6PM-8PM. Everyone is invited to come carve the pumpkins that will be showcased on the trail.
Bring the whole family in to carve pumpkins Thursday 27th and Friday 28th 10AM-5PM. Pumpkins and carving supplies will be available for all. Make sure you come back on the event night to find your pumpkin on the trail!
To find out how to receive free admission please read below 
Image via Wikipedia
FREE ADMISSION to ANNUAL PUMPKIN WALK
When you make a donation of a freshly carved pumpkin(s) on Friday 28th or Saturday 29th between the hours of 10AM-3PM you will receive a ticket that can be redeemed for one free admission to the pumpkin trail on Oct. 29th/30th.
Free admission for one(1) valid Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th of October 2011. Fresh pumpkins may be carved at home and dropped off on the same day or brought and carved at the Center. Carving supplies will be offered at NE Wildlife Center Thursday/Friday 10AM-5PM and Saturday 10AM-3PM. Feel welcome to bring your own carving kit as well. Free admission tickets are limited to one (1) per family.
For more information please contact the Center @ 781-682-4878
It’s the box that worries me.
A blue footed bearded dragon.
This red-tailed hawk was hit on the right wing by a line drive golf ball. Fractured his ulna. Recovering after surgery.
The Red-Tailed Hark in this picture was admitted on May 30th as a young orphaned hawk. This hawk would not have been able to survive in the wild on its own. Now it has gained a substantial amount of size and will soon be soft released.
The Red-Tailed Hawk scientific name “Buteo Jamaicensis” has a very wide range from Alaska and Canada throughout North America and occasionally found as far south as Panama. This species of hawk gets its name from the red feathers found on its tail which come in after they mature around the age of 3-4 years old. These are one of the larger hawks from North America with a wingspan of 43-57 but also one of the most common raptors in North America. Red-Tailed Hawks display sexual dimorphism in size, with females averaging much larger. Due to their large population and that they can easily be trained to hunt the Red-Tailed hawks are often captured by falconers to be trained and hunted.
-Jackson Hoit, Student Intern
Welcome to Gallup! He is Penelope’s new friend. Gallup is a 9 month old wethered Alpine goat.
Gallup was raised and donated to the Center by Jenna Illingworth. Jenna is a student at the Norfolk Agricultural High School in Walpole.
On the first day together Penelope did not give Gallup a very warm greeting. She refused to stand any where near him. If he came close she would run to the other side of the pen. She gave him dagger eyes.
Today, three days later, they are inseparable. In fact last night they held a two goat meeting about how to cause the most trouble as a team. In fact when I did this photo session I went inside their pen to get some close-ups of Gallup. When I bent over, Penelope came up behind me and bit me in the butt.
Goats!
We are in desperate need of paper towels to keep our hospital clean. Donations of paper towels (and other supplies) can be dropped off at 500 Columbian Street in South Weymouth at any time. If the doors are locked, you can leave them outside.
Undergraduate Interns and students from Norfolk Agricultural High School listen to executive director, Katrina Bergman, talk about the green features of the Thomas E. Curtis Wildlife Hospital and Education Center built to (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) LEED specifications. Students also toured the building, and learned about renewable energy, green building materials and low impact maintenance.
We are in desperate need of chlorine Bleach to clean and disinfect our hospital. It takes several gallons each day to mop floors, wash bedding and disinfect hospital surfaces. Most of our bleach comes donated from local BJ’s and Walmart, but with so many baby animals in the hospital we are constantly running out. Donations of new bottles of bleach would greatly help us keep clean and germ free.
Toads for Mount Auburn Cemetery
By Dr. Joe Martinez, Ed.D
Mount Auburn Cemetery ( www.mountauburn.org ) is renowned as both the first garden cemetery to be established in the United States (consecrated in 1831) and as a birding hotspot (this past Spring a pair of nesting great horned owls with their two fledglings created quite a stir). Besides birds, other wildlife inhabiting the cemetery includes coyotes, foxes, painted turtles and bullfrogs. This is especially impressive when one considers that its location lies within both Cambridge and Watertown.
Over the past two decades the Cemetery administration has been committed to improving wildlife habitat on the grounds through plantings of native groundcovers, bushes and trees with the intent of attracting more wildlife to the cemetery. More recently, the administration has agreed to a project, initiated through a citizen-scientist proposal by Joe Martinez (the New England Wildlife Center’s outreach educator) and Patrick Fairbairn (a member of the Watertown Conservation Commission), to attempt a repopulation of the grounds with American toads, gray treefrogs, and spring peepers. Each of these amphibian species was undoubtedly present in the cemetery at its inception; their disappearance from the cemetery is probably due to earlier landscaping practices that eliminated suitable habitat for the juveniles and adults.
The project is beginning with the American toad. Over a three year period (that began this year) a specified number of toad tadpoles will be collected each Spring from two locations near Boston and released into a vernal pool at the cemetery. One of those locations is the rainwater retention pool at the New England Wildlife Center. In the five years since its creation wood frogs, spring peepers, and American toads have migrated in from the adjacent wetlands to breed there. When approached by Joe, Dr. Greg Mertz graciously agreed to volunteer NEWC as one of the donor locations.
Moving any Massachusetts amphibian from one location to another with the intent of establishing a new population requires permission from the state Fish and Wildlife Department, therefore a Massachusetts Fish and Wildlife scientific collecting permit was obtained. In addition, permission was needed from the Watertown Conservation Commission (as the release site within the cemetery lies within Watertown).
This past May the first tadpoles were collected from the retention pond and transported to the cemetery. The tadpoles began metamorphosing in late June and have already been seen over twenty yards from the vernal pool. Should any survive into adulthood they will return to the vernal pool to breed. If all goes well, in 3-4 years, the melodic sound of trilling American toads will add yet another wildlife element for visitors to enjoy at Mount Auburn Cemetery!
The rainwater retention pool. This pool was created to collect rain run-off from the roof and parking lot of the Thomas E. Curtis Wildlife Hospital and Education Center and filter the water before it reaches a nearby wetland. Three species of amphibians now breed here.
American toad tadpoles from the rainwater retention pool. Most of them have hindlimbs.
A newly metamorphosed toad at the cemetery. It was found along the shore of the vernal pool in which it was released.
In a few years toads this size may be living at Mount Auburn Cemetery!
The three Herring Gulls in this video came to the New England Wildlife Center as young orphans. Most Herring Gulls that come to the center are under the ideal weight for the species, so an important part of their treatment is simply to feed them. We inject Vitamin B complex into the fish we provide them because it is an important nutrient that is only available in fresh fish. We also give them a daily swim in our kiddie pools to mimic the ocean! Currently, their plumage is brown and mottled, but after a couple more years they will start to look like the white and grey adult sea gulls seen in the wild. Sea gulls are natural scavengers so you may have seen these birds stealing food at the beach and flying around mall and McDonalds parking lots!
-Bennett King, Student Intern
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