Everyday Environment Podcast

Hosts Amy Lefringhouse and Darci Webber chat with Sydney Oliveira from the University of Illinois Wildlife Medical Clinic about what to do if you find injured wildlife, how to prevent common injuries, and the vital role rehabilitation and education play in conservation.

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Creators and Guests

Host
Amy Lefringhouse
Amy Lefringhouse serves as Natural Resources, Environment, and Energy Educator for communities in Adams, Brown, Pike, Hancock, and Schuyler counties. West-central Illinois offers so many natural gifts to ponder, enjoy, and explore – the changing seasons, two major river networks that mark the borders and are the very heartbeat of the area, and an unfathomable amount of flora and fauna with which we coexist. From the tiniest speck of soil to the stars shining above, Amy is passionate about revealing these natural wonders to local communities.

What is Everyday Environment Podcast?

Everyday Environment delves into the intricate web of connections that bind us to the natural world. From water, air, energy, plants, and animals to the complex interactions within these elements, we aim to unravel the ties that link us to our environment. Through a variety of educational formats, including podcasts, blogs, and videos, we strive to foster a deeper understanding of these connections among the residents of Illinois. Explore more at go.illinois.edu/everydayenvironment.

Hosted by: Abigail Garofalo, Amy Lefringhouse, and Erin Garrett

Amy Lefringhouse:

Welcome to another episode of the everyday environment podcast where we explore the environment we see every day. I'm your host, Amy Lefringhouse.

Darci Webber:

And I'm your co host, Darci Webber.

Amy Lefringhouse:

And today, we are here with Sydney Oliveira, and she is the program coordinator for the Wildlife Medical Clinic based out of the University of Illinois. Welcome, Sydney. We're so glad that you're here today.

Sydney Oliveira:

Thanks for having me.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Well, we're just going to dive right in. Tell us about the work that the Wildlife Medical Clinic does and what you do specifically there.

Sydney Oliveira:

Yeah. So I'll just start off and kinda give an overview of what the clinic does. Our mission is actually threefold. So first and foremost, we're out there to rehabilitate wildlife and get them back out into the wild. And then secondly, we have a lot of veterinary students that come through the clinic as volunteers, and so our goal is to get them hands on experience working with wildlife and get them some training in the clinic.

Sydney Oliveira:

Thirdly, we go out and give education outreach programs. So we have a small group of ambassador animals. So we currently have five birds, four reptiles, one amphibian, and one mammal that we take out to programs. Most of them travel off-site, but there are a few that you can only see if you visit the clinic. Mhmm.

Sydney Oliveira:

And then in my role at the clinic, I basically oversee the training of the ambassador animals and that program. And so I go out and give education outreach programs quite frequently to schools, libraries, basically anybody that reaches out. We try not to turn any of them down because we love getting out, into the community and talking about what we do and having people get to see wildlife up close. But then aside from that, I also help in the clinic as needed. So occasionally, I get pulled back to feed baby animals that we get in if we're overwhelmed, do laundry, order stuff for the clinic.

Sydney Oliveira:

So kinda like a clinic office manager type stuff because we do have student managers. So if they need stuff, they tell me what what they need, and I help procure that. Also, media talks and stuff like that.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Cool. Well, I kinda dove right into this podcast with without even telling our audience what we were talking about today. But that gives us a great, you know, overview of what you do. We're you know, our season is about wildlife, and we're today, we're talking about injured wildlife, things that we can do to help our wildlife, things that we might encounter with wildlife. And so, we're really glad that, Sydney, you're here, and the Wildlife Medical Clinic is representing the University of Illinois, and just speaking to our audience about this.

Amy Lefringhouse:

So thank you again so much for being here to chat about this. We get a ton of questions about this, you know, in our in our extension offices. Great.

Darci Webber:

So we get a lot of questions. What are some of the things, most common injuries or health issues that you guys see in your office?

Sydney Oliveira:

Yeah. That's a great question. So I'd say the most common one are vehicle strikes. That's probably, like, number one reason why we see animals in the clinic, and that is, like, birds, turtles, mammals, all sorts of animals. It doesn't discriminate on one species.

Sydney Oliveira:

Mhmm. So and aside from that, if you just want me to go ahead and list them, I will. But Yeah. So we have, like, window strikes we see frequently. So that's when birds are hitting glass.

Sydney Oliveira:

They don't see it as well. They, like, look right through it. So often that happens quite often. Domestic animal attacks. So if you have outside cats or if you're letting your dog out to go to the bathroom and you don't check your yard first, there might be wildlife out there, and sometimes there's some negative encounters with that.

Sydney Oliveira:

We see, like, entanglements, so that can even be, like, sporting nets. We've had a lot come in from soccer nets. A lot of birds of prey, they get tangled in those.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Oh, wow.

Sydney Oliveira:

Fishing line, that's another big one that we see for entanglements. Toxicosis, so we get, like, lead poisoning still, rodenticide, so people using different, methods of pest control. So you just wanna make sure that you're targeting a single species and not those broad spectrum ones. Sometimes electrocutions. So from power lines, we'll see that sometimes.

Sydney Oliveira:

Different burns. There can even be, like, methane burns that you see, like, especially around, like, big garbage dumps and stuff like that. Some of that'll burn off there. Different contaminants that can be, like, pesticides, all sorts of stuff that they get into. And then sometimes I know people use the term kidnapping, but sometimes it's orphaned animals that are mistakenly taken out of the wild because people think there's something wrong with them, and there really isn't.

Sydney Oliveira:

They just don't know the natural behavior of that species. So and oftentimes that leads to animals accidentally being taken. And people mean very well when they do that, and so that's the importance of having talks like this so we can explain when to help and when when to let them be. Mhmm. So those are some of the common ones.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Yeah. And just clarification, you guys are strictly dealing with wild animals. Right? Not not domesticated animals go elsewhere and go to their own clinics, but you guys are strictly seeing wildlife.

Sydney Oliveira:

Yeah. So we see native Illinois wildlife. We see everything but bats and skunks because we are not permitted through Illinois to see those guys. They deem them high rabies vector species. Mhmm.

Sydney Oliveira:

So nobody in Illinois can rehab them. And then we also don't see adult deer just because we don't have the housing to hold those guys, and they are pretty dangerous animals in captivity. They stress very easily.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Mhmm.

Sydney Oliveira:

But we do still see deer fawns. Mhmm. Mhmm.

Darci Webber:

If there's an abandoned nest of eggs, can people bring that to you too?

Sydney Oliveira:

So it actually requires different permits to take eggs in. I think we're allowed to do turtles, but avian eggs, we don't have the permitting for or the incubators for. I know there are some other rehab centers that do do that, though, near Chicago. So Okay. Yep.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Great. Do you typically do just I guess, your educational component, you're pretty much around, like, Champaign County or just kind of that that eastern side of the state?

Sydney Oliveira:

So we get I mean, everywhere kind of. We get people from the little towns around Champaign, but we've had them all the way from down near St. Louis. People have brought them up, and we've worked with rehabbers down on the Illinois side there and then up near Chicago. So some of them since we are a wildlife medical clinic, and our our goal really is to get animals healthy and then get them to either other licensed rehabilitators because we don't have a lot of caging to hold them long term.

Sydney Oliveira:

So some of those, other licensed rehabilitators can hold them long term until they could be released. So some of these centers, like, even up near Chicago, their vets can do, like, simple fracture repairs and different things like that, but we have, like, all the specialty departments down here. So for more intense procedures like, we had a beaver that came in before had to have, like, a femoral head. I think it's called FHO. I'm not as completely familiar with it, but they had to remove a, like, chunk of the bone Oh, wow.

Sydney Oliveira:

In that beaver. And because the anesthesia is pretty risky, they came down to U of I, and we have, like, anesthesia department, and we had all sorts of other surgery specialties. And it was just a really neat case because we don't get a lot of those guys in anyways. So a lot of students got experience seeing that. The vets got more hands on experience here.

Sydney Oliveira:

So it was just a really neat procedure to see and a great way to collaborate with some of those other rehabilitators. Mhmm. Mhmm.

Darci Webber:

Do you guys have, like, an average of how many animals you have at a time?

Sydney Oliveira:

So I think the most we've had in the clinic at one time have been around 50, and a lot of that's because you're getting, like, litters of animals. In general, though, over the course of the year, we had 2,200 animals last year over the course of the year, and it was about a 120 different species. And believe it or not, that's, like, fairly small. Like, it's a decent amount, but there are some up near Chicago that see, like, 10,000 animals a year.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Oh my goodness.

Sydney Oliveira:

So yeah.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Yeah. That's crazy. Alright. So if we're if we encounter an injured wild animal, what should we do? Or I guess, really, also, what should we not do if we have these encounters?

Sydney Oliveira:

Yeah. What you should do first is just observe the animal and make sure that it is in fact injured. So, again, you actually saw the animal get hurt. You see blood coming off of it. If it has, like, flies on it, maggots, different things like that.

Sydney Oliveira:

If it you can approach it and it's not running away. Most of the time for adult animals, that's a good indication that it needs assistance. For some babies, they don't realize humans can potentially be a threat, so some of them won't move. So that's not a great indicator if it is a young animal. But so if you're seeing those things, definitely, you wanna make sure you look up and figure out where you're taking it before you attempt to capture the animal.

Sydney Oliveira:

Mhmm. And then have all the supplies ready. So you wanna have, like, a container to put it in, make sure it's well ventilated. And then you'll have towels, thick gloves, safety goggles depending on the animal. Like, if it's a bird with a long beak, you definitely wanna have eye protection.

Sydney Oliveira:

And then if you're not comfortable catching it, like, definitely call the rehab center, and they can give you pointers. There's even tips on a lot of the websites for different rehab centers. They can walk you through how to safely catch that animal. But, again, if you aren't comfortable, like, don't do it because Mhmm. Your safety is more important.

Sydney Oliveira:

You know, there's a lot of disease transmission and stuff too. So I just wanted people to keep their safety in mind Sure. When attempting to rescue animals like that. But if you feel comfortable and you've gotten guidance like that, then you can go ahead. Most of the time, you throw, like, a blanket or towel over the animals, slide them into the carrier trash box, whatever you deemed appropriate transportation.

Sydney Oliveira:

Make sure it's well like, secure and closed so that the animal doesn't get out on your your drive to the clinic. And then you just wanna keep it in a warm area that's dark and quiet. Don't talk to the animal. Do do not offer food or water. So if the animal is sick or cold like that, sometimes they can aspirate.

Sydney Oliveira:

And we also have specialized diets here, so it's very important that you're giving the right food. And most of the time for those animals, what they need is to be warmed up first, get some fluids, and get them hydrated, and then they have a better begging response or food response like that. Mhmm. So it's just safer if you do not feed or water them at all. Okay.

Sydney Oliveira:

And here's another fact I was thinking of. So for baby birds, you often can re nest them if they've fallen out of the nest. You just wanna make sure that it is not a fledgling. So that hatchling bird, a lot of those for altricial birds, they hatch with no feathers or just a little layer of down, eyes closed, not mobile at all. So that would be a hatchling.

Sydney Oliveira:

If they're nestling, they're starting to get more feathers. However, their wing feathers might have more tubes where the they are and the sheep hasn't come off where they are fully feathered and able to fly. So those, if you find them outside of the nest, you're gonna wanna put like, pick them up gently, put them back in the nest, and then monitor for a little while just to make sure mom and dad are coming back. If it's a fledgling, that is a bird that the wing feathers are starting to erupt. They may not be completely out, but those guys are very awkward.

Sydney Oliveira:

You'll see them on the ground hopping around. It looks like they're injured. They can't fly. They're just learning how to use their wings, but I assure you mom and dad are very close by. And so if you just observe for a little while, you'll probably see them taking care of them.

Sydney Oliveira:

And then as along with that as well, two other species that are commonly brought into the clinic by accident are eastern cottontails and deer fawn. So deer response are to just lay in the grass and hide. They and mom's out foraging, and she only comes back a couple times a day to feed them. And same with Eastern cottontails. So rabbits, they're out of the they basically come back at, like, dawn and dusk to feed the babies.

Sydney Oliveira:

So oftentimes, you'll find them alone, and they look like you know, you're like, oh my gosh. There's no parrot nearby. Like, I need to help these guys. So you can actually put strings over the nest or, like, I took dandelions before. You can put flower around it.

Sydney Oliveira:

There's lots just make a pattern over the nest. And if it looks like it's been disturbed, chances are moms come back to feed them. You can also look at those babies, and if they have round bellies. And if they don't have fur yet, you can often see the milk in their belly, which indicates she's coming back and feeding them too. So Mhmm.

Sydney Oliveira:

But, yeah, for those, if you just observe and if you're real close, mom is not gonna come back. So you need to make sure you're at a safe distance if you can't see you and you're observing them. And then that'll help keep those guys out of the clinic because they are healthy. And when they can stay with mom and dad, it's best. Like, they raise them way better than we can.

Sydney Oliveira:

So keeps them wild and, you know, make sure that they have appropriate, like, species behaviors too. So

Amy Lefringhouse:

Yeah. That's great. That's great.

Darci Webber:

So if we see an animal, we're gonna observe it to make sure it's actually needing our help. And then we can if we feel safe enough, we can pick it up and put it in a box to take it to a rehabilitation center. But what does that rehabilitation look like for an injured animal?

Sydney Oliveira:

Really just depends on the species. But in general, the act of rehabilitating is keeping in a wild animal temporarily, getting it healthy, and then releasing it into a suitable habitat. Right? So when they come into the clinic here, first and foremost, we get a notification that an animal's arrived, and then the team that's scheduled for that day goes up there.

Sydney Oliveira:

They will bring the animal back to the clinic. They do a triage exam on them. So, basically, they look at the history that's brought in, which, unfortunately, unlike taking your cat and dog in, we don't get a lot of history. It's Yeah. You know, it's like a one liner, you know, just hit by car or just found on the side of the road.

Sydney Oliveira:

So we kind of have to guess and look at the symptoms that we're seeing or injuries they're having. And then so we do initial, like, hands on exam like that, and sometimes we'll put them in an enclosure and look at them first before we even take them out just to see if we notice things. Because sometimes once you have them in hand, they're a little stressed, and they act a little bit differently as well. But from there, it might be further diagnostics such as, like, X rays, blood work, and different things like that. So whatever they deem necessary to figure out what's going on with that animal.

Sydney Oliveira:

But then once they decide what is wrong, then they'll form a treatment plan. So we kind of follow that just through the course of rehab and make sure that that animal's healing and is healthy. And then once we have them to a healthy point, if they're an adult animal, then we'll take it back where it was found and release it. If it's a young animal or an adult animal that needs more conditioning so sometimes, like, when we have birds of prey, if they've been in here for a couple months, they might need more conditioning to build up their strength and flight muscles before we release them back into the wild. And so if it needs further monitoring or things like that, we will work with another licensed rehabilitator in the area, and they'll take that animal and monitor them really closely.

Sydney Oliveira:

And then when it's time for release, some of them will take them to the area they're found. Other times, they'll bring it back to the clinic, and then we'll get to release it where it was found. Mhmm. So that's another thing I should have noted too for that important things to note when you find an injured animal. Make sure you definitely know where you found that animal.

Sydney Oliveira:

Mhmm. It's it's really important for, like, turtles and some other animals too, and other birds of prey. Because if you have, like, a nesting pair in there, you don't wanna put another bird in where it's, like, established territory for that pair. It will not go well for that individual. And then for turtles, a lot of them have a very small home range.

Sydney Oliveira:

So if you move them out of that, they'll be wandering and looking and trying to get back to that home range. So that's why if you can, like, ping it, like, tag it on your GPS where you're at, like, drop a pin on your phone, that's great.

Amy Lefringhouse:

So I imagine because you have so many different species, like, the why you know, rather than a, you know, normal veterinarian clinic where it's cats and dogs and just like large animals, know, horses and cows and whatnot, you guys are covering a super wide range of species. I assume that when it comes down to that treatment plan, you're like, Okay, what is this species? You know, like what are we looking at? I'm sure you know there's a short list, probably a little bit of a short list, but still you still have to kind of like figure it out a little bit more than you would with just a cat or a dog. You're trying to figure, you know, like how often are we working on beaver, like you were saying, or I assume veterinarians and you guys in the clinic kind of look at other cases.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Maybe there's other cases around or network that you can tap into, but that would be wild.

Sydney Oliveira:

Yeah. I mean, they have to think outside of the box. It's crazy. You just have to manipulate things to make it work for that species you're working with. And for some of the turtle repairs, I mean, I've even seen them put, like, Legos and little clasps on there with wire to pull the shell closer together Yeah.

Sydney Oliveira:

As it's the swelling goes down and it starts to heal. So it is it's really neat to see what they come up with. And then as you're seeing too, we do have a great network of other rehabilitators in the area. There's actually a group of Illinois rehabbers, and we have a Facebook group. We're chatting constantly about that.

Sydney Oliveira:

So even, like, NWRA (National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association), they have lots of resources from rehabilitators all over the country. Okay. So there's different like, just diets and different treatment plans. They have a conference every year that a lot of us attend, and they go over, like, the new, like, upcoming things they've come up with and, you know, things like that. So it's very helpful.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Yeah. That's interesting. So we would love for you guys not to have patients. Right? I mean, in real life, we wouldn't want you to exist.

Amy Lefringhouse:

We would want you guys to, like, not have patients that were injured. So in thinking that that way, what could we do as residents and landowners and, you know, homeowners? What could we do to prevent some of these wildlife injuries that you see?

Sydney Oliveira:

Yeah. So first, it would just be, like, on our part is education and just making sure that we get information out so people know how to safely cohabitate and coexist with wildlife. Mhmm. So and then some of the other things I mean, just when you're driving, just make sure you slow down when you can. Scooting over, like, if you're in a two lane road and you see bird on the side of the road, if you can scoot to that inner lane, that's great.

Sydney Oliveira:

I know sometimes it's not always possible, and, again, keep your safety in mind, but when possible, try and do that. If you're using pest control, just make sure that you're using things that target the species that you're going after. And if you cannot use chemicals, that's great because a lot of those just move up the food chain. Mhmm. And they they target unintended species quite often.

Sydney Oliveira:

Or even if a mouse dies and you're not cleaning that up right away, a bird of prey could eat that or a mammal walking by could eat that, and they can get poison from that. Mhmm. So a lot of that, though, with pest species too, just prevention is the best medicine. So just making sure that you don't have a lot of things laying around, food stored correctly, not holes in your house. Like, make sure you patch any holes as you see them coming up in your house.

Sydney Oliveira:

Mhmm. Just things like that. Decluttering. So Mhmm. Keeping cats indoors, that's a huge one.

Sydney Oliveira:

Yeah. I know that's, like, a controversial topic. Yeah. But, like, there are things like catios and great options, I mean, people even put harnesses and leashes on their cats nowadays. So Mhmm.

Sydney Oliveira:

It's just as a lot safer because they do they kill a lot of native birds. So Mhmm. And depending on the time of year too, we get, like, birds that are migrating through the area. So, you know, we don't get to see a lot of those species soon when they're getting wiped out on that long journey anyways where they're already tired. I just think, you know, there are better ways Sure.

Sydney Oliveira:

To to house your pet. So and then, like, tree trimming. So making sure that you're doing that outside of the breeding seasons, like spring and early fall like that. So do it over the winter, late fall. I know it's a little colder.

Sydney Oliveira:

But and then also if you do have to have it trimmed in the springtime, just make sure you're using a reputable tree trimming company and that they're familiar with wildlife. If you know a nest in the area, try and avoid cutting that tree until, you know, those babies have fledged. So Mhmm. Mhmm. And then just in general, like, making your yard animal friendly.

Sydney Oliveira:

If you plant native species and different things like that, it attracts native bugs, and then you get native birds. You get that whole, like, ecosystem in your backyard like that. And then aside from that, like, just going out in nature, if there's stream cleanups and different things like that that you can do that help in the environments. And I my boys are both in scouts, so I think of that leave no trace. So whatever you're taking out into nature, make sure you bring it back with you.

Sydney Oliveira:

Don't leave any garbage out there. When you're fishing, make sure you up everything that you took out so that you're not leaving fishing line and lures and different things around that wildlife can get tangled in.

Sydney Oliveira:

Mhmm. My mom and dad have they live in the country, and they have some windows that they don't have curtains, so my mom has concocted this I don't even know, I think it's like ribbons, it's black and white ribbons that she just hung up in front of her windows, because she loves birding and birds, and they were striking her window often out there because they just couldn't, know, they either couldn't see or they were seeing their reflection, or whatever. And it's working, it's working. She just hung these ribbons up, and they're moving around, and the birds can see them, and they're frightened and don't run into her window. And I know there's lots of decals you can buy out there, but that was my mom's homegrown solution. Speaking of creative solutions, that was her, you know, using stuff around her house that she could find.

Amy Lefringhouse:

But I know I've encountered bird window strikes a lot in living kind of out in the middle of the country.

Sydney Oliveira:

Yeah. We have as well. And like you said, there are a lot of commercially available products that you can put on there, but you can also use paracord and ribbons and things like that. They're I think they're called, like, Acadian bird catchers or something like that. It's like a little strip that you put above your window, and there's little strings that hang down.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Oh, yeah. Okay.

Sydney Oliveira:

Yeah. It sounds like she was making something similar to that. So yeah.

Amy Lefringhouse:

She probably didn't even look it up on Google. She just came up with that on her own on her own. That's awesome. So

Sydney Oliveira:

Yep. Yeah. With those, it's mainly about the spacing. So just as long as you have them, like, close together and you're not leaving big gaps Sure. Tend to work.

Amy Lefringhouse:

So Sure. Yeah. Sure.

Darci Webber:

Well, you shared about the fun story about, like, the turtle shell and using Legos and cords to build that back together. Do you have any other memorable experiences or success stories from working with injured wildlife?

Sydney Oliveira:

Well, yeah, I mean, it's like every day. There's a great story here. Yeah, the turtles are a big one just because a lot of times they're in our care for a long time, so it's great to see them. It's very rewarding once they get released back into the wild. But some of the other we've had Canada geese that choose to nest in not so ideal locations.

Sydney Oliveira:

And so there are a couple pairs around campus that like to nest on rooftops or on little, like, dining patios about, like, three to four stories or more up. So here at the Basic Science Building at the College of Vet Med, there's a pair every year that nests up there, and we've tried to put things up there to deter them from nesting, but they still choose that location. So every year, the it's very nice. Some of the office staff over there are like, okay. They started sitting today, so then we kinda know, like, when the eggs are gonna hatch, and then they'll let us know, like, okay.

Sydney Oliveira:

We see goslings up here. So then we work with our facilities department. We go up there, grab the goslings, put them in a box, and most of the time, we'd go back downstairs. So they go through the building in a little box, go down the elevator, all that. When we get to the ground level, we can just hold them up.

Sydney Oliveira:

They're chirping really loud. Mom and dad fly off the roof, set them down, and then they just they're on their way through the grass. So so, yeah, those are, like, really heartwarming stories, and it's just really cute to see baby animals and then get them reunited with their parents like that. And then location where they can actually find food and water since mom and dad didn't pick the greatest location to nest. So Mhmm.

Sydney Oliveira:

So we don't get to go out in a lot too just because we don't have the staffing to go out and rescue animals. So for things like that, it's really neat that we get that opportunity to go out and and do that every now and then. So aside from that, I also working with the ambassador animals a lot. It's different because we can talk around them, and we form a a relationship with them. And so I've gotten to I worked with a local falconer, and we've taught our red tailed hawk.

Sydney Oliveira:

We've trained her on a creance line now, so we can't free fire with our protocols through the university. But we are allowed to put her on a creance line, which is a long line that we can attach her equipment and has a weight on the end of it, so she cannot fly off. It's too heavy for her to fly off, but we've flown her from glove to glove at least a 100 feet. And so our outdoor enclosures, it's not like a giant flight cage. Like, she can do short flights in there, so it's nice to be able to take her out and fly her on that long line, keep her strength built up, and give her that enrichment and allow her to do a natural behavior.

Sydney Oliveira:

So it's just really cool to see that. And then sometimes, like, we get other wild birds in the area too when we have her out like that. So then we have to, like, put her up and bring her back out later once they've passed by, but that has definitely been a cool experience too just getting to form that bond because, again, like, we want wildlife to stay wild, but in this case, she has no chance of being released into the wild. So it's nice to be able to provide those natural behaviors and to see them up close and be a part of that.

Amy Lefringhouse:

So What species was that that you were talking about?

Sydney Oliveira:

Red tailed hawk.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Oh, red tailed hawk. Okay.

Sydney Oliveira:

Yep. Cool.

Darci Webber:

What other educational animals do you guys have there?

Sydney Oliveira:

We have a bald eagle, a barred owl, an American kestrel, and then we have another red tailed hawk. So Ruby, the one that flies in the creance, she is actually very habituated to people, and that's why we have her. She has no physical issues. Our other our male red tail, he came in in 1997. So he's been in our program the longest, but he has a wing injury, so he can't fly like that.

Sydney Oliveira:

But he is around 28 years old now. Woah.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Yeah. How long do they live?

Sydney Oliveira:

They can live to be in their thirties. Most of the time in the wild, I think it's, like, fifteen to twenty years. Sure. There have been a few cases where they've lived in their thirties. I think that pale male in New York, he was mid thirties when he passed away.

Sydney Oliveira:

Oh my goodness. Yeah.

Amy Lefringhouse:

So what do you see going forward, you know, with all of your experience and the things that you see at the clinic, what do you feel the biggest challenges are or opportunities are for wildlife health in the coming years?

Sydney Oliveira:

Yeah. So and this year, obviously, we had high path avian influenza. That was a huge thing in the clinic, and we had very strict protocols so that that wouldn't get passed to our ambassador animals or other animals in the clinic. We kinda isolated anyone's that showed symptoms of that and tested them before they could be admitted into the clinic. So I don't see that going away.

Sydney Oliveira:

I think that disease will be prevalent. We'll just have to roll with it as it goes and adjust those protocols as needed. But aside from that, I think the bigger things are just like rehab centers right now. As populations grow and there's more and more urban areas and less, like, native habitat for wildlife, we're gonna see more interactions with them. So and just making sure that those rehabilitators don't get burned out.

Sydney Oliveira:

This past year, we had this 2,200 animals. Before that, it always had been just slightly under 2,000, then 2,000. So it's been, like, creeping up each year, and I feel like it's gonna continue to do that. So Sure. And just making sure that we have plenty of rehabilitators in the area and that people don't get burned out and that we continue to get funding because, like, we don't we get we primarily run off donations, and I know a lot of other centers are too.

Sydney Oliveira:

Very few get state funding. I don't think any of them get federal funding. So just finding people that are passionate about wildlife to make those donations as well to keep places running. So Mhmm. Mhmm.

Darci Webber:

Are there any specific programs or initiatives in Illinois that support the wildlife health and safety?

Sydney Oliveira:

I don't think there's any that I'm, like, specifically aware of. I I'm sure IDNR does different programs that help to conserve animal populations, but there's no, like, official ones. I would say, though, most of the rehabilitation centers, even like ourselves, we're out giving education outreach programs, even talking to finders when they bring them into the clinic and just educating them on what we're seeing and, like, what to do in the future if they run into issues like that. So we're I I think it's a lot of the rehabbers in the area that are just educating the community. And then, like, even naturalists, if you're visiting, like, nature centers and things like that as well, I think they have a lot of the similar conservation messages as what we have.

Sydney Oliveira:

So I'd say that's, like, the biggest thing.

Amy Lefringhouse:

We will have, some links that we'll put in the show notes that Sydney has provided, one of them being, you know, how to find a licensed wildlife rehabilitator near you and some other just really neat resources that that our listeners can check out. Because, you know, one of the steps you were talking about, Sydney, is like, oh, what do I do? Maybe I'm not comfortable with handling any type of wildlife. Maybe it's a snake because I'm not very good with snakes. I'm not a snake handler.

Amy Lefringhouse:

You know, there might be that you can look up rehabilitators that are in your area that might be able to help you with the issue that you're having. So we will provide those in the in the show notes. Well, Sydney, that's all we have for you. We really appreciate you being here with us and taking the time out of your busy schedule at the clinic and sharing these these messages with the people of Illinois and our listeners. So, yeah, thank you so much for being here.

Sydney Oliveira:

Thanks again for having me.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Awesome. Well, before you leave, we don't want you to leave quite yet. We finish each episode with an everyday observation where we highlight the mundane and the normal of our environment that is actually really interesting. So I'll have Darci go first. If you want to share your everyday observation, that would be great.

Darci Webber:

Yeah. So we are outside today, actually, and we were looking at dragonfly larvae. And so dragonfly are just such fun, like, insects because we we think of them in their adult form as they're flying in their wings. There's over 3,000 different species of dragonflies, and so that's what we are easy to see. But they actually spend most of their life in the water.

Darci Webber:

They're aquatic macroinvertebrates. And so we're teaching the kids what they look like in their nymph form, and so it was really fun to talk through their life cycle and just they're really neat. We don't really think of them as the water very often, but that's where they live most of their life. So that's just a fun thing to explore with the kids and be out looking for. So

Amy Lefringhouse:

Yeah. They're cool predators too. They're eating all those other little tiny larvae in the streams and ponds and things like that. We used to always, like, open up their mandible. You can show the mandible, like, moves up and down just for the kids to see, like, these guys are you know, actually, this little dainty thing is a predator in the in the little in the micro world, you know, in the stream.

Darci Webber:

In adult form, they can eat, like, 30 mosquitoes in a day.

Amy Lefringhouse:

So it's pretty likely that. Yes. Yes. Yeah. For sure.

Sydney Oliveira:

What about you, Sydney? So mine's just kind of I've been teaching my son how to drive a stick shift Oh. Vehicle. So Okay. While while out driving with him, we hit a little traffic jam.

Sydney Oliveira:

And so we found a Canada goose family that had probably close to 30 goslings with them.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Oh my gosh.

Sydney Oliveira:

And I just think that's really neat. I'm sure not all of them are theirs. So and there might have been another pair walking. It looked like there were three adults, so it might have been two groups of goslings.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Oh, yeah.

Sydney Oliveira:

I just wanted to note too, like, those that species is really good about adopting babies that aren't their own. Ducks are not so good at that, but geese, we love that too. Like, when we get, like, singletons in, if we can find a family that has, like, similar sized babies, sometimes we just put them out there and they join with the others, and mom and dad just walk off like, yep. That's my baby. Been here the whole time.

Sydney Oliveira:

So, I just thought it was, like, really cool and neat to see. So

Amy Lefringhouse:

Yeah. That is cool. It's like really the village. The village Yeah. Takes a hold and takes care of the babies.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Yep.

Sydney Oliveira:

For sure.

Amy Lefringhouse:

That's really cool. Well, mine is, I actually have a couple different ones. I'm trying to think of which one I want to share. I think I'll share, I feel like each spring, because we're recording this in the spring, although you're listening to this in the fall, but each spring, it is May, and I am super excited in my native garden, you know, where my native plants are coming up. I'm like, my gosh, look at them all, look at them all, and I love indigo.

Amy Lefringhouse:

I have white wild indigo in my yard, and the blue indigo comes up faster. It emerges earlier in the spring, while the white indigo takes its sweet time, and it is May 14 today when we are recording, and last year, I had to look up my pictures last year as to or my text message, I think, last year as to when it came up, because right now I'm giving up on it. I'm like, Oh my gosh, everything else is up. It's not coming. But last year was May 20 before I even saw a little emergence of the indigo.

Amy Lefringhouse:

So, I am patiently waiting and watching every day in my garden for my little white Wilding Indigo to make its appearance. So, cross your fingers, listeners, in the fall that I saw it, and that it survived. It'll be its second year, but anyway, I just like, of course, to go out and see what's going on in my garden every single day, and that's the one little species right now that I'm focused in on.

Darci Webber:

Hope she comes up to see it.

Amy Lefringhouse:

I know. They're lazy, I guess. She's like, oh, I'm just gonna wait till it gets really, really warm until I stick my head out. So anyway, one day, I hope it will She will be there. Well, thanks everybody for sharing.

Amy Lefringhouse:

This has been another episode on the Everyday Environment podcast. Check us out next week where we talk with Elizabeth Bach. She's with The Nature Conservancy, and she's at Nachusa Grasslands. She is going to talk about bison. This podcast is a University of Illinois Extension production, hosted and edited by Abigail Garofalo, Erin Garrett, Amy Lefringhouse, Karla Griesbaum, and Darci Webber.