Pre-Schoolers Visit

Two classes of preschoolers and their parents came for a special visit today. Although the grounds are not open for the public, the AWI makes special arrangements with individual schools to allow access to this exceptional experience. Although today's visitors were preschoolers, classes of students at all educational levels visit, including post-secondary classes.


Although the students are particularly young, many essential messages, such as instilling a serious respect for nature or the necessity of knowledge about a person's immediate surroundings for example, transcend age. Although rehabilitation is regular part of our regime, AWI is not simply an animal hospital. The implication of such work is the importance of the unveiled deep and widely impacting environmental trends.

the raccoons hid at first, but the we were quiet and they eventually came out to see us

the kids feed our resident hinny, Piglet, some carrots

a friendly gosling


Intern Maxine shows the children a young fox

...and a baby raccoon

Orphaned Squirrel and Pigeon Arrive

a bear cub and goldfinch arrive

This bear cub arrived today. It's fortunate that the person who found him brought him in since the damage of excessive handling is not always reversible. Due to his age and limited time in captivity, this case looks promising.



Luckily, the AWI's resident bear, appropriately named Baloo, can be relied upon to teach this young cub the ropes. Baloo was orphaned at a young age by a truck accident which, in addition to killing his mother, left him permanently disabled. His docile demeanor makes handling him a bit easier than handling other black bears his size. Although he can never be released, he has provided invaluable guidance to younger black bears who were then released back into the wild.

Baloo

We also took in a Goldfinch with a damaged eye pictured below.