Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue (YUWR) and Education Center

These are the two older squirrels in care with the Moses Family –  Lucie, Dean, Felix and Milo.

They are doing great!

Keep up the good work – and keep the great photos coming!!!

Photo by the Moses Family

The babies from THIS post?

Well here they are!

Lucy B. took really excellent care of them, round the clock, taking them from critical to stable condition.

And boy have they grown!

They are now in foster care with Tina, where she will care for them until they are all grown and ready for release!

Good Work Ladies!!

I wanted to let everyone know that ALL our babies are doing great!

• The two newborn squirrels have done well, tripling their weights and are no longer in critical condition, in the very capable and loving hands of Lucy Burlingham.

• The opossums are all growing by leaps and bounds – and oddly, they are STILL blonde! We thought their yellow coloration was due to dirt but after bathing them, they are still blonde. It will be fascinating to see if they keep this coloration as they mature. Blondes do have more fun, right?

• The 5 orphaned baby raccoons are also growing well in the loving hands of volunteers on our raccoon team, Rancho Raccoon. Read about their progress at “The Treehouse”, Rancho’s blog at http://www.ranchoraccoon.wordpress.com

In addition to the babies we have written about above, we have received in many other babies, including more baby squirrels and opossums.

One of these baby squirrels was found when his nest fell out of the tree and onto a parked car! The owner of the car was a kind man from El Cerrito, who stood back and watched as the mother squirrel, in a panic, after falling with the nest and injuring her leg in the fall, carried off one of her babies to her “backup” nest (mother squirrels always have at least one backup nest).  It usually takes 15 minutes for a mother squirrel to relocate each baby in a nest, and this mother was moving slowly due to her new injury. The man needed to move his car so he had to remove the nest from his roof. He placed the nest at thebase of the tree and drove off, but he called us to alert us to the problem right away.

An hour went by and it was starting to get dark. The mother had been unable to return for her remaining baby. The wind had blown the nest into the gutter. Luckily, the man had returned and retrieved the remaining baby from the nest before darkness fell and a car drove over it. We met him at the location and took the baby into care. This baby is doing great in the very capable and loving hands of Lucie Moses and her family. Thank you to the good sameritan from El Cerrito, and to Lucie, Dean, Felix and Milo for their hard work caring for this sweetheart – and the other sweetheart they have as well.

Their other sweetheart was found by a caring community in Berkeley. They witnessed the nest fall from the tree in their backyard. Two babies fell, one into the creek, swept away by the fast current, and the other clung to a ledge overhanging the creekbed 10 feet below. They were able to climb out and retrieve the lone survivor and cared for him by warming him and wrapping him in soft blankets while they searched the internet for what to do with him. They called us and we were able to take him into care, where he has thrived. Now he and the El Cerrito baby snuggle togetherin a nest that is human-made, growing and sleeping. Their eyes are still closed but they are getting nice and furry.

Photo provided by Lucie and Dean Moses

The other babies are doing well also.

We are somewhat concerned that due to the economic crisis in our country, there have been ZERO donations for the last few months. We are a 100% donation-funded, volunteer-run 501c3 non-profit organization. Please, for the sake of these babies and the others we will be receiving in the coming months, consider making a tax-deductible donation to us. You can mail checks to:

Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue (or YUWR)

7036 Balsam Way

Oakland, CA 94611

Or make a donation online using a credit card or bank draft via Paypal from our DONATION page.

Thank you for your interest. Please check back regularly to see our latest patients and exciting news!

We received our first baby raccoons for 2009 today.

In normal years, baby raccoons start coming in around late April.

These beautiful 5 orphans are about 10-15 days old.  Their mother was trapped and exterminated for trespassing in an attic. She left behind her cozy nest with 5 hungry babies in it.

Unfortunately it is all too common for pest control companies to trap and kill wildlife instead of solving the real problem that is attracting the wild animal into our homes. In this case the raccoon was looking for a warm quiet place to give birth and raise her babies. An attic is perfect for that. She found a hole and moved in. To solve this problem, the hole needs to be sealed so animals cannot get into the attic. Trapping the animal does not solve the problem, but it does earn hundreds of dollars for the trapper. No matter that these beautiful babies were left behind to die from starvation and cold. No matter that as soon as it is discovered that this nice quiet attic is empty, a new raccoon will move in, which will make more $$$ for the trapper.  The ones who suffer are the animals – and the customers, who believe they are solving their problem but really aren’t.

Please, if you have a wildlife problem and want to trap wildlife, call Good Riddance – a Humane Wildlife Exclusion company, instead of calling the trappers. Good Riddance costs much less and will actually SOLVE your problem instead of a quick temporary fix that costs lots in $$ and in lives.  Good Riddance can be reached at: (415) 342-7956.

Now we have these sweet little ones and will do our best to raise them. However, the cost of raising these 5 orphaned baby raccoons will be several hundreds of dollars in food and supplies. As we run completely on donations (which have practically stopped with the economic crisis) we hope that someone will step up to sponsor these sweet little ones.

These babies are in the capable and caring hands of our volunteers at Rancho Raccoon, our wonderful raccoon team. You can read more about these sweet babies on the Rancho Raccoon blog, “The Treehouse”,  at: http://ranchoraccoon.wordpress.com/

In years past, we have reliably received in our first baby squirrel on March 3rd. Opossums and raccoons come later in march and april.
Last year was slow to start.
This year is making up for that.

We just received in 6 of the cutest baby opossums.

Unfortunately, their mother was hit by a car and died.

Fortunately, this happened right in front of a good samaritan who went to aid the mother opossum, saw her die and realized she had babies in her pouch. She got her babies to safety and brought them to the Oakland Animal Shelter, where they were warmed and kept comfortable until they could be transferred to our wildlife center.

Now they are in the capable and caring hands of Livia, one of our foster-moms, where they are prospering.

Here is a photograph taken by Livia of a couple of these cuties.

On Sunday, February 22^nd, the Bay Area was immersed in a torrential storm. Rain. Wind. Even thunder in places. While the human world moved along, weathering the storm as best we can, a tragedy was unfolding in the squirrel world.

In a palm tree in Fremont, CA., 100 feet up into the storm’s wrath, the top of the tree whipped around in the angry wind. The violence was enough that, although built with great care and devotion, the nest of Mama Squirrel could not resist the call of gravity and was blown out of the protective fronds. Mama and her babies plummeted along with the nest into the street below.

By luck or Fate, at that very moment, passing underneath the palm tree were some children, hurrying home for dinner. They saw the nest drop, the frantic mother squirrel running in terror as the oncoming traffic threatened to destroy all she cared about. The children bravely retrieved the nest from the street. They wanted to leave it so Mama Squirrel could come take her babies back, but the rains were so intense. They went home and got a cardboard box and a tarp then hurried back to the nest. They placed the nest in the box, and put it back where the mother squirrel could find it.

Unfortunately, dusk was fast approaching. Squirrels know that when night comes, death stalks. A good squirrel is safe in their nest by dusk if they want to awaken to a new day. Mama Squirrel was unable to come back for her babies and must have retreated to nurse her injuries in a back-up nest somewhere nearby. Somehow, despite a nighttime marauder ripping away the rain tarp and tearing the nest apart, searching for a yummy snack, the little babies hidden in the depths of the squirrel nest survived the wet and wild night all alone.

By the next afternoon, the children had taken note that the babies were still in the nest and their mother called a friend who was a known animal lover. This friend, Cathi, retrieved the babies, and with the help of her son’s warm hands, proceeded to revive these little ones with warmth and care. Once they were looking viable, she made the long drive to Oakland and placed them into care with us.

Now, 24 hours later, they are rehydrated, and recovering, enjoying a warm incubator and regular meals and some cuddles.

These little ones, so new to the world, were only 20 hours old, or so, when they lost their mother. They are so young that their fingers are still fused and their ears still flat against their transparent skin, a sign of being newly born to the world. Yet somehow they survived long enough for humans to step in to help.

There is a boy and a girl, and at intake, they weighed 15 and 14 grams in weight. (The birthweight of a newborn Fox Squirrel is 14grams.) Their injuries are mainly bruises from the fall and are healing with amazing speed. Because they are so young, they are technically still in critical condition and will remain so until they are 20grams in weight. They are on round-the-clock feedings until they are over 20grams.

I will post updates when I can.

Thank you to the families who went out of their way to save these little beauties.