Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue (YUWR) and Education Center

As Spring progresses, our babies grow bigger and their needs for care change.

A baby squirrel who once needed to be bottle fed and snuggled into a nursery box, will grow into a rambunctious teenager who needs to climb and jump and learn how to not fall in a safe place before she can be released back into the wild. With this in mind, we built a new enclosure for the little baby Eastern Gray tree squirrels we raised from eyes-closed infants earlier this year.

Thanks to Whole Foods for produce donations and Berkeley Bowl West for help finding nuts so these kids could transition to solids and off formula.

These beautiful young squirrels are the same ones we received, eyes closed, back in March! My how they grow…

In partnership with Lisa Siewert and the San Francisco Unified School District, we had a wonderful Outdoor Adventure! Twelve kids plus their parents joined us for a talk and walk through Golden Gate Park to learn about the wildlife animals who lives there and explain the recent Beware Coyote signs. We had a wilderness hike and Treasure Hunt. We even saw a red tailed hawk land on a gopher just twenty feet from us! Here are some photos:

The Coyote signs are very important to raise awareness of the reality that there are families of Coyotes in Golden Gate Park and during the Spring baby season, we need to keep our dogs on leash and out of certain areas so as to not upset nesting mother coyotes. Our dogs are seen as a threat to their babies and they may respond aggressively to keep the babies safe. To avoid these confrontation, the City has installed these temporary trail closures and posted informative signs

Aside from learning about Coyotes, our students also went on a Wilderness treasure hunt. Among the many items they were asked to find, like a feather, they were asked to find something that is a mystery to them and something that is inspiring.

When this little boy chose this piece of charred wood as his “mystery” item, I was delighted. After explaining how it was made, we sat down and drew pictures with his piece of charcoal!

This young lady found a multicolored leaf that was quite inspiring, and also beautiful eucalyptus buttons sprouting the finest neon orange fur.

For my treasure hunt, as the item I found inspiring I chose this natural sculpture which is all that is left of an ancient tree.

It was a very fun and educational Outdoor Adventure.

Thank you to Lisa Siewert and the San Francisco Unified School District for facilitating and partnering with us for this excellent event. We look forward to the Fall when we can schedule more Outdoor Adventures!

Happy Spring everyone.

This is our first Spring since we lost our facility, last year, and we are ready!

After a few false-starts, trying to find a new facility, we are now utilizing the backyards of our trained volunteers, with satellite home-bases all over the San Francisco Bay Area!  We have also stepped up our education programs and narrowed our focus to rehabilitating wildlife orphan babies and referring injured adults to other facilities.  Next year we will restart our efforts to find a new facility, but for now, there are BABIES to take care of and CLASSES to offer!

Here are some pictures of our wildlife babies this Spring 2012:

Volunteer Sutton Trout feeds 2-day-old fawn

We made the list as one of the TOP 10 Local grassroots nonprofits helping animals on HuffingtonPost today!

Please visit and cast your vote for Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/yggdrasil-urban-wildlife-rescue-center

Thank you!!

Please join us at Crab Cove on Saturday, March 3 for a fun presentation on raccoons. Great for the 4 years old and up crowd! 10-11AM, CRAB COVE VISITOR CENTER & AQUARIUM, 1252 McKay Avenue, Alameda, CA 94501 Phone: (510) 544-3187 e-mail: ccove@ebparks.org We’ll have lots of pictures, video, stories of our lovely wild raccoons, and a fun project for the little kids.

Recently Fresh & Easy Market donated a truckload of Pumpkins to us for our squirrel patients to enjoy.

Thank you Fresh & Easy! Although it is getting close to release time for this Autumn’s orphaned squirrels, they all appreciate the exciting stimulus of a good pumpkin. They like to chew a squirrel-sized hole in the top, climb inside, and eat the seeds!

As the wildlife baby season comes to an end, our work switches focus to the everyday problems that come up with Wildlife trying to survive in our Urban world.
For example, yesterday we got a call from a kind woman who had taken her children to a local playground.

Trapped in a garbage can at the playground was an adult skunk, and because of the design of the metal locked garbage can, there was no way to tip the can to let it out.

The skunk was attracted to the smell of food in the can’s liner and climbed in, but was unable to climb out again due to the smooth sides of the plastic liner.
One of the moms at the playground had the presence of mind to call our wildlife center to ask for help for the skunk.
We were able to come out with a public works employee and unlock the can.

We removed the plastic liner that the skunk was trapped in, carried it to a bushy area and set it on it’s side.
The skunk, who had probably been in the can at least 1 day, shot out into the bushes and happily disappeared.

Skunks are extremely nearsighted and can only see about 15″ ahead of them. If you see a skunk coming your way, make noise so the skunk knows you are there. The skunk will NOT spray unless they fear for their lives or are startled. If you let the skunk know you are there, the skunk will avoid you and you will avoid startling the skunk and possibly getting sprayed.

Remember Mythbusters proved that the only way to remove the odor of Skunk is to neutralize the chemical reaction by using the following recipe:

1 quart 3 percent hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
1 teaspoon liquid soap or dish detergent

So if you, your dog, or your house gets sprayed, use this formula to neutralize the smell. And if you get a chance to watch Mythbuster’s Skunk Defunct, it’s pretty fun.

This August we have had a heavy wave of late season summer orphaned wildlife.
Here are some of the latest patients in care:

As you may have heard, Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Center (YUWR) has been going through some significant changes lately, and as a result we are currently not taking animals at the main office on Sherwood Drive. We are very much still open and doing the work our community so badly needs, but we have had to temporarily let go of our wildlife hospital until some problems are resolved.

However, thanks to our extensive network of dedicated, trained volunteers, we are actively involved in rehabilitation of orphaned baby wildlife. humane wildlife exclusion through Good Riddance! (www.goodriddancewildlife.com), and we are still available for educational workshops and events concerning urban wildlife natural history and wildlife exclusion.

Thank you for your patience as we navigate all the changes that have come our way.

Best,
YUWR