By Dr. Tarah Hadley | Executive Director
As AWARE Wildlife Center closes a chapter on another successful year of wildlife rehabilitation, we also look at some of the milestones that we have achieved in 2016 in the care, enrichment, and placement of our educational ambassador animals. In 2016, AWARE placed dozens of animals in educational institutions across North America. They included chipmunks, squirrels, turtles, a fawn, woodpeckers, many song birds, ducks, owls, hawks, and vultures.
We are also excited to introduce 3 new education birds recently adopted by AWARE. First, Beakers the red-tailed hawk came to AWARE this past spring with a broken upper beak. Her injury will not allow her to shred or tear any prey animals so she was unable to be released. Now we cut her food for her. It has taken a little time for her new enclosure mate and previous "bachelor", Koko the red-tailed hawk, to get used to the fact that he can't wait around anymore on his high perch if he hopes to eat. He's learned that Beakers responds very quickly to the dinner bell.
Bugsy is a sweet-tempered broad-winged hawk that arrived at AWARE as a juvenile with an injury to the eye and wing. We were so surprised and excited to see Bugsy warming up to and becoming friends with our current resident broad-winged hawk, Delila, who was previously alone. Now, Delila is very protective of Bugsy. They both make wonderful education animals and companions!
The final addition to AWARE's flock was Boogie, the barn owl. When Boogie arrived at AWARE, he had an improperly healed wing injury that prevented his release back to the wild. He gets along well with quiet and reserved barn owl Windy Sue Whoo and we think we know why: He's got great dance moves (see Boogie's dance moves)! The public thought so too and, after a vigorous Facebook naming contest, Boogie became his permanent name.
By the end of 2016, AWARE officially had 20 ambassador animals that were used for educational programs or were newly acquired through our rehabilitation work. Amazingly, between staff and volunteers, we have at least that many people caring for the animals each and every week! As always, we are also proud of our unique enrichment program that provides the "mental food" that we believe every captive wild animal should have. It’s clear from Tappy Oka barred owl that our animals enjoy their “play” time (Tappy plays tennis--sort of!). We are also know that we could not do our work without supporters like you whom we consider to be our partners in the conservation of native Georgia wild species and the preservation of native Georgia wild habitats. Thank you for being there for AWARE!!!
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