Protecting Wild Cat Habitat

This season was kind to the Sierra Gorda. An atypical spring brought steady rains and no severe drought, keeping the forest, its flora, fauna, and communities in good health — and sparing us from the wildfire season that is always a looming threat this time of year.

Through a collaboration agreement with the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve and Mexico's National Commission for Natural Protected Areas (CONANP), we expanded our wildlife rescue work and brought on a full-time veterinarian to care for wild animals reported by community members — injured, in distress, or held in illegal captivity. Many recover fully and return to the wild. Others, too injured to be released, find a permanent safe haven with us. To date, more than 40 individuals have received care, including white-tailed deer, grey herons, opossums, ringtails, ferruginous pygmy owls, grey foxes, woodpeckers, American kestrels, bat falcons, roadside hawks, red-lored and white-crowned parrots, a tortoise, a tamandua, and a coatimundi, among others. Several have already been released into the reserves we protect.

And then came an unexpected gift. The very day we released a white-crowned parrot back into the wild, we spotted and photographed a pair of flying squirrels — a rare and elusive species — happily nesting in a hollow walnut tree beneath old-growth sweetgums and magnolias in the Hoya Verde reserve. It was the first recorded sighting of this species in a Sierra Gorda cloud forest.

We are proud of this work. Our reserves are becoming true safe havens for wildlife in need, and we look forward to welcoming more animals seeking a second chance.

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