Wildlife Hospital Seasonal Update

Be A Halloween Hero

Wild Ways Talks

Wildlife Hospital Seasonal Update

Well, what a summer we’ve had!

As of today, we have had 2288 animals come through the hospital
which is far more than we anticipated. Our helpline volunteers received over 6,000 calls, taking almost 40 calls an hour at the peak.

We had the pleasure of receiving herring gull eggs which we incubated, hatched and reared to release. Overall we received 120 gulls (eggs & chicks) into our care this summer. The last of these birds will be heading out to their wild lives shortly.

We had an extremely busy “orphan season” with everything from otter pups to pine marten kits to red squirrel kits and badger cubs, not to mention the many hundreds of baby birds.

Our interns are working incredibly hard doing night shifts and assisting the vets who kindly come to treat the wild patients. We are delighted to say we now have 5 vets doing shifts at the hospital as well as vet nurses and all our wonderful volunteers.

A Special Thank You
Since we opened in February, things are constantly changing while we try new ways

of doing things, and there were certainly some lessons learned. This project is enormous by any scale but it is especially difficult without proper funding and a full team of tradespeople to do the build. So we want to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to the volunteers who stuck with us on this turbulent journey, particularly the Helpline crew who are the first port of call for all animal emergencies. Their patience and kindness have been commented on by members of the public, and thanks to them (and the rest of our volunteer network) sick and injured wildlife is getting to where it needs to be.

Thank you to all of our amazing volunteers, interns, and supporters!

Did you know?

The herring gull (the one blamed for robbing your chips)
is actually red-listed? Their numbers have declined by
90% over the last 30 years due to overfishing and habitat
loss. This is why they have turned to thievery, in an
attempt to adapt. Once again, humans encroaching on
wild habitats and blaming the animals for trying to survive.
Will we ever learn?

A match made in wildlife heaven!

We are thrilled to be in partnership with Baron Randal Plunkett of Dunsany nature reserve. Randal has very kindly offered his land as a release site for our patients where we can return animals to the wild and in turn support his own ambitious rewilding project. Rewilding aims to restore natural ecosystems by giving nature space to grow and flourish. By combining our projects, we can do a lot for biodiversity and conservation. The reintroduction of native species plays an important part in this process so we make good neighbours!

Some of our volunteers at Dunsany for the release of two buzzards.

Halloween Heroes for Wildlife

Would you consider being a Halloween Hero?

If you or your children are dressing up this Halloween, how about dressing up like your favourite wild animal for the WRI Wildlife Hospital? Explain to your friends and neighbours that you support Irish wildlife and they might be kind enough to offer a donation towards the care of the wild patients. Take a photo of yourself, email it to media@wri.ie with your name and address and we will pick a winner!

Wild Ways Talks

We had lots of visitors to the hospital this summer on the Wild Ways talk. We enjoyed the many questions and conversations as we walked around the grounds and even recruited some future volunteers! Keep an eye on our website for details of some special Halloween talks, with crafts and face painting over the mid-term break. You can book our talks via the website www.wildlifehospital.ie

For more news, updates and much more check out, www.wildlifehospital.ie