rehabilitation center

- i'm coyote peterson, and today i'm gonna take you behind the scenes at the ohio wildlife center. (percussion music) - the ohio wildlife center was founded in 1984 by dr donald burton, and today i'll be lucky enough to get a first-hand look at how this incredible establishment fosters awareness and appreciation of ohio's

native wildlifethrough rehabilitation, education and wildlife health studies. our first stop would bethe wildlife hospital. this is where the journey begins for any animal that is in trouble. well we must be at the right place because it says, no skunks inside the building. we're gonna head downstairs and see the rehabilitation process of some

of the wild animalsthat live here in ohio. come on, let's goinside and check it out. pretty excited to helprehabilitate some animals today. - hi, i'm dr melinda marksz, and i'm the veterinarian for the ohio wildlife center. - working alongside dr melinda marksz, i was about to get up close with some animals that were recently admitted. - i'm the clinicalveterinarian here at the

ohio wildlife center and i take care of all the injured, orphaned wildlife that come in and provide any veterinarian services that they may need so surgeries, x-rays, medications, anything that they may need prior to release is my job. - great, what sort of stuff are we gonna see today? - we have quite a full hospital. we have some raptors today, some turtles and some baby squirrelsfor you to see.

- ooh, everybody loves baby squirrels. we all know thatturtles are my favorite. alright, let's head downstairs and start taking care of these animals. it's official, today i'm gonna help rehabilitate some animals. - i'm kristi krumlauf, i'm the hospital and pre-releasefacility director. - so what's the first animalthat we're gonna look at today?

- we're gonna be looking at a raccoon that has a fractured jaw so we actually have its mouth taped shut so that we're not injuring it any further and then we have a feeding tube into it. so, we're gonna bring that raccoon out and we're gonna feed it. - cool, let's bring out the raccoon. with kristi carefullyholding this little guy

in place, i'm able togive him some delicious milk formula through a feeding tube. am i going slow enough? - you can go a little bit faster actually. - oh, okay. i don't want it to shoot out his nose. we all know how easy it is to make milk come out your nose. - he's ready to go to sleep now. - yes, he's got a belly full of

milk and it's time for his nap. not too grouchy nowthat he's had his food. so, the tube that was connectedto the end of this syringe, does that go all the waydown into his stomach? - it does, it's something called an e-tube so if an animal has an injury where they're unable to eat, like a jaw fracture, we put a feeding tube inso that we can maintain their calorie requirements while they're healing.

- very cool. next we will look at a red-shouldered hawk who's suffering from a broken wing. - you definitely have to be careful of the talons, so that's the bird's weapon. - dr marksz checks to make sure that everything is healing properly. - yeah, we definitely want to keep his head covered for the most part whilewe're doing the exam.

- and then comes my part, more feeding. mmm, delicious hawk food. only this time it's rat livers. nothing is more appetizing to a hawk than fresh rat livers. ooh, that's good, isn't it? - yeah, he's probably ready for another. - putting cut-up rodentliver down the throat of a red-shouldered hawk, now that's something you haven't done every day.

it's cool to feel the meat just build up in its crop and it's neat how you feel once it's the size of a golf ball, you know it's had enough to eat and it will slowly digest that food. last, but certainly not least, is probably the most adorable little critter you have ever seen. holy cow, that is a tiny squirrel. get your camera over here and look at this. he doesn't even have any fur yet.

it's a baby eastern gray squirrel. look at that little guy. he's so little, his eyes aren't even open. so, how do you feed a baby squirrel? - we feed our squirrelswith a syringe and a synthetic nipple on the end. so this guy.. - is that a synthetic squirrel nipple? - this is a synthetic squirrel nipple.

you can use them forkittens and puppies too. the squirrel's usually pretty good eaters so they latch on to it, and they take to it pretty well the first couple of times. - this is not what i imagined when you said cute. this is like cute times ten. a little more pedialytefrom an eye dropper, and this future tree climber is ready for his nap. rest well, littlesquirrel if i could put

you in my pocket and keep you forever, i totally would. but one day, you will return to the wild. so that's how you feed a baby squirrel with a syntheticsquirrel nipple. the hospital is where animals come to get fixed up, and before they can return to the wild they must first recuperate at the pre-release facility. this location allows animals to re weather, forage for food and recondition their muscles.

we aren't allowed toget up close with any of these animals because the goal is to keep them wild. and aclimating to humans, or cameras for that matter, would be exactly the opposite. today, we actually have a great blue heron that is going to be able to be released back into the wild and we're going to get to be a part of that today, right? - yeah, we do have a heron that i was able to capture yesterday that was entrapped into a restaurant that

had an outdoor pool and volleyball court so we are going to be able to get that guy back outside today. he's just a little tiredafter trying to escape the nets of the volleyball courts. - while the majority of the animals do make full recoveries and return to the wild, there are a few that will never be able to survive on their own and must now become ambassadors for their species.

these animals reside atthe education facility. the last stop on ourtour and the place where some incredible ohio species now live full time and have adapted to being around humans. - i'm barbara ray, the wildlife education director here at the ohiowildlife center. alright, so we have someanimals that are not releasable because they have some sort of permanent disability that prevents them from surviving

on their own and during their rehabilitation process it becomes apparent thatthese animals are pretty adaptable to being in captivity. and the purpose ofthese animals then is to get them up close to people, help people become a little bit more aware of what lives in their neighborhood and learn how to peacefully co-exist with animals. and really, the best wayto help people be able

to do that is to spelltheir fears about these animals and show them that these animals aren't out to get us atall, they're just going about their business just like you and i. - so the animals here basically cannot be released back into the wild and they become ambassadors and educational representatives for the work that you guys do here. - that's right.

owc is a non profit organization and every year their incredible staffand countless volunteers work around the clock to treat nearly 5,000 injured, orphaned, or sick wild animals. the ohio wildlife center is open to the public on select days throughout the year. if you're in central ohio and want to get up close with some of our amazing local species, this is totally the place to do it.

i can't thank you guys enough for having us out here today and taking us on the rehabilitation trail. i'm coyote peterson, be brave, stay wild. we'll see you on the next adventure. (soft music) - if you thought that was an amazing animal encounter, make sure to check out these other videos and don't forget, subscribe to follow me and the crew on this season of breaking trail.

(bird calling)