The Executive Director at Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre says things have changed over the last few years.

'We’re a charitable nonprofit organization,' explains Zoe Nakata. 'We turned 36 this year, so we’ve been around for quite some time. But we just moved a year ago to our brand-new campus here in Ile-des-Chenes.'

Nakata says Wildlife Haven serves the entire province of Manitoba, and their services can be summed up in four simple words.

'Rescue, rehabilitate, release, and educate. Any wildlife that is sick, injured, or orphaned can come into care at our centre,' says Nakata. 'We have a wildlife hospital, a team of staff and volunteers with specialized training in wildlife rehabilitation.'

Nakata says their goal is always to release the animals back into the wild, so they can make sure the ecosystems stay healthy.

Nakata adds that the other part of their programming is education.

'We work with schools and all sorts of people in our community to have a conversation about how every one of us has a role to play when it comes to keeping our wildlife safe, keeping their habitats healthy, because we all have a responsibility. Sometimes even just small actions can contribute to keeping the wildlife safe and the habitat secure.'

It’s a lot of work, but Nakata says their staff and volunteers are up to the challenge.

'We’re a charitable non-profit, so we’ve got a staff of four permanent employees. In the summer we’re very grateful, we get a lot of summer student grants from different government programs. This summer we’ll have up to about fifteen summer employees helping us, and then we also have about ninety volunteers on a yearly basis that come in and help.'

Nakata says that on any given day, they may have anywhere between six and twelve volunteers on-site cleaning and feeding animals, and doing pickups, bookkeeping, and presentations.

'It’s a real group effort to keep this place running,' says Nakata. 'This is our busy season.'

Nakata says this year their numbers have skyrocketed.

'We’re operating at about a 50% increase compared to this time last year, so it’s quite significant,' says Nakata. 'The fun thing is you never really know what’s going to come through the door. We’ve had some pretty exciting patients.'

Nakata says they recently received three fox patients in the same weekend.

'They were all from different areas. The adult female fox has mange, very treatable, she’s doing quite well. Maybe six hours later, we had a tiny baby fox come in, found near Fisher Branch by a firefighter. There was a shed fire, and the firefighter found this lone baby fox that had just escaped the fire, had a little bit of singes on the fur of its ears, but otherwise escaped unharmed. We suspect the rest of the family perished in the fire. You can’t raise a baby fox by itself because it needs to learn to be a fox, either by litter mates or by parents. Now that the other fox is doing better, we’ll be able to put them together, so the adult mange fox will be able to act as a foster mom to this baby fox. We’ve since received another orphaned baby fox that will now be part of that new foster family. It’s heartwarming to see that they can help each other out and we’re kind of creating this nice little fox family.'

Nakata says Wildlife Haven usually hits around 2000 patients for the whole year, but this year they’ve already surpassed 900.

'We haven’t reached our peak yet. We get probably over a hundred calls per day and so we’re seeing a high increase in numbers.'

Nakata says there are several reasons for this difference. She says people are becoming familiar with Wildlife Haven, so when they encounter a wildlife in need, they now know where to call.



'I think the pandemic is contributing,' says Nakata. 'We know people are home, maybe more in tune with nature, taking walks in parks, spending more time in their backyards, noticing maybe a bird had a window collision so they’ll bring it into care.'

Nakata says that because Wildlife Haven tends to the welfare of wildlife, they were deemed a critical services organization and haven’t had to close since the pandemic began.

'We did have to alter some of our protocols,' explains Nakata. 'That includes cleaning and sanitization of our site. We have the public come on-site to drop off animals, so we’re being very careful. And we transformed our visitor centre into an intake centre. That’s allowed us to concentrate on physical distancing. Like a lot of people in our community, we’re learning as we go, but we’re very grateful that so far the public is responding very well.'

Nakata says their education program has been canceled since March 13th.

'That has a significant impact for us,' says Nakata. 'We use the fees of the education program to sustain the wildlife hospital, so anytime people book a presentation with Wildlife Haven, that money flows directly to medicine and food for the wildlife patients. So we’re working on rebooking the presentations.'

During the pandemic, Nakata says that Wildlife Haven made some Facebook Live videos.

'That was a fun way to stay in contact with our friends, with our donors, with our supporters,' says Nakata. 'We were able to explain what happens when we admit a patient, showing some patient examination. That was a nice way to keep the educational program going in some capacity and keep that connection.'

Nakata says it’s heartwarming to see that people are so understanding and patient, even as Wildlife Haven’s call line has been overwhelmed.

'We have a high volume of calls coming in, so sometimes people have to wait on hold or they have to leave a message and then you call them back,' says Nakata. 'People have been very gracious with us.'

Nakata says as a result of the influx of calls, Wildlife Haven is having trouble keeping up with all the resulting pickups, but they’re thankful that more people are stepping up.

'We’ve got more people driving the animals here to the centre to help us out because we’re not able to dispatch enough volunteers, so it’s just that sense of community,' says Nakata. 'During this pandemic I think people just have a sense of, ‘if we work together and concentrate on helping each other out, we’ll be better equipped to handle this,’ and we’ve seen that firsthand.'

If you encounter wildlife that may need help, Nakata urges you to call the Wildlife Haven helpline.

'If they’re orphaned, sick, or injured, please give our helpline a call,' says Nakata. 'We have staff from 8 am to 8 pm seven days a week, and we’re more than happy to walk you through the situation. Sometimes we’ll be able to give you some advice, or maybe we’ll give you tips on how to capture the animal and safely bring it to care, so don’t hesitate to call.'

Nakata says Wildlife Haven relies on the generosity and support of the community, which has been tremendous in the last 36 years.

'We’re so proud to be part of the Southeast, part of Manitoba, so we just want to say to every single person that donates either a gift in cash or items from our wishlist – every one of those gifts and donations and all of that support truly does make a difference, so just a huge thank you.'

To contribute to the work of the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre, visit https://wildlifehaven.ca/